海角大神

This article appeared in the April 28, 2020 edition of the Monitor Daily.

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A pandemic revival of the drive-in movie

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff/File
Six-year-old twins Emma (left) and Katie Blackford from Dublin, Ireland, eat popcorn while waiting for a movie to start at their first drive-in theater in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, in July 1998. The family is on vacation and decided to try this American phenomenon.
David Clark Scott
Cover Story Editor

Today鈥檚 five selected stories cover shifting U.S. values in a pandemic, a Canadian profile in leadership, history lessons about navigating聽 financial hardship, challenging misinformation with an African song, and what nature teaches us about resilience.聽

I have a soft spot for the drive-in movie. My first glimpse of that big screen magic came on a tropical summer night as a 4-year-old in pj鈥檚 peering out the back of our Ford station wagon. My first date with the girl in high school who became my wife was to a drive-in movie. My daughters and their friends grew up loving the premovie picnic and pickup soccer before settling in for a double feature.聽

Now this almost forgotten . People are desperate to get out. In some states, it may violate the spirit of shelter-in-place, but one Florida drive-in owner argues that your car is really an . Many open-air theaters have closed their concession stands to uphold social distancing rules.

In Queen Creek, Arizona, Schnepf Farms just put a movie screen on a tractor-trailer in a field to help replace its lost wedding and festival business. At $15 per carload, the new 60-car drive-in has sold out every night since opening two weeks ago. The popularity 鈥,鈥 Mark Schnepf told KPHO-TV in Phoenix. 聽

It shouldn鈥檛 have, really. For me, the drive-in represents family bonding. A silver lining to this tragic pandemic is that a new generation is being introduced to a unique community event, and getting to experience the childlike anticipation that builds as the sun slowly sets and the air fills with a chorus of crickets and the perfume of popcorn.聽


This article appeared in the April 28, 2020 edition of the Monitor Daily.

Read 04/28 edition
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