Summers of course, while in high school and during college break. It was an incredible experience, with an accompanying cast of co-employees so eccentric, diverse and ethically starved you could use it for the base of a movie about Drive-Ins (think of "a day in the life" film, like Carwash).

I should try my hand at a screenplay, actually.

Eastlake Drive-In, Eastlake Ohio, on Vine Street. Cleveland metro area. Long gone, land is now a big box retailer, and maybe some housing.

Biggest show we had in my time was Smokey and the Bandit. Sellouts, two weekend in a row.

Don't eat movie theatre food. Smuggle in your own.

such a motley crew.

Oh, please, DO write a screenplay. I'm thinking - yes, Carwash - maybe Carwash meets American Graffiti. Hmm? I can see the Oscar in your hands. (Work out - I hear they weigh nine pounds.)

The only movie food I eat is popcorn, and that rarely. Why not eat movie food? (Do I want to know?)

you're at the mercy of the crew that prepares the food and/or management in charge of it. Not everyone follows sanitary and food storage safety rules -- slim-profit margins mean squeezing every penny imaginable from inventory. Employees don't care much either. Maybe it's different now than in the 70s.

Like the American Graffiti addition. I'd want Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza, Boogie Nights) to direct.

A Margaret Hamilton type. In her late 70s.

That's all I have so far.

My boyfriend and I had a best friend who drove an old large Caddie. We'd hop in the trunk and our friend would drive through and only pay for his entrace. Once we got in, we'd go buy his food so everyone made out.

I saw 2001 Space Odyssey for the first time at a drive-in in Dallas - WOW!

I don't like country music but love Patsy Cline because mom and dad took us to the drive-in to see a movie about her when I was a young kid and I fell in love with her voice.

edit: fixed typo

Jessica Lange has always been one of my favorites. 😍

In the trunk, eh? . . . Sneaky. Fun!

Back seat laid flat. Quilts and blankets to soften the floor. Mom made lots of popcorn and put it in big brown grocery bags complete with butter stains on the paper. Thermos bottles of green kool-aid. Green was our favorite flavor - to this day I have no idea why. We would go to the drive in, battle mosquitoes as we watched because the car windows had to be down to survive the heat, enjoy the popcorn and watch a little of the movie. Youngest kids slept. Big kid (me) watched the movie. Mom and Dad’s date night. They could ignore us in the back - we were happy to snack on the pop corn. Admission was minimal. Something different from sitting at home watching the corn grow. And a bit exciting for the kiddos because we were up way past our normal bedtime.

Then I got old enough to go on car dates. Again the drive in was a summer happy place to go. But no little kids in the back seat. 😄. I remember watching “What’s New Pussycat?” Oh my that was a long time ago. Good memories.

. . . complete with grease stains on the grocery bag. 😎

Even as a kid, I thought there was something cool about being able to watch a movie while sitting in the family car. I was around six or so, so I could watch the movie (The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean is the one I remember most), or fall asleep, whichever mood took me.

Years later, when I was joining the Army, I was at our local Military Processing Station in Seattle, and a very attractive sergeant was taking down my information. She happened to mention that she had grown up in Sierra Vista, and we both reminisced about the Geronimo Drive-In.

I'm sure that was a pleasant conversation.

I was a little gobsmacked. She was gorgeous. She looked like a younger Melora Hardin. She was a Sergeant First Class, Enlisted grade 7. And there I was about to become a lowly private-recruit.

She was, obviously, unforgettable.

She was very nice to me. Usually, once the enlistment contract is signed, active duty personnel tend to treat recruits like shit. But she was warm and friendly.

with you for a long time, to bolster yourself against other sergeants screaming in your face.

Back then, all I wanted in the world was to crew the Army's Abrams-series tank. No amount of shouting and screaming by drill sergeants was going to deter me in that goal. I made it.

Never saw one

anywhere near where you lived?

It's much better in 4k with surround sound. It's been remastered several times. Looks like a new movie on a new TV.

The drive-in was a frequent thing for my family.

More often than not, it was a bad experience; both parents were irrational hotheads. But even just the one drive-in (rather, outside-the-fence, on-the-hill) movie with my sister made up for all those unpleasant experiences.