While driving recently on Rt. 20 (in my “cool” Jeep Wrangler), just west of Norwalk, I passed the Star View Drive In movie theater. That brought back some great memories. Fortunately, I had my digital camera with me and took some pictures of one my old “stomping grounds”. Star View is only one of 44 Drive In theaters left in Ohio. They were very popular when I was in high school. We called them “passion pits” since this was a great place to “make out” in the car and not pay any attention to the movie. Of course, when we went, we actually SAW the movie since I was way too shy to ever ask a girl out on a date. When 2 or 3 of us guys would go, we always used our standard plan of operations. Before we would go up to the ticket booth, 1 of us would sit down on the floor against the door of the side of the car that was toward the ticket booth. Then we would keep as much distance as possible between our car and the booth so they wouldn’t see that we were sneaking someone in free. We always took turns doing this whenever we went. We NEVER got caught doing this. Some guys would sneak in by getting in the trunk of the car. I was way too phobic of enclosed places to ever do this. Besides, our method worked just as good as the “trunk” method. On Tuesday nights during the summer, they had “Buck Night” which meant that everyone got in for only a dollar per car.  Obviously, then, we didn’t have to do our “hide against the inside of the car” routine. However, sometimes we did it anyway just for the thrill of it.

 

Once inside the parking lot, we would pull up to a white post that had a speaker hanging with a long cord. We would then hang it on the inside driver’s window and adjust the volume control. There was a small mound of dirt that positioned your car at an upward angle to see the screen better. It was really neat to watch a movie on such a giant screen. They always advertised a “mosquito coil” that you could buy and place on the dashboard. They were brown and you lit the end like a “punk stick”. It would smoke and allegedly keep all the mosquitoes out of the car. I never thought they really worked that well, but they did manage to smoke up the inside of the car and make it smell like a “punk stick” factory.

 

One of the cool things we could get at the Drive In was “Near Beer”. It was a nonalcoholic beverage that tasted just like beer. We always felt “cool and grown up” drinking “a beer” while watching the movie. One night after the movie was over, when we were all “drunk” from “Near Beer”, we forgot to remove the speaker. As a result, we pulled out and tore it from the post. We kept the speaker as a token of being “drunk”. In those days, it was cool to have a Drive In speaker and swipe a glass mug from the “Frosty’s” stand in Huron. We had both. Who needed to date girls when we had that stuff and were already “cool” anyway!

 

One night Tim, Tom B., and I went to the drive in with Dave G. in his red Oldsmobile. Of course, using our “hide in the back against the door” routine, one of us got in free since it wasn’t Tuesday night “Buck Night”. After the movie, Dave pulled out of the Drive In onto route 20 right in front of an oncoming truck and we almost got “T Boned”! I’m sure that was another instance where we were all “drunk” on “Near Beer”.

 

One of the things they allegedly had on the exit road was “one way spikes”. These were there to prevent anyone from sneaking into the Drive In on the exit road. They were supposed to swing down as you drove out the exit, but swing up and puncture all your tires if you were going the opposite way. We were never sure if they actually existed, but we never took any chances.

 

When I “Googled” “Star View Drive In”, I was amazed to find several sites that had information on it! If you really want to “get blown away”, Google “Star View Drive In” sometime! There must not have been any other Drive In called “Star View”, because all the Google “hits” were on the one in Norwalk.

 

I haven’t been to the Star View Drive In since high school, mainly because all they ever have on these days are “weird movies”. Another good reason is I’m too afraid to do the “hide against the inside of the car” routine again.  And at my age, I’m liable to take off and forget the speaker is hanging on the window and tear it off. THIS TIME, I’d probably inform the management. But on the other hand, maybe I wouldn’t. It would be “cool” at my age to have one again. Now, if Frosty’s was still open in Huron, I REALLY could be “cool” again! Oh well, this is yet another instance where as adults we think back and marvel at the many dangerous and wacky things we did as kids. This is a subject for future stories…

 

For more of our theater hijinks inside, check out the story:

A "Parting" Shot

 

Related Link About the Star View Drive In at Norwalk:

http://www.drive-ins.com/theater/ohsta4