Old Drive-In theaters

There are some things in life that should never become a thing of the past as so many unique things have. I am talking about the old drive-in movie theaters...if you are one of the lucky ones to have experienced a night at the outdoor theater, then you probably share my sentiments.
In our neck of the woods there wasn't much to do at all for entertainment so the Drive in theater was the " in place" to be. We would always get there before the sun went down, to get a good parking place, and make a trip or two to the snack bar, not only for popcorn & coke but to check the joint out and see who was there..
At the very front of the theater, just below the screen there was a little play ground for small children, swings, slide etc. there was always a crowd there. Being a teenager, we really didn't want to be up there pushing our siblings in the swing--Not cool at all..
By the time the sun disappeared and the twilight evening arrived we were settled in our car, the movie speaker clipped onto the car door or window, can you recall all of the crackling noise the speakers made? Hey, it was the best that we had ever known and we never thought a thing about it. At times you would loose the sound for some reason and that caused people to start honking their car horns---the same honking would occur when the movie film would break or run off of the reel.
Every Wednesday night was "Buck Night", a carload of people could get into the movie for one dollar. We could really 'pack'em in" all of my friends and sometimes people that I didn't even know, they would hear us talking of going to the theater and ask to ride with us--we usually put them in the trunk of the car! We weren't the only ones stashing people in the trunk on dollar night--you could look around after you parked and most all trunks were opened with people falling out of them like mexican jumping beans!
There are so few of the old drive-in's left but the one that I have my memories of is still operating--granted they had to re-do the screen because of a tornado hitting the old screen, and they no longer use the speakers for the movie sound, now it comes through your car radio... that would have sure been tough on us back then because half the time the radio's were broke.
The one movie that I recall that was such a "Blast" for all of us was "Jailhouse Rock" with none other than Elvis Presley--the place was so packed we were sharing speakers !! Not very exciting for the teens of today but we had lots of fun.. I wonder if all of my old friends ever think back to the good ole days and the fun we shared at the old drive-in theater--it was great! If you had to get there squashed up inside the car or packed into the trunk it was well worth it...