The Drive-In

On Route 220 north of Franklin the Warner Drive-In still operates. When we got there at 7:30, there were perhaps a dozen cars lined up on their rows and by the time the show started there may have been 100. The ad says they show the movie at "dusk," but in fact they wait until they have sold as much food as people can possibly eat. No one seems restless waiting, except us come-heres. The children run around and the teens clump up near the consession stand. Good nature reigns.

You would be surprised how much noise a car cuts out, even when you are sitting in it with the windows rolled down and the engine off. Step outside the car and you wonder how you could hear anything at all, with the loud buzz of the woodland insects ratcheting away. These days the sound track comes over the car radio, but everything else seemed like the drive-in of my youth.

A drive-in screen is just a huge wall of painted concrete. I don't think I ever realized it before.