It Starts at Dusk

To your right there is a pick-up truck filled with quilts, sleeping bags and pillows. To the left there is a group of people setting in lawn chairs and devouring popcorn faster than squirrels devour acorns. In front of you there is a group of youngsters in pajama clad attire acting as if they were in their own bedroom. Where you may ask is such a place? If you are not at least 50 years of age you'll never be able to guess the answer to that question no matter how many clues I give you. No, it's not a slumber party for a farmers daughter. OK! I'll give you a few clues. You see a pole supporting a cast aluminum box. The box has a single volume knob and a tongue that hooks onto the car window. The whole contraption looks like it was made during President Truman's rein. Are you ready to make a guess? Here is the last clue. Look dead ahead, you'll see the gods of Hollywood filling a gargantuan silvery screen. Yes it is a drive-in movie theater. The entertainment venue that is uniquely an American institution has all but vanished in a digital world. Today we watch movies on our laptop computers, on our in car entertainment systems and even our cell phones but nothing can top the experience of watching a movie on a huge screen while setting out doors with people you have never met.
With all of today's modern conveniences what would compel anyone to sit in a dusty parking lot filled with mosquitoes just so they could enjoy a movie. Maybe it's the longing for our youth. Maybe it's an an act of defiance in a modern world. It's certainly not about the movie it's self.
My days of setting in a dusty parking lot just to enjoy a movie are probably over but each year I still go to several outdoor movies.

One of my favorite places in Austin to watch an outdoor movie is the lawn of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. Last fall I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail on that lawn and next week I'll be in the same spot watching War of the Worlds. Hundreds of people will show up and set in front of a large silvery screen. New converts to the wonders of the outdoor movie experience will be born. Baby Boomers who already know about those wonders will exhale a breath of relief that there are still a few youthful pleasures that can be resurrected from time to time. Whether it's your first time or your hundredth time it doesn't matter what the title of the movie is. You can leave your watch at home because all you need to know for an unforgettable experience is "The movie starts at dusk".