Being the product of teenage parents, I don’t remember doing a lot of fun things when I was a kid. My dad was in the service for a few years and my mom was a stay at home mom until I was of school age. Even when she went to work for the first time she was 22 and her first job was Burger King.

I don’t remember my parents taking me on vacations or even just a weekend away from home. They didn’t have a lot of money or time. My dad worked 6 days a week for YEARS. Never took his given vacation time from work. No, instead he cashed in his vacation hours for an extra pay check, once a year. That’s the sacrifice he made for his little family.

I remember going to Sea World. Once, maybe twice as a child. I don’t recall being taken to Disneyland until I was an older child. It was just something they couldn’t afford.

But what I do remember us doing, quite often, is going to the Drive-In Theatres and watching movies! The first movie I remember seeing at the Drive-In was The Rescuers. That was in 1977, 30 years ago. I remember sitting in the front seat of my parents big, brown Oldsmobile. I remember going out in my flannel night gown and slippers. I remember falling asleep, my dad laying me down in the back seat and then putting me in my own bed when we came home.

My mom tells me that back then $5 a car load was the price of admission. Do you know what that means? That means my teenage parents had many nights out at the Drive-In theatre with their friends. They tell some of the funniest stories of those nights.

Now I’m a parent and times are certainly much different. You can barely rent a DVD for $5. Don’t even bother trying to see a movie at a theatre if you only have $5 in your wallet!

My kids certainly are having a much more exciting (and spoiled if I do say so myself) childhood than I had growing up. Just because times are different doesn’t mean they won’t have the same memories that we had as kids. Last year my aunt told me her husband found the last standing (and still operating) Drive-In Theatre here in S. CA!

Last summer we loaded up Mister’s Suburban, grabbed kids, pizza, beer and lounge chairs and hit the movies! At first the kids were a bit freaked out that they had to go in public while wearing pj’s. But once they saw all the other kids in pj’s they “got it”.

Now that Spring is in the air, the weather is beginning to warm and its officially Drive-In time. Tonight we’re taking the kids to the Drive-In for a cheap family night out. Its not $5 a car load like it was 30 years ago. But for $15 our family of four can see 2 (3 if we can keep our eyes open) movies. Do you know it costs us almost $30 just to WALK INTO the regular movie theatre! And we’re not talking lunch or snacks either.

I think Mister and I appreciate being at the Drive-In much more than the kids do. I know my sister and I have a blast being able to watch a first run movie, while sitting outside, drinking and smoking! lol Ahhh…the good ol’ days.