As I think I’ve mentioned on occasion my wife and I are old movie fans and at any given moment are fairly likely to have
Turner Classic Movies on, if only for background music. And if they’re showing any picture made from the early 50’s through the early 60’s it’s as likely as not that I’ll say “I saw that at the drive-in”.
Most of the drive-ins we went to were along St. Charles or Natural Bridge, a bit north of where we lived. Ronnie’s. Airway. Plaza. St. Ann. I don’t remember all of their names but they all had big, electrified, sometimes “moving” signs.
Going to a drive-in movie theater was a weekly experience for my family. For $1 mom and my dad and all of us kids could go to the movies together. We’d pull into one of the parking spaces, raked so that the front of the car was raised a little to see the screen better, hang the speaker in the side window, my sisters and I would pile into the back seat of the car with blankets and pillows, frequently in our PJ’s, and my mom and dad would neck in the front seat.
I have a vague recollection that some of the drive-ins offered car heaters so that they could stay open until later in the season. I have no memory of any that offered air conditioning, which would have been handy in a sultry St. Louis July.
We saw dramas (The High and the Mighty, Written on the Wind, The Rose Tattoo), musicals (Singin’ in the Rain, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), costume epics (The Robe, The Conqueror), westerns (The Alamo), and movies in virtually every genre imaginable with the exception of science fiction or horror. My folks didn’t care for them.
Some of the pictures we saw were pretty steamy (The Rose Tattoo, A Walk on the Wild Side) or otherwise adult (Anatomy of a Murder, Days of Wine and Roses) but it didn’t really matter much. Those pictures were actually pretty tame by today’s standards and my sisters, younger than I, were generally asleep by the time the feature came on.
But I remember all of them and they were an important part of my childhood experience. They’re an experience that the kids of today will never know, an odd combination of movie-watching, social event, and parking lot. Now the drive-ins are as far in the past as Turnvereins and beer gardens were when I was a kid.
译文:
"免下车"影院
如果没记错的话，我曾偶尔提到我和妻子都是老电影迷，只要一有时间，我们就可能开着经典电影频道，哪怕只是听听背景音乐而已。如果那时正在播放50年代到60年代早期的电影画面，我很可能会说自己曾在“免下车”影院观赏过它。
我们去过的“免下车”影院多数是沿查尔斯街道或者自然大桥的，在我们的住所北面一点。有罗尼影院，波道影院，广场影院和圣安尼影院，我不记得所有的名字了，但它们都有庞大的电子广告牌，有些还会变幻图案与色彩。
去"免下车“影院看电影是我们家每周一次的惯例。只需1美元，父母亲就可以带上我们所有的孩子一起去了。我们把车停在其中的一处空地上，将车略微倾斜，这样坐在前排的人视角就更好一些，爱说话的人总是被晾在靠窗的位置，我和姐姐们盖着毯子垫着枕头挤在车后座，通常还穿着睡衣，而父亲和母亲会在前排相拥而吻。
我依稀记得一些影院会为顾客提供暖气，这样除了在寒冷的深冬他们都能够欣赏露天电影。在圣路易斯闷热的七月，空调本应唾手可得，可我不记得有哪家影院曾提供国这项服务。
我们曾看过戏剧(《高者与强者》，《苦雨恋春风》，《玫瑰纹身》），音乐剧（《雨中曲》，《7个兄弟的7个新娘》），古装剧（《圣袍》，《征服者》），西部片（《边城英烈传》），以及各种体裁的电影，只要是能想到的，除了科幻片和恐怖片，我们这里的人对这两种类型的电影不感兴趣。
我们所看到的一些画面相当激情与狂热（《玫瑰纹身》，《荒原上的漫步》）或者非常色情（《桃色案件》，《醉乡情断》），可是这并没有对我们造成什么影响。按今天的标准来看，这些画面实在算不上什么，比我还年幼的妹妹们总是在那些镜头出现之前就已经昏昏欲睡了。
然而我却记得所有这些画面，它们是我童年经历中很重要的一部分。这是一段如今的孩子都无法感知的经历，它是看电影，社会活动，停车场三者的特殊结合。现在，“免下车”影院就和童年时代的体育协会、啤酒花园一样远远地留在我的回忆中。