Friday, June 13, 2014

Know What Time It Is?

And no, it's not Hammer time. It IS, however, DRIVE IN SEASON! I get SO stinking excited about it, it's just not even funny. I love going to the drive in with my kids. It's SO worth the 45 minute drive, the messing up of the schedule, the crabby attitudes the next day. I LOVE it!

I've got two extremely fond memories of drive in movies from my childhood. The first features my mom and one of her best friends, Linda, prominently. We moved in next door to Linda and her then husband when I was about two years old.  As young couples in the 70s did, they formed a fast friendship built on proximity, barbeques, and card games with cocktails on Saturday nights. When I was about four, their daughter Sheri came along, and my mom and Linda bonded even further as young parents. About another year later, both husbands left their wives and children to do whatever it is abandoning dads do, and that's when the ladies truly solidified a friendship that would last a lifetime.

Our families did everything together. At four years younger, Sheri was the victim of my plans.  I know at one point I insisted on playing school and taught her to spell her name. Wrong. I taught her how to spell HER name wrong and insisted I was right. I'm sure Kindergarten was fun for her. Our moms thought of things to do that didn't cost a lot, and one was the drive-in. I must have been about six or seven, so Sheri was two or three. My mom had a big old station wagon that could have fit a twin sized bed in the back. She tossed my old crib mattress and some toys back there. Linda took her car, and off we went. They parked their cars so there was a space in between where Sheri and I could play.  When we tired of that, we went in the back of the station wagon and played with the toys there.

But THIS, this was the never ending drive in experience! Because the movies showing weren't just a plain old double feature, no.  It was a Planet of the Apes marathon! So even though Sheri and I were passed out in the back of the station wagon, we'd awaken every now and then to monkey faces sniffing and fighting with other monkey faces and humans too! I have a vague recollection of the light of dawn just starting to peek over the back of the drive in screen as the cars moved to the exit. Right then, I thought it was AWESOME that my mom had taken me to the drive in and let me stay out ALL NIGHT. I'm sure both moms paid a heavy price the next few days with kids who were totally off schedule, but in that moment, it was righteous cool.

Tomorrow, my other drive-in memory. . .

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