Going to the drive-in movies was a nostalgic thing for me that I want to share with Son. People my age were lucky enough to have drive-in movie theaters exist when we were young. I remember getting dressed in my pjs and bringing a sleeping bag in the car to drive and watch the movies. But by the time I turned 10, most of the drive-ins had closed down.
Lucky for us, we have a drive in movie theater about twenty minutes from our house. Son is wild over Despicable Me and loves the minions, so when the Minion Movie was being released, I thought this would be a great opportunity to take him to the drive-in.
We arrived around 8:30 as the sun was setting. The place was already pretty full, oddly enough with more people further away from the screen. I’m not sure if the movie people force the SUVs and vans to park in the back, but that’s where the majority of larger cars were – in the back. Many had elaborate setups. They were backed in to spaces, with seats taken out of the vans and back doors open so the car speakers were directly overhead. Others had brought chairs, blankets, and picnic baskets. We mostly brought snacks – lots of snacks.
The only thing I didn’t love about the drive-in was that you have to wait until dark – obviously – for the movie to start. Son is usually heading to bed at 7pm and fast asleep at 8pm. He would be up much later every night if it was his choice, but he is a naturally early-riser, waking sometime between 5-6am every day. We’ve tried keeping him up later to see if he’ll sleep in with no luck. Usually we just end up with a cranky mess on our hands.
Of course, it wasn’t difficult keeping him awake until 9pm when the movie started. He was VERY excited about this! It also helped that the drive-in encourages people to walk around before the movie starts.
One of the best things about the drive-in movies? There are not ten different commercials telling you to turn off your cell phone before the movie starts. Am I the only one who is annoyed by this? I understand one reminder, but it seems like the movies tell you 100 times to turn your phone off. Most people listen after the first reminder; the people who choose not to listen are not going to listen no matter how many times you tell them. Anyway, the drive-in movies just show the coming attractions and the movies.
We all had a great time during the Minion Movie. Eli loved the novelty of sitting in our car watching the movie. Plus, it was hilarious.
Minions ended around 11. Most of the cars around us packed up and drove off during intermission, but I wanted to see the next movie too, Spywith Melissa McCarthy. I did wrongly assume that at some point, Son would get tired and fall asleep. However, at 11, he was still wide awake. He ran around a little during intermission. He was still wide awake.
At some point, I realized that I had to trick my son to go to sleep, so I suggested we lay our blankets outside and lay down to watch the next movie. This worked pretty quickly. Eventually we moved Son to the backseat and he stayed asleep during the rest of the movie. We had to wake him up to get him back in his carseat to go home. This did NOT happen when I was a kid. Showing an adult movie after the kid movie is genius for a double feature, but when I was a kid, you didn’t have to wear a seatbelt in the car so you could just let your slumbering kids stay asleep on the drive home.
Spy ended at 1am and we were home at 1:30. I haven’t stayed up this late to watch movies in a very long time. Despite being very tired the next day, this was a really fun experience for the family and one I would definitely do again!
