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Sad news today. The last remaining drive-in theatre in Winnipeg won't be opening for this year's summer season. Apparently there just isn't the support to make it worthwhile anymore. While I'm sad to see it go, I also didn't help to keep it alive either. It's the only one left in town, and has been for 15 or 20 years, I'd say. We rarely go out to the movies anymore. I think it's been a couple of years since we last went to the theatre, and I'll bet it's been 20 years since we went to the drive-in.

I have fond memories of the drive-ins though. I was born in 1948, so was a youngster when drive-ins were in their glory years. Even a lot of small prairie towns had them. As you approached these towns, two things dominated the skyline. Grain elevators - the number of which dictated how significant a community this was, and somewhere on the outskirts, the drive-in movie screen. In the big city of Winnipeg, I think we had about 6 or 7 drive-in theatres. One of them, the Pembina Drive-In, was within about a couple of miles from where I grew up. I come from a time and environment when few kids had access to cars until their late teens at least, so bicycles were the order of the day. We would frequently ride our bikes in the exit of the local drive-in, sit on the first row of concrete blocks that held the speaker posts, and watch the show. The management rarely bothered us, since that row was seldom used. They'd get on us if it was a "restricted" movie, but largely left us alone since we dropped some money in the concession stand. Later, as some of my chums were able to get the family car, we went through the front gate. Who hasn't smuggled beer into a drive-in, if they could find somebody's older brother or sister to buy it for them, or pack extra folks into the trunk to avoid paying the $1.00 admission to an all-night horror movie marathon? Yeah....like the theatre didn't know exactly what was going on. And how many of us got their first "real" kiss, or even to "second base" in the back seat at the drive-in? We used to chuckle as we were on our way back from the concession with our tubs of popcorn, cherry Twizzlers, huge cups of pop, and dill pickles, and all the cars you passed had their windows so steamed up you couldn't see the movie even if you wanted to. Yep, these passion pits were a part of the lives of a whole generation. I suppose drive-ins will still continue to be viable in places where the weather allows for a lot longer viewing season, but they'll only be a bit of nostalgia here now. I guess that's progress. Anybody have fond memories of their drive-in theatre experiences?