The Writing Group (TWG)

It's been raining here so often lately, I'm beginning to think I live on the plain in Spain. Another rip-roaring storm just rolled through. Tornado watch as well; fourth or fifth this year. And it's that time in May when you're wondering if we went back to early April...it is chilly!

All this rain brought back a fuzzy memory of an early summer night at the drive-in with my parents and my older sister. The movie was The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, Yul Brenner and a cast of thousands ("Moses, Moses, Moses...that's all I ever hear.")

I was probably 5 years old. I recall this drive-in had a playground at the base of what to me looked like a giant screen. My sister and I, along with many other children, spent time there before the feature started and during the intermission.

About halfway through the last half of the movie, the heavens unloaded with a torrent of rain. Couldn't see or hear much of anything, but the movie played on. We stayed, feeling older than Moses by the time the movie ended, which was sometime after midnight. Back then, that was late.

The rain hadn't let up much by the time we left. Although slow going, we made it home. My sister and I had no trouble going to sleep.

The next day at dinner, my mother and father discussed the storm, in particular, a newspaper article about several cars that were washed into a swollen creek resulting in several fatalities. Turned out the road crossing the creek was the very road we took coming home from the movie. We apparently had crossed the creek some scant minutes before the cars involved in the fatalities.

My sister and I always said Moses must have been in the car with us.

~~~

I remember when I was in my late teens, my date and I went to a double feature at the local drive-in. I was parked along the main path to the concession stand. We were waiting for the second feature, watching the promos, when a young lady walked by heading towards the stand. As she passed our car, we noticed the back of her dress was unzipped down to her lower back. The poor girl had no idea. Me, I couldn't imagine how it happened.

Oh, I love those photos, especially the foxgloves. Thanks for posting.

More drive-in memories, though not nearly as dramatic as yours:

During the summer between my junior and senior years in college my fiance and I used to walk down to the drive-in and sit in front of the projection booth. (We were not the only people to do this, btw.) Being in the public eye curtailed the making out, for sure, and it got dang chilly on that grass in late August, even with the blanket.

When my daughter was an infant, my husband and I used to go the the last remaining drive-in in our area so that I could breast-feed without worrying about offending someone, and we didn't have to worry if the baby cried. I quite enjoyed those outings.