Verne Drive-In Opens This Weekend
The first drive-in movie I ever saw was "The Apple Dumpling Gang" at the Fort Randall Drive-In in Lake Andes, South Dakota. I was 5 years old. Wednesday night was family night and it was $1 a carload. Mom would fill a brown paper grocery sack full of popcorn and we'd wash it down with Kool-Aid we transported to the theater in quart Mason Jars. The drive-in movie was one of my favorite memories as a child.
A drive-in movie is something everyone needs to experience at least once in their life. There's something about sitting in your car or on the tailgate of a pickup and watching a good movie under the stars.
The drive-in movie is slowly becoming extinct. Movie studios stopped distributing 35-millimeter film prints and converted their movies to digital formats. The expense to switch was so huge that many drive-in theaters had to close because they couldn't afford it.
Luckily, we still have a drive-in movie theater within an hour of Sioux Falls. According to their Facebook page, the Verne Drive-in in Luverne, Minnesota will reopen for the season May 5 and May 6. (FYI: They frown upon people bringing in their own popcorn and beverages like we did in 1975.)
The first movie of the season will be Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (Rated PG-13). The second movie of the evening will be Beauty and the Beast.
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