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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Drive-In Season Begins


Growing up in Central Pennsylvania, we had not one, but TWO Drive-In Movie Theaters nearby. One now houses a Kohls store, but the other one - The Cumberland Drive In - is still going strong. Tomorrow they will open their 57th season of movies under the stars.


The Concession Stand still looks exactly the same way as it did when I was in high school. And probably the same as when my DAD went to high school.



Glamorous, ain't it?!? The Cumberland Drive-In was one of the first "big deal" places that my friends and I could go when we learned how to drive. My friend Stacey had this old Buick (or Pontiac, or Studebaker or something) and she would drive about 8 of us to "The Drive In" for movies and carousing. And can you believe it, we were such good kids that we didn't even drink!! Unlike, I'm sure, my father and his friends...

I would love to go back to the Cumberland just one more time - there's no telling how many more seasons they have left. Read the full story HERE.

8 comments:

  1. WE have 2 drive-ins too! and what is it...they look EXACTLY like yours! the concession stand and everything....the green bar that you walk along...

    one of them is right down the road from me! when I was little, we would get into our jammies and then get lots of snack, blankets and pillows, and go to the drive-in. they had a small playground and my brother and I would play there before the movie started. and we would always fall asleep!!


    XOXOXOX

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  2. Ours closed down when I was a kid. Very sad.

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  3. One of my fondest memories is going to the drive-in in Hanford, wearing our jammies and watching whatever family movie was playing in the back of my dad's truck. Ours had a little playground as well and we would run rampant until the movie started.

    There's one drive-in left here. I need to get us over there at least once.

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  4. Yet another reason to like you: you love drive-ins! We have one about 20 minutes away, but I haven't been since I was a kid. I think a lot of places now are trying to preserve them, after so many were closed down. They are a piece of true Americana.

    Hugs, Beth

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  5. Lo, we have one left in Maine over at Bridgton and it looks just like your picts- right down to the same snackbar and projection booth. It is mosquito hell. The menfolk bring .22s, shoot the mosquitoes and use their beaks for tentpegs.

    Folks bring lawn chairs blankets, and gallons of repellent- not that it doesn't any good.Only the .22s work.

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  6. No drive-ins in or around Smallville, but those pictures take me back to the 49er Drive-in in Sacramento.
    I was a young deeply closeted gay high school boy, and was set-up on a blind date with, of all things, a girl!
    Hands down the most uncomfortable evening I have ever spent in my life. Made worse by the fact that the girl thought I was so sweet and wanted to get together again and I think I said about three words to her all night: Hello and Good Night.
    Oy!

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  7. That place looks cool! With a fresh paint job and some good marketing, it could be a rockin' place again.

    I hope you get your wish to return there again some day.

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  8. We still have one drive-in which also looks like yours. I had some good times there! So I'm the only one here who went there on dates?

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