10.15.2006

Friday Night at the Local Drive-in Theater (Western NY)



Cappy hadn't been to an honest-to-goodness drive-in theatre since he was a little kid. For some reason, down in South Louisiana, they have taken them all down. I believe that the nearest to where we live is somewhere over in Texas. If someone got ahold of the ideas behind the drive-in at Perry, NY and put them in our area, I think they would have a gold-mine. Silver Lake Twin Drive-in has a lot more than just two movie screens. Monday nights they have Country Line Dancing ("watch, participate, or learn") Tuesday nights the have free concerts featuring live bands, Wednesday nights they have the dreaded Karaoke machine going to entertain everyone, Thursday nights they have 'Cruise Night', where people drive in and show off their classic cars, trucks or motorcycles, complete with oldies music piped in, Friday Evenings, when there's no snow, they begin a new week of 4 top-rated movies, then Saturday nights they do a chicken bbq with all the "fixins".
They also have a miniature golf course, charcoal corral restaurant, a pizzeria, an ice-cream parlor, (I indulged myself here, dang these folks!) they have an huge game room, and weather permitting, they have the giant inflatables for the kids. Of course they also have the obligatory park swings, slides, etc. in front of the screens for the kids while waiting for when the movie begins. AND the snack shack, where ya almost gotta getcha some popcorn and soda during the intermission. I'm thinking that if they can pull it off and still have to close off a lot of it for winter, gosh, why couldn't we have one of dese things running all season in the deep South. But...I-I-I-I'mmmm not gonna do it.

We had loaded up on junk food and waited for things on the screen to light up. We had taken two cars, ours and Sookie, with her family. We had Desi with us, and Jen and Russ brought Tim. Cappy barely had one beer open when we heard over the loud speaker, "Attention, Silver Lake Drive-in would like to welcome Ray and Peggy Robin this evening, who are visiting us from South Louisiana". What da hey?? They even pronounced our name correctly. That Sookie. She was sitting in her car giggling and hiding her face so I couldn't get her picture. Silly girl. We only watched one movie, Gridiron Gang...I think that was the name of it, then drove our crowded, paper, popcorn and assorted candy strewn, SUV back to Rochester. What a fun time that was. Just like the old days, except the only one I had to wash up and drag to bed was me.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is still such a thing as a drive in theatre? I thought they had all gone the way of the dinosaur. Did some paleontologist dig this particular one up?

cappy said...

LOL anonymous, I think this one has been around for generations and they've only improved on it year after year. It was a lot of fun. I remember putting the kids in their jammies, making our own popcorn and loading up the van to go watch the drive-in movies. It's still every bit as much fun today. (I think there are several in Texas, as well.)

..... said...

You two only watched one movie? What happened? Did you lose the keys to the Mouse House in the dark? I'm surprised you made through ONE movie, lol...chuckle, wink, nudge... What an awesome thing a Drive In still is, sounds like the people who run it are tops in service and entertaining ideas. Sookie, nice job on the welcome, that's first rate in our books!

Taylor & Teri

cappy said...

LOL, Taylor, you Baaad. Giggling. Welllll, the other movie on 'our' screen was Taladaga Nights, and we must be the only people in the world who are not big fans of Will Farrell at ALL. None of us could stand him so we opted to pack up shop and haul on home. As it was we had about an hour drive, but still it was worth the trip. A fun family outing. Hugs!