An Incident at the Bengies Drive-in-theater

[Tdarcos]

My brother has loved going to drive-in-theaters. We used to go to them on a regular basis when we had a car during the 60s, 70s, and even into the '80s.

That's when the land that drive-ins use became too valuable to "waste" on a facility that is only open nights, and only during good weather. Drive-in-theater owners got lucrative offers from real estate developers to sell their land for condos and office buildings. Probably 90% of the approximately 7,000 drive in theaters closed. A few still remain, one being the Bengies Drive-in-theater.

Originally, going back probably 25 years, I found out my brother missed going to a drive-in, and wanted to go to one again, since we had a car I could use. I looked it up; the nearest drive-ins from Arlington, Virginia were about equidistant from us, one being about 60-70 miles away in Front Royal, Virginia and the other being about 65 miles in the opposite direction in Essex, MD, near Baltimore. So I picked the latter, and discover it's called the Bengie's, and as been continuously operating every summer since before I was born.

So we went there on occasion, maybe every month or two. One time something unusual happened. Now, if you've never visited a drive-in-theater, you queue up in one line (or more, depending on the theater. Bengies has 2 lines, other theaters I've been to only have one) As the car in front of you moves, your car can then move as well. On this particular evening, one customer was a bit impatient, deciding to ignore the lines and pull up in mine about 6-8 cars in front of me, and squeeze in, making him a line jumper. This pissed me off, I wait in line like everyone else, he should too. So I put the car in park, left it running with my brother in it, and ran up to confront this irritating little bastard. He just ignores me. So I run all the way up to the box office (the head of the line) and complain to the two cashiers that someone cut in line. I was just told to go back to my car, I think they said they would take care of it. If they did anything, couldn't, or wouldn't do anything about it, I'm not sure,

It was a good thing I went back, apparently people were honking, because my car was parked in line. I'm not sure why they were so impatient, there was still a line ahead of me, and I was gone on the order of maybe 40-45 seconds. (my brother can't do anything about it, he never learned to drive.) So anyway, I rolled ahead, got to the box office, paid for the tickets, drove on, found a parking space, and tuned the radio to the FM frequency the projection room is broadcasting on, the theater no longer having speakers.

While we were waiting for the movie to start, a man approached us. I'm thinking, "oh shit, the guy who cut in front of us is going to do something." It wasn't. It was one of the other people waiting, who saw what the guy did, and my response, and wanted to shake my hand and thank me for being willing to do something. This was something I never expected.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I love this story. Thank you for sharing this.

[AArdvark]

Now, if you've never visited a drive-in-theater

said nobody, ever

ran up to confront this irritating little bastard.

What year was this?

(my brother can't do anything about it, he never learned to drive.)

You never said your brother was Ray Bradbury!

one more question, what movie did you go see?

THE
DRIVE-IN MOVIE
DATABASE
AARDVARK

[Flack]

I saw the new Ghostbusters film at the drive in two weekends ago. The sound was terrible and I was distracted by other people the other time. It was pretty great. (The experience, not the movie.)

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

How has it been lately, Paul? How is it going?

[Jizaboz]

Get on Discord again with us Paul!

[Tdarcos]

Now, if you've never visited a drive-in-theater

said nobody, ever

I don't know if anyone here has ever been to one. Most of them back in S. Cal closed down about 35-40 years ago as the developers could offer a fortune for the land. For all I know, you - or somebody else here - might never have been to one.

ran up to confront this irritating little bastard.

What year was this?

For the reason I explain below, it was probably 2002 or 2003.

(my brother can't do anything about it, he never learned to drive.)

You never said your brother was Ray Bradbury!

I don't get the joke, except I think you're implying Ray Bradbury never learned how to drive. I've never met Ray Bradbury.

one more question, what movie did you go see?

I remembered, it was The Sum of All Fears, which was somewhat a meta-experience being in a Baltimore-area drive-in-theater, watching a film where a nuclear weapon is detonated in, you guessed it, Baltimore. Although I think Essex is probably about 10 miles or so from the Football Stadium. Since that film was (according to Wikipedia) released in 2002, and drive-in theaters, because they have to pay less to the distributor because they show three films to customers (instead of one), are the last in line to get first-run films, After them come the low tier, discount theaters. So it was either 2002 or 2003, depending on how long it stayed at top-of-the-line theaters.

And no, I don't remember what the other two films were.