Erin Hurley is a journalism senior and Mustang Daily SLO lifestyle columnist.
Now that I’m a senior at Cal Poly, I’m starting to realize that my time here is limited. When I was a freshman I thought these four years would last way longer than they have. Where the heck did the time go?
Anyway, one of the things I promised myself I would do before I graduated from Cal Poly was to go to the Sunset Drive-In theater — the one you can see from the highway. There aren’t any drive-ins close to where I live in the Bay Area, so I was always intrigued.
According to Drive-Ins.com, a website that provides information about drive-in theaters around the country, there are currently 366 open drive-in theaters in the United States. Twenty of those are in California, which sounds really low (it is), but compared to some other states California is lucky. The website lists Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, Washington D.C. and New Jersey as having no open drive-in theaters at all. The peak of the drive-in era was in the 1950s, and the number’s been declining since then.
So I went to the Sunset Drive-In last week, and I did it partly for you, my readers, so I could share the experience with you. A lot of it was for me too though.
When you get there, you wait in line in your car to buy the tickets, and the box office doesn’t open until 6:30 p.m. The first movie starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are only $7, and you get to see two movies for that price — one at 7 p.m. and one at 8:45 p.m. That alone is enough to get me there; nowadays, I have to really think about whether I want to spend $10.50 on a movie ticket or just wait until it comes out on DVD. But the Sunset Drive-In prices are awesome.
When choosing a parking spot in front of the screen, there are poles approximately two car widths across that separate the spots. You’re supposed to park right next to the poles so two cars can fit in each space. And the parking lot has hills and dips in the concrete so when you park your car is tilted toward the screen. I got nervous that my brakes were going to give out because we were parked at such an angle (and my car is super old), and my roommate had to reassure me.
You’re supposed to listen to the movie through your radio. They tell you the right frequency when you buy your ticket. I got worried again that having my car on for all that time was going to kill my battery, but at the beginning of the show we were told it doesn’t. Sweet.
So you basically get to sit in your car and watch the movie almost like you were at home. You can eat and talk without bothering strangers, and bring blankets and pillows if you get cold. Some people even parked backwards and sat in the backs of their cars with the door open.
I think that’s what makes drive-ins fun — the fact that you’re seeing a movie on a huge screen like a regular theater, but you can make it more personal. Plus, there aren’t as many of the problems that you sometimes get in regular theaters. If people are talking, you roll up the windows. If you want to stretch your legs, you can put your seat back and relax.
So if you don’t go to the drive-in as a pre-graduation experience, then just go as something to be a part of before the concept of the drive-in theater becomes extinct. I think it’s really sad these theaters seem to be disappearing — it’s such a cool idea that you can watch a movie from your car.
I love seeing movies in general, and so getting to see them in a really unique way like this is a no-brainer for me. I’ll definitely be going back at least a couple more times this year, so maybe I’ll see you there.