I feel lucky to be able to say that I used to be able to take the car to the movies and steam up the windows while watching a movie. Each weekend "The Lyric" would have a different movie all summer long. Most were come and go movies, but the good ones like "Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Jaws.
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The good ones stuck around till the crowds got a little thin and then they'd bring something new in. I remember hearing about such a thing as subliminal messaging - guess what - it's real and movie theatres do it to sell their junk at their highly inflated prices. At the drive-ins we didn't have to worry about that.
I used to pack up ice chests and make a nice tidy little profit - till I got caught. I got banned from the theatre one summer. If anyone tried to come to the drive in using my van - they couldn't get in.
Once I discovered that - I just used my parents suburban and I was back to my old tricks (with a little more caution). At least I wasn't selling drugs or alcohol.
I don't have to say much for the good old rock and roll - it was great.
I have to admit though that I am much more partial to the 60's and 70's music - some of it was country - some rock, some was just indescribable - but at least when you heard it - you knew what the words were and the songs somehow made sense. The songs told the news. They were the heart and sole of the people.
I think the only music I have a problem with is rap. I just have a hard time understanding what is being said. I know that they tell me that rap tells stories too - I just can't understand them (and NO that is not a racial issue with me).
I have been to a few disco's in my time. I had the Medium long hair with the part down the middle. I would have tried to grow some facial hair - only problem was that I couldn't.
I will say that I am not nor was I ever very good in the field of dancing. After disco seemed to fall off the face of the earth (at least in the US), Punk Rock jumped up. I've been to see them a couple of times.
Not much left of them now. Both my Junior and Senior proms were disco themed though. I would have given anything to be able to pull off some of the dancing old John boy did.
(LOL).
My favorite pastimes back then though was going to the skating rink. Our small town didn't have a lot to offer the youth.
Skating, the Cone Cue (a game center), the Lyric, or drag main (that doesn't mean race - it means drive back and forth from one end of main street to the other). As I said earlier, I wasn't too fond of wasting time or gas on dragging main. I didn't like having to throw quarter after quarter into the pinball, pool, or pong games that they had at the Cone Cue.
That left the Lyric (summer was a drive-in and the rest of the year it was an old building on main street. I didn't mind the drive-in, but I hated the indoor theatre. Sure I could sneak a girl up to the balcony and do whatever, but it cost too much and I didn't like it as much.
I did like the skating. I became a pretty good skater. Not the best in the place by far, but I was good enough that I could go forward or backwards, jump obstacles, do a 360.
In other words, I could show off a little.
Other things we liked to do in the summer was go to Little Missouri Falls. It's a pretty little picnic area about 30 miles but 1 hour drive from Mena.
Another 30 minutes from there is Shady Lake. It's not a very big lake but it is also a good picnic area. Heading south from Mena is another area we used to frequent called Cossatot Falls - a nice cool clear swimming hole.
Just to the North and the West of Mena is Queen Wilhelmina State Park. It has camping and picnicking areas. It also had a miniature golf course and a petting zoo.
The petting zoo is now gone after someone broke in and set several animals loose - one of which was a BEAR. The bear proceeded to want to play with a camper who was taking his picture and the man freaked out and is suing the man in charge of the petting zoo. The bear is perfectly harmless but I guess he could be provoked as could almost any wild animal.
Finally, 16.2 miles from my parents front driveway was a beer joint called the Buckhorn Tavern. When I was growing up, the legal age to buy beer was 18 (it's now 21).
When I was 16 I was able to buy beer (they just let me - so I did it). I bought beer on several occasions thinking I would have a party later with a few of my friends. I would hide the beer somewhere I thought it couldn't be found so that I could get it before going out.
Twice I buried it. Once in a bale of peat moss and once in a saw dust bin. I know my little brother didn't see me bury them, but on both occasions - he found them and my dad confiscated them from me.
On a third occasion I hid it behind a 500 gallon propane tank that was covered with honeysuckle. I never did find out what my brother was doing back there - but he found it again and gave it to my dad. Finally, I learned my less and went to a friends place to bury the beer.
He knew about a hollowed out tree in the middle of his pasture that we could hide it in. I was able drive all the way down the hill to the hollowed out tree. Then I got stuck - to the fricken doors of the suburban.
My friend paid for a wrecker to tow me out - but he got to keep the beer for himself. I finally just quit trying. When I was 17, my dad and I had a beer together at the end of most every work day.
Beer wasn't such a big deal after that.
I guess because of all of that - I was never much of a party animal.
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