home: " We are currently under construction of a Drive-In Theater just outside of Tomball, Texas! It will be the best family fun in the northwest Harris county area. For those of you who remember going to the drive-in, and the freedom of watching the latest movies from the comfort of your own car, we hope this brings back fond memories. And for those of you who have never been to a drive-in you are in for a great time! You can bring your kids in their pj's and let them drift off to sleep as you stay up late watching movies. Or bring your sweetheart for a night out at the movies without being shhhshed by other movie goers. Come early and enjoy a snack or a complete meal at our 3200 square foot concession stand. Drop by during intermission or any time you like. We'll have everything from popcorn and sodas to pizza and cheeseburgers."
This is a long way from where I live (well over an hour's drive), but I'd like of like to see it.
8 comments:
I went to a drive-in once when I was a pre-teen with our neighbors. Saw Poe's "Tomb of Ligeia" with Vincent Price and was scared shitless. On the way home, the domelight cover fell off and all us kids in the back seat screamed. Paying money to scare yourself - is that nuts or what?
I grew up within easy walking distance from a drive-in theater, so it was usually a walk-in theater for us kids. We'd sit on the benches down front by the playground, or there was an area with seats inside the snack bar where you could watch the movie through a big window. The theater played mostly John Wayne and Audie Murphy Westerns and beach movies (this was the early Sixties), but hey, nothing wrong with that. In the late Sixties it started showing porn movies, and somebody burned it down. Lit up the whole sky in our neighborhood.
When I was growing up there were up to four drive-ins in Saskatoon - this was in the 1960s - of which only one still exists. In most of the cases the city expanded around the the theater and the land became too valuable to waste on a theater. In the early 1970s another one was built south of town but it was destroyed about 10 years ago by something that wasn't quite a tornado, and it wasn't rebuilt, but we still have one east of the city. As you might imagine the season is relatively short up here - it probably runs from early May to the end of October, but in high school we'd describe someone who was really successful with the girls as being able to get them out to the drive-in in January.
Since the last New York-area drive in closed a long time ago we've only been able to visit them when on the road: once in Portland, Oregon & once in Northern Kentucky. In Portland the sound was so bad we got our money back, but it was still fun.
Well, it's about time they put something in Tomball. :)
I saw my first movies at drive-ins. Old Yeller springs to mind. We lived in Houston, the mosquito capital of the world, back then and my dad would burn one of those insect repellent things that looked like the burner from an electric stove on the hood of our car.
It's funny to think of my parents letting me run off by myself in the dark to the playground at the foot of the screen -- far enough that they couldn't see me. These days, apparently, there would be a line of pedophiles by the swings.
I hope they do make a comeback because going to a regular theatre is a terrible experience these days. I personally only go to see films at the local drafthouse now.
Supposedly Granbury (southwest of Fort Worth) has a drive in, and we make take the kids there some time. I've never been to one and would like to go.
Those incense-style mosquito repellent burners are prolly carcinogenic, or something. Still, it'd be great to burn one next time I go to a drive-in.
BTW - you wrote this post in 2005 - is that Drive-in up and running yet, or what?
Indeed it is. Google "showboat drive-in tomball texas" and you should get the URL.
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