Checking Drive-In Off the Summer List: FOREVER

We’ve been steadily working our way through my Summer From A-Z List.  Letter D this summer was for Drive-In Movie, and since we never made it to the drive-in last summer, I wanted to make it a priority to get there this summer.

Unfortunately, the evening will not go down in history as our favorite one ever.  In fact, it may go down in history as the worst evening spent together (other evenings in the running: playing at the playground near bedtime when Maddie tripped and fell into a piece of playground equipment and almost bit through her tongue, the night we all shared a hotel room and baby Jack had an ear infection and cried the whole night, and the Christmas Eve that four out of five of us threw up in the van on the way to my Aunt Betty’s Christmas party).

There is only one drive-in theatre near us and it’s about a 45 minute drive away.  Because there’s only one, it’s a popular spot, and we know from experience that you need to get there at least an hour early to claim your spot.  We loaded up the minivan with beanbag chairs, pillows, snacks, our old boombox so we wouldn’t need to drain the car’s battery, and three very excited, jammy-clad kids (Ben said, “This is going to be the best night ever!” when we told them about it at dinner), and then we headed to the drive-in. 

We arrived at least an hour early…and the place was already almost filled up.  I was driving, and this was a HUGE mistake, because I had to carefully maneuver all of the aisles of cars, and people camped out near their cars on lawn chairs, and kids throwing frisbees, etc. looking for an open spot.  Which I eventually found.  Unfortunately, I had to back up the car to get into this spot (because I was afraid if I drove around to pull in, I’d lose the spot to someone else) and backing in meant pulling the nose of my van right up to the people in the row behind us sitting on their chairs.  They scowled at me (which made me want to give up right then) and grudgingly picked up their chairs to give me more space, but because the space was tight, I had to back up three feet, and then move forward three feet, and then back up three feet, and pull forward three feet, etc.  The owners of the cars on either side of my spot were all standing up and glaring at me too.  We were the entertainment for a radius of at least twenty yards, and a small crowd gathered to watch me inch into my spot.  I became sweaty did a lot of swearing in my head and it was easily the worst four minutes of the year to date.

But we made it.  Once we were in, the small crowd dispersed, and I tried not to make eye contact with the people behind me whose toes/car hoods came too uncomfortably close to my car, because they were all still frowning and making mad motions with their hands.  We pulled open the back of the van, flattened the seats, set out our lawn chairs, and got the kids set up.  And then we looked at our view and the complaints started flying.

        “I can’t see the screen!”  “We won’t be able to see the movie!”  “We need to find a new spot!”

We tried putting things under their beanbags to lift them up higher and we stuck a chair in the van for Maddie who was the grumpiest of all three but THERE WAS NO WAY IN HECK I WAS GETTING IN THE CAR AND MOVING IT TO A NEW SPOT SO JUST PUT THAT OUT OF YOUR MINDS RIGHT NOW YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE...munchkins.

Now we had about an hour to kill before the movie started.

Everyone had brought ipods, but there was still a lot of jostling going on.  You can see it was tight quarters back there, and somebody was always touching somebody and THAT IS NOT GOOD so eventually Jack had to spend time with Dave and me on the chairs.  To make matters worse, the family next to us had very quiet, perfectly behaved children and a mother who was a Sourpuss Extreme.  Earlier she had given me a lot of mean looks when I backed within inches of their car and now she kept looking over with her Sourpuss Face making me wish we could just close the minivan lid and hide away until the movie started. 

I asked Dave to “pose” for me so I could sneak a picture of her:

                                     Don’t you just want to smack her?  Also, nice forearm, honey.

Luckily the car on the other side of her had a crying baby and a mother who kept screeching at her children, so most of her withering looks were aimed their way.  We still got enough to put me on edge though.

Then the movie started late.  Like twenty minutes late.  I really should have brought along Uno or sidewalk chalk or Headbanz or something, but I hadn’t and by the time the movie actually started, Dave and I were giving each other “we are never doing this again” looks.

So the movie was Brave and I hate to be a downer yet again, but it wasn’t a good movie for a drive-in.  I really loved the movie and hope you see it, but a lot of it takes place at night, which makes it hard to see on the (already partially blocked) screen.  Jack lost patience with this movie early on and spent a lot of the movie whining that he couldn’t see and that he was tired and wanted to go home and could we turn down the sound on the boombox so he could go to sleep and he kept opening the car doors which turned the inside lights on and what can he eat and can he have a drink from the concession stand and he’s tired and Ben’s foot is on his arm and…

Let’s just say, it was hard to concentrate and keep Mr. Whiny Pants from annoying all of us and Ms. Sourpuss too much.  Really, Dave and I should have just brought Grown-Up Drinks with us, but we hadn’t, so when the movie finally ended we breathed a sigh of relief and left before the next movie started.

And that was when I mentally checked Drive-In off any List of Things To Do, FOREVER.