MetaChat - I'm not normally one to overplay nostalgia,

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03 September 2010

I'm not normally one to overplay nostalgia, but this kind of hurts. On a broader scale, one of the few remaining urban drive-ins is now gone. On a personal scale...→[More:]Damn. I spent a lot of time at the Admiral back in high school. So many delinquent memories of pouring warm Tecates into Taco Bell cups and borrowing my dad's pickup and three sleeping bags and touching a boob for the first time during "True Lies".

Other movies I remember 'seeing' there: The Crow, Coneheads, Kingpin. I know there were more (esp. considering they were double-features). But we never went to see a movie. It was a great excuse to just go fuck around in a quasi-controlled environment.

I guess I'm kind of lucky that I got to experience a drive-in culture in an era where they were for the most part long-gone. I'm glad for those memories, tonight especially.

post by: ufez at: 18:52 | 13 comments

Huh, there's a band from Tulsa called Admiral Twin (I know who they are because they opened for.... Hanson, heh, back in the day). Didn't realize they were named after a place. Sad :(

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 03 September | 18:56

Ack. I hate to see old drive-ins go.

posted by Doohickie 03 September | 19:26

Whoa. Weird, TPS. I remember that band's original lineup who went by "The Mellowdramtic Wallflowers". I vaguely remember them breaking up and forming Admiral Twin sometime around my 9th or 10th grade life, but by then I'd moved on to what little local punk/hardcore scene we had in Tulsa.

posted by ufez 03 September | 19:43

Atlanta still has one functioning drive-in and it's only alive due to a massive labor of love by the current owner and some supporters in the community. Until the late 90s there was another drive-in close to our house which has since been replaced by a 24-screen theater.

There's just nothing like seeing a cheesy horror or action flick out in the open air, especially if you're lounging in a convertible. It may be one of the most "American" experiences there is. (And ufez, the fact that you drank Tecate in your younger days makes you all the more awesome. :D )

posted by BoringPostcards 03 September | 20:55

There's still a few drive ins in the San Diego area. But the long gone Del Mar Drive In must have been the best because it had live monkey house.

posted by birdherder 03 September | 23:49

There's only one left around here. The one that I spend so many Saturday nights sneaking into in the boot of a car disappeared under a shopping mall many years ago. It was such a big part of being a teenager for all of us that it makes me incredibly sad to see then disappear. Several years ago, a couple of friends and I had an opportunity to get a long-term lease on a perfect piece of land and spent several months trying to work out how to get a drive-in movie theatre to pay for itself but, in the end, we had to admit defeat - there's just no way we could find to make it feasible. That was a sad day, also.

posted by dg 04 September | 05:02

George took me to the site of the old (long-closed) drive-in in his little town. We bought chilli dogs and Cokes from DQ, pretended there was a movie on and made out in the car. His memories from the drive-in were of A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More in the early 70s.

posted by Senyar 04 September | 05:24

Wife and I had a lovely evening at our local drive-in last night watching Despicable Me.

posted by terrapin 04 September | 07:10

That is VERY romantic, senyar. *hugs*

posted by terrapin 04 September | 07:13

That's a heartbreaking photo.

posted by JoanArkham 04 September | 09:45

I was at the drive-in last weekend [same one as terrapin] seeing Inception. We're really lucky in that there are maybe four drive-ins within an hour or so and the one we tend to go to is maybe ten minutes from me. [how was Despicable Me? Thinking of going this evening...]

posted by jessamyn 04 September | 11:38

My mom grew up in Tulsa, so I just sent her a text asking if she had gone there. I'm sure she did. This is too sad.

posted by youngergirl44 04 September | 19:13

There's just nothing like seeing a cheesy horror or action flick out in the open air, especially if you're lounging in a convertible. This be true BP. I failed in the convertible department, as everything available to rent had hardtops, but ten++ years ago when I was driving around somewhere in California we spotted a drive-in from the highway. We detoured of course, and ended up watching Halloween2.0 in that drive-in. Kickass.

posted by dabitch 05 September | 14:49

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