This is probably incorrect, but the first movie I remember seeing at a drive-in was Star Wars when I was six. I remember this partly because my mom was excited that Star Wars was making her a bunch of money in the stock market (it paid for a ski vacation that winter), and partly because The Rescuers was showing on a screen behind us and I would have much preferred to see that instead, so I spent some portion of the evening twisting myself around in the back seat and staring out the back window.

But all in all, I loved the drive-in. You’d get there before dark and park. There were swings up by the screen where kids could play. The concession stand smelled amazing. And sprawling in the back seat of a car was way more fun than sharing an arm rest in a theater. Plus, it was California, so you could hang the speaker on your car window and NOT be plagued by swarms of bugs.

Drive-ins fell out of vogue, as we all know. I wrote a feature story on one trying to make a comeback in Florida back in 1998 or so, and lord, the mosquitoes were awful. I assume the fellow mowed and sprayed before the season actually started, but you would not have caught me there.

There was a drive-in about an hour away from us in Virginia that we discovered when Thomas was 13 or so and we went to once a summer after that. It was similar to my childhood memories—a playground, a crowded concession stand, and lots of kids. There were speakers, but only for show; audio was delivered via your car radio. There were also a lot more SUVs, needless to say—I saw a lot of families park backward, push down all the seats, and make giant beds to watch from. The first time we went, the place put on a “movies til dawn” extravaganza, starting with Ouija and then moving into a couple old Universal flicks—Frankenstein, Dracula. It started at 9 p.m. and ended around 5 a.m. What a bargain!

There’s a similar place near us now—the Route 66 Drive-In, with two screens. We went last year and saw a double feature of Twisters and The Fall Guy. Chances are we’ll be back in the next month or so!