We finally made it to the Route 66 Drive In Theater - and even though the temperature, Friday night, was in the 80s, we stayed quite comfortable. The stars and the half moon shone brightly in the clear sky, and fireflies twinkled in the peripheral while a steady, light breeze scraped through the nearby trees and fields.
Thankfully, we got in line early enough to get in at all. The place was packed with cars, pickups, vans, and SUVs from all over the area. Surprisingly, this is a very well-kept facility. The thick grass lawn in front of the ticket booth and behind the screen is trimmed, along with long rows of green bushes. Just under the screen sits a beautifully nostalgic playground, just like the quintessential drive-ins of a bygone era. Even the restrooms and snack bar are gloriously stereotypical.
Thankfully, we got in line early enough to get in at all. The place was packed with cars, pickups, vans, and SUVs from all over the area. Surprisingly, this is a very well-kept facility. The thick grass lawn in front of the ticket booth and behind the screen is trimmed, along with long rows of green bushes. Just under the screen sits a beautifully nostalgic playground, just like the quintessential drive-ins of a bygone era. Even the restrooms and snack bar are gloriously stereotypical.
Finding a parking space in the rear half of the gravel field, a little further back than we wanted in spite of being early. We brought our chairs from the trunk and perched ourselves, ready for the double feature of Minions and Inside Out. My only disappointment was with the sound. I yearned for the heavy speakers we used to hang on the car window and the echo of all the speakers in the field. Instead, the updated system of tuning to a weak FM signal on the radio had to satisfy us. After all these years, this was our first experience with the new audio. For the first movie, we opted for listening to the car radios around us, and the sound was too quiet for comfortable viewing. Thankfully, the minions didn't say much more than gibberish anyway, so we were easily able to follow the story (It was as I predicted, by the way: too much minions and not enough of the heart that the Gru character brought to the original Despicable Me pictures.).
Everything I hoped for between movies was there. The dancing hotdog bun coaxing the frankfurter was just as I remembered from decades earlier, along with the announcement every minute telling patrons how many minutes remained before the second feature.
I knew I would have to pay closer attention to the Pixar picture, Inside Out, so I gave in to turning on our own radio and watching through the dirty windshield. This was a very cerebral movie (no pun intended). I'm sure younger children could enjoy the action and the silly parts, but this movie has a great deal of psychology and abstract representations as well - or rather it gives a physical look to what is actually quite abstract.
OK, so these movies weren't in 3D, but I think 3D is overrated anyway.
So what if you had to listen to the cicadas in the trees along with the soundtrack.
Who cares if other viewers are talking a little too loudly or if a liftgate is cutting an inch off the bottom of the screen?
I am impressed with the safety we felt. Sheriff's deputies patrolled on foot, and children roamed freely, yet politely, among the cars. I'm not ready to permit my own children to walk barefooted through the pea gravel among hundreds of strangers, but the low expectation of nefariousness is somehow refreshing.
One kid fell asleep, but the other got to have the experience of watching a movie on the big outdoor screen with none of the thuggish behaviors that kept us away from the drive-ins in the past. Most of these places are gone, and I figured it was an experience my children would never have, but with the family-friendly attitude of the Route 66 Drive-In outside of Carthage, Missouri, we will return. Since four of us paid less than $20 for two first-run movies, the price is right, as well.
Everything I hoped for between movies was there. The dancing hotdog bun coaxing the frankfurter was just as I remembered from decades earlier, along with the announcement every minute telling patrons how many minutes remained before the second feature.
I knew I would have to pay closer attention to the Pixar picture, Inside Out, so I gave in to turning on our own radio and watching through the dirty windshield. This was a very cerebral movie (no pun intended). I'm sure younger children could enjoy the action and the silly parts, but this movie has a great deal of psychology and abstract representations as well - or rather it gives a physical look to what is actually quite abstract.
OK, so these movies weren't in 3D, but I think 3D is overrated anyway.
So what if you had to listen to the cicadas in the trees along with the soundtrack.
Who cares if other viewers are talking a little too loudly or if a liftgate is cutting an inch off the bottom of the screen?
I am impressed with the safety we felt. Sheriff's deputies patrolled on foot, and children roamed freely, yet politely, among the cars. I'm not ready to permit my own children to walk barefooted through the pea gravel among hundreds of strangers, but the low expectation of nefariousness is somehow refreshing.
One kid fell asleep, but the other got to have the experience of watching a movie on the big outdoor screen with none of the thuggish behaviors that kept us away from the drive-ins in the past. Most of these places are gone, and I figured it was an experience my children would never have, but with the family-friendly attitude of the Route 66 Drive-In outside of Carthage, Missouri, we will return. Since four of us paid less than $20 for two first-run movies, the price is right, as well.
