American Gam

“Every time I go to a movie, it’s magic, no matter what the movie’s about.” ~ Steven Spielberg

A century ago “Spring Fever” was a 1927 comedy featuring William Haines and Joan Crawford, where a clerk pretends to be a golfer to impress an heiress.

A New Jersey auto-parts store manager named Richard Hollingshead Jr. came up with the idea for a drive-in theater. He received a patent for it on May 16, 1933 and, along with three other investors, cut the ribbon on the world’s first drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey, on June 6, 1933. At the height of their popularity in the 1950s and ’60s, there were roughly 4,000 drive-in theaters across the U.S., but in recent times, the number dropped to a tenth of that.

During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, drive-ins began to see a resurgence. Walmart converted 160 of its parking lots into drive-ins, and many other locations have been improvised in open spaces around the country. The phenomenon was tailor-made for that difficult summer. At drive-ins, moviegoers can be socially distant in their cars while having a communal experience and enjoying the action on the big screen.

We found the Ocala Drive-In Theatre in the Harvest Host membership network, which connects campers with businesses who allow camping on their property. It was located two hours north of our Clearwater home in Ocala, Florida and thought it would make a unique first stop on our Great American Road Trip 2026.

We arrived a few hours before the regular movie-going patrons. We were going to set up our camping rig along the back fence, put our awning out halfway to block the remaining Florida sun, and relax in our gravity chairs but…

It was 30° here in subtropical Florida! We had to dress in layers ‘cause it was downright cold! Our friends in Canada sent us some of their wild, winter weather this week! 🥶

So we ended up parking parallel, in the middle of the parking area, between both movie screens. We sat in our pickup truck under the full moon and watched the movie with the heat on like the rest of the patrons.

The owner of the drive-in had spent his formative years in Louisiana so along with the usual fare of hot dogs, burgers and popcorn at the concession stand, he also had some surprisingly delicious Catfish PoBoys with a homemade Remoulade Sauce that I washed down with a Yoo-Hoo while watching the standard pre-movie cartoons. 🍿

And now…

What movies did we see? As you know, drive-in theaters usually show a double feature. This evenings line-up was…

“Mercy” was a tense, futuristic, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat kinda’ who-dunnit film starring Chris Pratt that kept us engaged for the entire film.

The second offering…

“28 Years Later” is also a tense movie but more apocalyptic, bloody and unsettling. We didn’t watch this second movie. We were tired and it looked like the kinda’ movie that would give you nightmares. So, while everyone else watched the second film we climbed into our cozy bed and dozed off. 💤 There were also two other movies on a second screen that didn’t interest us.

When we awoke in the morning it was a chilly 22° and the place was empty so we used the auto starter to warm up the F-150 and melt the frost off the windows. Before we found our way out of the gate we walked around the property. On the weekends they have a flea market here so we window shopped. There was some interesting stuff to be had…

Despite the bitter cold it was still a neat experience and we will probably come back here again on another, much warmer evening, when we can sit outside the camper and watch the movie in true camping mode. 🍿

I hope you experience a drive-in theater once in your lifetime.

The gam continues…