Time travel, made easy.

2010-09-22T21:28:49Z

Drive-in movies. I have always loved them. Almost more than the movies themselves, I love my romanticized notion of them. I am madly in love with the classic Americana for which the Drive-In is so symbolic. It is hard to describe the way that drive-in movies make me feel, it's something akin to an ecstatic melancholy.

They harken to a simpler time, a time that I never really got to experience firsthand, but one that I can easily imagine while stuffing my face with popcorn and enjoying a movie under the stars from the hood of my car.

I can vividly recall the first drive-In movie I ever attended: "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial." It was the summer of 1982, and I had just turned four years old. It's the second-oldest memory I have that I can put a(n approximate) date to. (The first? I can remember "The Catch" that sent the Niners to their first Super Bowl. More accurately, I remember my parents’ and their friends’ hysterical reaction to the game-winning play. It was so raucous that it disrupted our game of "Hungry, Hungry Hippos." I was pissed.)

I can also vividly recall the second one I ever attended: "The Mask," starring Jim Carrey. It was the summer of 1994, and I was 16. It was the same venue: The Sunset Drive-In in Portsmouth, Ohio. I remember thinking to myself that aside from the movie playing, and the makes of (some of) the cars, it may as well have been 1974. Drive-ins are a place where time seems to stand still. So is Portsmouth, Ohio. Go to a drive-in movie in Portsmouth, Ohio, and you can legitimately claim to have traveled back in time.

Up until very recently, that was it. I was nearly 32 years old, and I'd been to Europe as many times as I'd been to a drive-in. In the Bay Area, where I grew up, "The Great Drive-In Massacre of the Late 20th Century" was as swift as it was thorough. There had been 28 drive-ins in the Bay Area in 1978, the year of my birth. By the time I was 16, there were three that I knew of – none of them near me.

Nationwide, the numbers went from a high of more than 4,000 in 1958 to around 400 today. A bizzaro-decimation of tragic proportions.

Here in Sacramento County, where there were once more than a dozen, only one remains: The West Wind Sacramento 6.

I found out about TWWS6 from my girlfriend’s soon-to-be-10-year-old cousin Anna, who was about to celebrate her upcoming birthday there.

Wait, there's a drive-In movie theater in Sacramento?" I asked, incredulous.

"Uh, yeah" she answered, looking at me askance. The "duh" was implied.

I tried not to let on just how excited this new revelation made me, but I don't think I was successful.

Needless to say, I can vividly recall my third drive-in experience. I saw "Toy Story 3" at TWWS6, and it was glorious.

I also remember my fourth ("The Other Guys") and fifth ("Inception"), and am eagerly looking forward to my sixth,("The Town") this very evening.

I may never go to a cineplex again. Here's why:

-The tickets are much cheaper at the drive-in, $6.75, except on "Family Tuesdays," when they're a 1980-ish $4.75. Kids, aged 5-11, get in for a buck a piece.

-The concessions are marginally cheaper, but you also have the option of bringing anything you can fit in your car into the movie. I've seen people on blow-up mattresses basically watch the movie from bed, lawn chairs, blankets, buckets of chicken, pizzas, beers, whatever. I even saw people with their pets and others with their barbecues. Neither of these things is allowed, per se, but they appeared to get away with it. I'd like to see you try that at the megaplex.

-If you forget to stop at Little Caesars on the way to the show, you can get pizza there. And they'll deliver it to your car.

-There isn't anyone next to you text messaging, talking on the phone, or with one of those Bluetooths in their ear flashing at you. Or if there is, they probably came with you, and you can tell them to knock it off without risk of an altercation.

-You don't have to wear pants. (you probably should, but you could conceivably go without.)

-Necking.

- Did I mention that every movie is a double feature? ’Cause it is! The first movie starts at dusk, the second 15 minutes after the first one ends. On nights when it’s not too crowded, you can even move from one screen to another. Legally.

-It's about the closest you can come to venturing into the past without bending the space-time continuum, which can get messy.

-It may not be here much longer. If we don't support it, it certainly won't be.

Losing this last bastion of Americana would truly be tragic. You don't want that on your conscience, do you?

The West Wind Sacramento 6 can be found at 9616 Oates Drive Sacramento, CA 95827-1607

This Thursday, Sept. 23rd, they are having a free movie night: Live music, and games for the kids start at 6pm. The movies start at 8pm.

Featured will be "Toy Story 3" (fantastic, bring tissues), "Grown Ups" (bring a blindfold? j/k) and "Iron Man 2"(I got nothing)

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Time travel, made easy.