Jack o' lanterns, a Coke, and a minivan: recipe for an American Halloween
If there’s one thing Americans are pretty darned good at, it’s coming up with new and imaginative ways to celebrate old holidays. Halloween is a completely different animal today than it was when I was a kid (we’re talking the late 1960s and early to mid-1970s). When I was young, it was all about the kids. Now, Halloween competes with New Year’s Eve as an excuse for adult bacchanalia. However, in one little rural corner of northwest Virginia — Stephens City, to be exact — Halloween has stayed all about the kids. Not to say that parents can’t have a blast, too.
the Grim Reaper invites sundown to come so the movies can begin
I’ve gotten into the pleasant habit of taking my kids to the Family Drive-In , about an eighty-minute drive from our house. The vibe at the drive-in is pure late 1960s, early 1970s. It’s always chock full of families. Every time I drive through the gate, I half expect the lot to be filled with the same Chevy Bel Airs and Plymouth Belvederes Ford Fairlanes that would’ve been parked in front of the screens back in 1956, when the theater first opened. The current owners do a fantastic job of keeping the old place relevant with solid choices in family movies and lots of special programming. Last year, they put on a Halloween event called Trunk or Treat. The boys and I enjoyed ourselves so much that I swore on my stack of classic Universal Studios monster movies that we’d go again this year the Saturday before Halloween.
a typical Trunk or Treat family
For a bit there, it looked like I’d have to disappoint the boys (and myself). The entire Northeast got socked with a rare late-October snow storm. The area around Stephens City was predicted to be buried under six to eight inches on Saturday. However, rather than cancel their biggest event of the year, the Family Drive-In folks pushed it off one day, to Sunday. Trunk or Treat ended up being a bit soggier and chillier than last year (there was still a good bit of snow on the ground, surrounding the bounce house the theater set up for the kids), but this in no way ruined the fun.
Judah about to enter the bounce house
Patrons are asked to bring three bags of candy and to come in costume. The gates open at 3 PM. Admission prices are the same as they are every other weekend — a very reasonable $7.50 (adults) or $3.50 (kids under 12), which is a great honking deal for a double feature (or you can pay a little less if you only want to come in for the party). For that modest admission fee, the kids get a bounce house to play in while they are waiting for twilight and the start of Trunk or Treating, plus fire engines from the local volunteer fire department that they are invited to climb around in, a costume contest, and music from one of the area’s FM radio stations.
ghouls on the Family Drive-In playground
Plus, the kids have Ye Olde Playground of Death, a well-preserved example of early 1970s hard steel playground architecture straight out of my elementary school’s recess yard. Ah, the memories… monkey bars that look like exercise equipment you’d find in an old-time prison yard; a tall, steep slide that dumps kids into a mud puddle; and Wild West horsey swings with grasping steel hinges and chains that threaten to amputate little fingers. The leaflets you get with your tickets say no ball playing or frisbee throwing, but plenty of kids do it, anyway.
This family went all out!
Then comes the Trunk or Treating. I love how so many attendees have already started a tradition of decorating the backs of their SUVs, pickups, or minivans just like they might decorate their front yards and porches. Instead of walking from house to house and down driveway after driveway with the little goblins and their candy buckets, you comb the aisles of the drive-in, weave past the speaker stands, and go from trunk to hatch to pickup bed. No need to worry about keeping the kids out of traffic and off the road, because all the cars here are parked.
waiting for Trunk or Treating time
What movie did we see? It almost didn’t matter after all the fun we’d had. We saw Dreamworks’ newest animated comedy, Puss in Boots. Not as good as the Shrek movies, in my humble opinion, but not bad at all. At least it wasn’t The Zookeeper, still my choice for Worst Family Film of 2011. Puss didn’t work as well as last year’s reprise of Monster House as a Halloween film, though. Maybe one of these years the Family Drive-In will make their Trunk or Treating event an evening of classic, family friendly monster movies (a few choices from this list would make for a terrific spooky evening under the stars).
my three little goblins
I can hardly wait for next year!
And neither can my boys…
