The Perfect Moviegoing Experience — With Children
We’re back from visiting Alabama. While there we drank way too much coke, ate loads of watermelon and ribs and other wonderful foods, visited with dear friends and family, hiked a gorgeous canyon and visited this gem of Americana…

This is the drive-in movie theater in my hometown. I took two of my boys there on Sunday night to see Kung Fu Panda.

Every time I take my children there for a movie it just makes me wish SO MUCH that we had something like this in St. Louis. My children love movies and I would like to take them much more often if this was the way….why? Because it cost us 10 bucks, total, to get in. Because you can bring your own food and drinks — no more $4 cokes. Because the children are enclosed in a vehicle and their talking will not bother anyone but you — and, let’s face it, they are going to bother you anyway, so you can’t really count that one.

But do you know my favorite thing? It is the Southern/small town nature of the whole experience. The way the colored lights around the concession stand come on when the credits roll, the way you can swing on the swings while watching a movie if you wish, the way the good-ole-boy announcer comes on between features and says something like this:

Hey, y’all, thanks so much for coming out to see our shows tonight. Now, we’re going to have us few trailers after the first feature and then we’ll get that Indiana Jones all spooled up for y’all. Now, I don’t know what features we’re goin’ to have next week, but we’re goin’ to get some real good ones for y’all. Like I said, it’s goin’ to take us a few minutes to get the Indiana Jones all spooled up so y’all just be patient and thanks for coming to the drive-in tonight.