Let me paint you a picture of how a night at the drive-in should be with your family: You arrive. The kids play on the playground. The movie begins. You watch it while eating popcorn. When you're done, you drive home while chatting about your favorite parts of the movie.
That's a fantasy. That's what you read about on your friend's Facebook pages. You know those friends—nothing bad ever happens to them. But here's reality: the story of our drive-in experience from last weekend.
It was a dark and stormy night. (Sorry, that actually comes later.) I thought it would be fun to go to the drive-in. The weather was warm; a new Pixar movie was out; the kids were staying up a little later now that it was summer. We grabbed snacks, pillows and sleeping bags, and we were on our way to Kane Road Drive-In. We got there in plenty of time, and the kids headed to the playground.
Our last trip to the drive-in was two years ago, and we soon realized that we couldn't remember how to turn the liftgate (trunk) lights off on our minivan. So for a good 45 minutes, we played with every lighting combination possible. Meanwhile, the sky is starting to get dark. I thought it was because it was nighttime. I'd checked the weather and it said there was a ten percent chance of rain. Never did I think that a storm was headed our way.
The movie was starting, and my husband figured out how to turn the lights off in the trunk. We turned on the radio to hear the movie, and then it started raining. Just a little at first, then a bit harder, and so we all wedged ourselves in the back of the van to watch. My son started complaining almost immediately. "I'm squished. My leg hurts. Can I move?" Me: "Shhh. There's no where to GO!" By this time, they realized that they haven't paid attention to the beginning of the movie and have no idea what's going on. Neither do I.
It's getting stuffy in the van, and it's really pouring outside. The liftgate is sheltering us from some of the rain, but not enough. We're all wet and covering ourselves with sleeping bags to stay dry. And it's HOT. Because we're covered in sleeping bags.
An hour into the movie, the sound in the car cuts out. Exasperated, I turn around to look at the dashboard--and it's blinking orange. I know what that means. Between leaving the lights on in the van and using the radio for the sound, the battery died. Now the kids are upset. The six-year-old asks if we're going to die. I said NO, someone will come jump the battery. That's why we have AAA. At this point none of us know what's going on with the movie because there's no sound. The kids are worried about our impeding doom, and we're trying to figure out who we can bother to come jump the van at 10:30 p.m. so we don't have to wait a couple hours for AAA to get there.
The second movie starts and is scaring my daughter. I really didn't expect to BE there for the second movie so I didn't pay attention to what it was. Well, it's not really a friendly film for little kids. We call my brother, he drives over, and the battery is jumped. At this point, it's stopped raining. We drive home in a van that smells like a wet camper.
We have no idea what happened during the movie. Something about a girl with red hair and a bear. And a witch.
Ahh, memories.
