What Happened to Drive in Movies?

It's snowing and cold outside. I don't want to go out so what do I do? I resort to my second best pastime. This is recalling memories of the past in or around the Denver area. Born and raised in this area gives me a vast amount of subjects to pick from. Today I happen to think about the era of drive in movies.

In the fifties and sixties drive in movies were big. Do you remember the Compass Drive Inns? East, West, North and South Drive Inn were strategically located on each side of Denver. There were others also. I remember The Lakeshore Drive Inn which was just west of Sloan's Lake. Cinderella Twin and NorthStar are others that come to mind. The Lakeshore was the one the gang and I attended the most.

During that time they were a big business. Many had playgrounds with swings and slides and there would always be young kids running around in their pajamas playing in the playgrounds waiting for the sky to turn dark enough for the movie to start. The drive inns eliminated the problem of finding a sitter for the kids when the parents were trying to enjoy a night out. If the kids fell asleep during the movie they could just be poured in their bed when they got home.

I was young and enjoying life. One of the neighborhood guys had an old fifty-one ford. For some reason you could pull out the back seat and this would expose the inside of the trunk. Kids will be kids and the idea came up that the passengers could crawl in the trunk and only the driver would have to pay admission. This worked many times. We did get caught once though. Maybe someone coughed or sneezed during the admission process and the ticket person heard it. Anyway, we got parked and piled out of the trunk. Up comes the manager and confronts us. He kicks us out of the show, big deal.

Another big thing was drinking at the drive ins. In those days you could buy 3.2 beer when you were eighteen. You could always find someone who was eighteen and they would buy it for you or someone would use their fake ID. Drive inns were an ideal spot for this illegal drinking and partying. After the beer was gone we would zoom out of the lot and create havoc on the streets of Denver. Sometimes I think we were very lucky that we survived and didn't permanently change our life.

Drive in movies was called "passion pit, "dens of iniquity" "make out heaven" and others. The old hormones were really rushing in these young men and women. If you went to the concession stand and saw a car where all the windows were steamed up, you could sure speculate what was going on in those cars. No one stayed in their cars. You always had to go visit other cars. Many times you may go home in another car than the one you came in and maybe someone new went home in the car you came in. the only thing that restrained you was the fear of pregnancy and the morals and values you were raised with. How did our parents survive this time of our life?

This was the time when the auto was king and gasoline was cheap. Everything was centered on the big luxurious car. The ones with 400 horsepower engines and loud dual mufflers was the envy of many. It sure was fun squealing out of the lot heading to the next adventure of the night.

I remember the movie, "American Graffiti", my kind of movie, memories of times when life was simple.