The drive-in gave us a shared experience, the parking lot a common living room, outdoors and casual, where we could smoke or drink or picnic, touched a little bit by everyone else who'd come that night. At their peak, drive-ins numbered over 5,000. Now there are about 800. A lot has changed, and it makes me sad. In bucket seats you have barely enough room to eat, let alone mess around with your date.
Most places show new releases to compete with the indoor theaters, a.k.a.
Once poised on the edge of suburban America, most drive-ins now resemble decrepit carnivals, islands of weeds and chalky paint among the cities and freeways. It's the same impulse us that lets us remember sleighing over the river to Grandma's. Whatever it is, I like it, and I want it to stick around. And I will. The drive-in can't be exactly what it was, and shouldn't.