Re: Days of the Drive In Movie

On It · ‎03-15-2021

@monicakm TV was not available in the area where we lived in rural West Texas. The first tv station in the area began broadcasting in 1952. We all went to the owner of the country store's house to see it. I remember not being impressed.

monicakm · ‎03-16-2010

@On It

I figured everyone was impressed with their first time seeing TV.

On It · ‎03-15-2021

@monicakm wrote:
@On It

I figured everyone was impressed with their first time seeing TV.

I was bored. It was a small black and white TV in the corner of the living room. The city had a ribbon cutting for the TV station. It was local programming that night.

To receive the signal a large antenna had to be placed on the roof. I do not think we had a TV for some while after the first broadcast. Apparently my parents were not excited about it either since there was only one station.

ninjawife · ‎11-15-2011

@monicakm wrote:
@On It

TV was not yet

Are you 97 years old or older? The TV came out in 1927, according to Google. Yes I remember these and my brother and I also wore pajamas to the drive-in theater. My husband and I went to one right after we started dating. It was a thriller. I don't do well with scary movies. Don't like them and haven't since I stayed up late one night in a hotel room in Hawaii, in the seventies, and watched Alfred Hitchcock's the birds. I had probably not seen a scary movie before that.

@monicakm Even though the first television was demonstrated in 1927, its development was interrupted by WWII. It was not until the late 1940s that televisions really became comercially available and television stations were established. There were so many applications for new stations that the FCC put a hold on applications from 1948-1952. After that television became more mainstream.

Puggywuggy · ‎04-19-2022

I clearly remember when my brother and I were in our pj's sitting in the back of our family's VW bug watching a double feature at our Motor-Vu drive in. Mom would make kool-aid, hot dogs and homemade popcorn. We generally did this in the scorching heat of summer. Wonderful childhood memories. Thank you for starting this thread and letting us wax nostalgic!

Witchy Woman · ‎03-15-2010

@Puggywuggy

Ahhhh, yes...the hot, humid Illinois summers + the drive in as you described.

We also had to battle mosquitoes. However, if you got to the drive in early enough, you could enjoy the "mosquito spray truck" going around the parking areas to try to tamp down the little critters.

Even with that, I have fond memories of those nights at the drive in.

SaveTheTurtles · ‎10-09-2023

Yes! I remember drive in movies so well. As a child it was magical and fun to play on the playground before the movie, go to the snack shop for popcorn, my mom always brought HI-C in individual cans which was a treat also. We'd change into our pj's and fall asleep in the car on the way home. I remember seeing the love bug movie, chitty chitty bang bang. Ah yes, that was another time.

Burnsite · ‎03-10-2010

My parents both loved Alfred Hitchcock movies. I saw "Vertigo" at the Drive In nearby when very little and it scared me to death! I was supposed to be dozing off, but ....

I really liked the playground, where many of my classmates were present. I think my parents went to the Drive In in the summer mainly b/c the station wagon carried all of us eight people (six kids plus parents) and the charge was around a dollar. We brought our own snacks, and had a wonderful time....til we fell asleep, except I never did. Once I got caught up in a movie I could seldom sleep til I saw it through....

A super nice memory--thanks, On It! The drive in we preferred (it had the Hitchcock films) was in Braintree MA and is now a parking lot for the commuter rail--but I think the screen may still be up there as a decoration and an homage for sentimental suburbanites. It was for years, anyway.

LdyBugz · ‎03-10-2010

Lots of fond memories going to the drive in theater as a kid and taking my own kids when they were little!

There are many drive ins still around. Google search brought up this site that gives state listings. The one closest to me opens in April and charges $33 a car load.

P.S., No more speakers that you hang on your window. You use the car radio instead.

Trailrun23 · ‎05-31-2022

We would wear our pajamas and go to the swings, even when the movie was on if we could get a parking spot close enough for our parents to see us from the car. . The drive-in movies took on new meanings when I was in high school; I wasn't allowed to go to the drive-in with boys, period! My friend's dad had a new pickup and we would watch from the truck bed sometimes. It was not cool to go to the drive-in with your parents once you hit 7th grade, but the back of the pickup was okay.