My friend and former neighbor, B.J. Hollars, posted a photo to Facebook in late September with a photo of his young son’s silhouette in front of the huge 90-foot movie screen showing Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) framed in the dusky, dark blue sky. “Last night at the drive-in,” it read.

And I thought: “I missed the last night,” the last night the Gemini Drive-In movie theater was open – not just for the season, but for forever.

I had heard it was closing for good. The 37 acres was valuable real estate for a local company, which plans to re-zone the land and expand, adding some railroad tracks and storage buildings.

At their peak – in 1958 – there were more than 4,000 drive-in movie theaters in the United States (according to drive-ins.com). In 2015, there are 336 (soon to be 335), with 10 (soon to be 9) in Wisconsin.

The Gemini opened in 1973, joining The Stardusk, which was called the Highway 53 Drive-In when it opened in 1949. The Stardusk, which focused on G- and PG-rated films, closed in 1982. When it first opened, the Gemini showed R-rated and recently released films before switching to family fare in the late 1980s when attendance started to decline. With that switch, attendance rose. Micon Cinemas bought the Gemini from the Grengs family – long-time theater owners in the area – in 2010.           

So, what is our attraction to drive-in movie theaters, and why are we sad when they close for good?

I’m betting it’s the nostalgia of a simpler time. When I was kid growing up in the Third Ward in Eau Claire, I can remember going to the drive-in. There was a gaggle of kids, all about the same age, and one of the moms would load us all up in a station wagon. The best part: We got to go in our pajamas.

Said mom would park backwards into a spot, hook up the speaker to a window, put down the back seats, undo the back latch, and then all of us kids would pile in the back with a bunch of pillows and quilts. We’d either lie on our stomachs with our heads perched on our hands and elbows or sprawled out on our backs. By the time we arrived at the drive-in, our official bedtime was near. We got to stay up past it, and then if we happened to fall asleep, by the time we returned home it was all the easier for someone to carry us to bed.

When we were teenagers, if there was a drive-in movie date, you could bet there was a required lecture about first, second, and third base, before walking out the door – and our parents weren’t talking baseball.

Funny thing: I rarely remember what movies I saw. Except for one: Bye Bye Birdie (1963) starring Dick Van Dyke, Ann-Margret, and Janet Leigh. It was a favorite of Gracie Stewart, the mom of one of my best childhood friends, Sandy. And Ann-Margret Olsson was a classmate of my older brother Louie at Northwestern University, before she left for Hollywood and simplified her name to just Ann-Margret.

What I do remember is the experience: Eating all the popcorn and candy, drinking all the soda pop we wanted – no limits, running around in the grass before the movie started, thick clouds of bug spray, and being outside under the stars and moon with the movie characters projected larger than life up on that huge screen.

What I do remember is the experience: Eating all the popcorn and candy and drinking all the soda pop we wanted (no limits), running around in the grass before the movie started, thick clouds of bug spray, and being outside under the stars and moon with the movie characters projected larger than life up on that huge screen.

So with a package of Reese’s Pieces, off we went to see E.T. (1982) at the Gemini Drive-In on Friday, Oct. 16, the last weekend it was open. With the temperature outside dropping fast from 50 to 42 degrees, we wrapped ourselves in blankets inside the car, turned the radio dial to 91.5 for sound, and settled in. The sweetest thing was the crescent moon just hanging off to the right of the big screen, and the Big Dipper above, just waiting for the scene in which E.T. and Elliot on his bike are magically transported into the sky.

There were braver souls. Some cuddled up in sleeping bags in their truck beds. Others opened the back of their mini-vans and sat in pop-up chairs, swaddled in blankets. The concession stand was jam-packed with kids and parents alike clamoring for candy, cotton candy, unlimited popcorn, free drink refills, and $1 hot dogs and hamburgers. We had joined 60 other carloads of mostly families at this historic place, where an entire family could be entertained for four to six hours for just $10 a vehicle.

So, what happened since that first drive-in opened in the United States? A group of four 20-somethings taking a selfie with a smart phone in the concession stand provides part of the answer. Technology has transformed the movie-watching experience and given us a myriad of choices – from a communal, intimate experience with mostly strangers, to a singular activity at anytime, anywhere, and even how often you choose. Today, you can watch movies in the palm of your hand with a smartphone, or in your lap with a tablet or computer. With streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, you can binge watch an entire TV series in a day by yourself or with friends. And there are many more options too numerous to mention.

And yet there are still people like Megan Evans who have never been to a drive-in. She and her husband, Kory, both in their mid-20s, rushed back from her hometown, Rochester, Minn., so she could see one at the Gemini this past summer. While she remembers the movies, more important was meeting up with her sister and her boyfriend to share important news: Megan was pregnant with their first child.

Will there be a drive-in movie theater in the Chippewa Valley for Baby Evans? There is a possibility, according to the Olsons. They are looking for just the right piece of land at the right price – about 10 acres in a place without a lot of development nearby. So I’m keeping the faith that perhaps there will be another drive-in movie theater in the Chippewa Valley … someday.