This week on Kellie Elmore’s Free Write Friday (FWF) the prompt is a word bank. It’s a combination of five words that can be used in the entry. You don’t have to all of the words, if only one speaks to you, then only use that one. I’ve used three out of the five words given to me for this piece. The words are:
“blanket, falsetto, cumbersome, cinema, coins.”
The land was abandon, and the previous owner had passed away a few years ago. Just walking around on the deserted land of the dead grass and rusted speakers and broken screen only made the man upset about the fact of his childhood memories, will only be that. Memories. People have always been interested in “newer” things, especially in the technology world. Nowadays, there was the Blu Ray and 3D movies that you watch with special plastic glasses. You only hear or see of Drive-In movie theaters in movies now. It’s just something of the older generations and people thought nobody would want to come out and do something old school anymore. For the old man who walked around the old parking lot, walking in the blazing heat and hearing the cars and semi’s fly by on the road that was a mile away. He still tried to keep those memories to himself, but he couldn’t help but remember all of the times his family brought him there to watch “scary” movies and when he was old enough to drive a car, he would bring his dates there and they and their friends would park around from each other to talk to one another during the movie. Why wouldn’t anyone not to recreate that again for the newer generations? The man just shook his head.
The cinema was painted numerous times, first it was blue and red, then it was green and pink, and lastly it was a bright yellow and red. With each owner, they changed certain things around to fit their needs. The drive in was only open on the weekends, and it was like that for every owner. It was usually the only time in the community that families had time to be together. Every family would come in their cars and the kids would either sit on the backseat, or they would sit outside underneath the stars on a blanket. Their friends would ask their parents if they could join them and majority of the time they would say “yes” because then they would be alone. Once they would run over, usually games would be planned if they got bored. Since because of the movie, Grease everybody thought drive ins were the perfect getaway spot for couples to make out. For the youngsters, it was just fun enough to cause havoc on the young couples. The old man remembered of a time, when he was like that once. When he was about 10 years old, all of his friends planned out which cars they would knock the doors and windows until somebody came out of the car. The first one with the most cars won and the person who got caught had to pay for snacks. Since it was a big game, the older kids knew about the contents of the game and remember what it was like “getting caught” and having to pay for everybody’s snacks for the night, however if the kid wasn’t going to let go until you moved out of your seat that nice idea went out the door along with yourself when you grabbed the kid afterwards.
Luckily, back then snacks weren’t so expensive and you were allowed to bring your own if you didn’t want to get out of your car to pay for something. It cost 50 cents just for a big bucket of popcorn and 10 cents for five bottles of Coke. As much as the kids who always got caught thankfully they don’t have to pay for as much as you do now, you can’t pay with coins anymore. Well, I guess you could, you just wouldn’t get that much. It’s not like when the movie actually starts you continue eating the popcorn anyways. Back then, families would make little treats for their kids that way they didn’t have to give their child money. They would give them a small plastic bag of different treats to give them before the movie started. Like, cookies and chips and a coke of course. Usually if the kids knew their mothers were going to be making snacks they would stay out of the game altogether in the fear of having to go back to their family car and explaining to their mothers why they need money to pay for everybody’ else’s snacks. There were very clear memories of different mothers coming to their blanket and yelling at the kids all at once and then the poor kid would get made fun of it during the week at school. The spot was the blanket was placed was flat and just close enough to see the sky and screen in front of them. The dirt was dry as he kicked a rock from the spot and became walking forward again.
The memories of his childhood still very clear in his mind as other things started to fade over the years. As he kept walking to his son’s car, he took one last look at the last of the most memorable times when he was just a lad. So young and full of life, wanting to play outside and listening to the baseball games on the games. Though, he still listened to his favorite team on the radio, he wasn’t so young and full of life as he once was. The fact he got married, had kids and is now a grandfather six times over, made him feel older. That was life though, it changes more than the normal teenagers cleans their bedroom, which he remembers he hardly clean his room, but that was another story, for another day.
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