Drove past an old drive-in theater yesterday and it hit me hard

There's a place off Route 9 in my town that's been abandoned since like 2005. I drove by it yesterday on my way to get groceries and the screen is still standing, just all cracked and faded. It made me think about how we don't have places like that anymore where people just gathered outside to watch a movie. I remember going there with my dad when I was a kid, paying like 8 bucks per carload. Now everything is streaming and nobody talks to each other in parking lots. Does anyone else get weirdly sad about old places that just rot away like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

markh851mo agoTop Commenter

Oh man, you're totally right about that. But actually I gotta correct you on one thing - the price wasn't 8 bucks per carload, it was more like 10 or 12 by the time the 2000s rolled around. My uncle used to manage one of those places and he always complained about how the prices had to go up just to keep the lights on. But your point still stands, those old drive-ins were something special. The whole vibe of watching a double feature with a hundred other families in their cars, nobody on their phones, just everyone out under the stars. It's a shame how many of them just got left to rot instead of being turned into something cool.

diana5121mo ago

Eighty bucks for a family of four now barely gets you two tickets and a popcorn at a regular theater. $markh85 hit on something bigger than just drive-ins though. It's the same story with bowling alleys, roller rinks, and those old school video arcades. All those places where you could actually hang out and talk to people for hours got squeezed out by higher costs and everyone retreating into their own little screens at home. Makes you wonder what kind of third spaces kids today will even have in ten or twenty years.

tessa_murray1mo agoMost Upvoted

yeah, "retreating into their own little screens" hits so hard. my nephews are 14 and 16 and they basically only hang out online together now, even when they're in the same house. they don't have a bowling alley or a skate rink to go to and it just feels like everything is either a mall or a parking lot. i miss having cheap places where you could just exist for hours without spending a ton.