Drive-in Saturday

Last night I finally went to the Cascade Drive-in with a couple of girlfriends. I hadn't been to a drive-in movie since I was thirteen, in the final days of the one that was a staple of my childhood. I've been wanting to go pretty much as long as I've lived here, and now I regret not having gone sooner.

The Cascade is about an hour west of Chicago. We made great time so we stopped to grab a bite at a fairly empty Chinese place that was right next door to what seemed to be the most hopping place in town, the Schnitzel Platz, complete with German early-bird specials for seniors. They were making their way out as we were just sitting down to dinner, reminding me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry tells his parents, "I'm not going to force feed myself a steak at 4 o'clock to save a few bucks!"

The Cascade was pretty great. Everything was just like the old days -- a person sitting in a little shack collecting money, the gravel lot with the speakers on poles, and an aluminum-faced concession building selling burgers, hot dogs, nachos, candy, and even Alka-Seltzer and mosquito repellent! It was $8.50 to get in, which seems to be about what a whole carload cost back in the day, but it's still a great deal for two movies, especially since the concessions were pretty cheap ($1 soft pretzels, anyone?).

We saw Shorts, the new Robert Rodriguez kiddie movie that terrifies me because it features Jon Cryer and James Spader playing parents, and The Final Destination, which is a lot like Final Destination, but with a "The".