Longing for the days when drive-in movie sites were plentiful.
When I was a kid, growing up in Lowell, Mass., we had four drive-ins to chose from within a 15-mile drive.
- The Lowell Drive-In
- The Wamesit Drive-In in Tewksbury
- The Chelmsford Drive-In
- The Tyngsboro Drive-In
Going to a drive-in as a teenager was a blast. How many kids could you sneak into the trunk? How much of the movie (wink, wink) would you want to watch? Who would screw up and run the juice out of their car battery?
Today, of course, drive-ins are scarce. When my kids were younger, we used to take them to the Milford (N.H.) Drive-In. We have great memories of our summer nights there. Thankfully, it's still open, but it was a good one-hour drive.
Imagine if a drive-in opened in the Merrimack Valley today? I believe it would do a phenomenal business. For now, we're left with the memories of drive-ins in Lowell (located at 675 Pawtucket Blvd., closed about 1980), Tewksbury (located off Route 38 where Home Depot is now, closed about 1992), Tyngsboro (located on the Nashua, N.H., border, closed in 1984) and Chelmsford (located off Route 110, closed in 1988).
Other drive-ins which have been demolished are Sutton Drive-In (1996), Mohawk Drive-In in Gardner (2003), Edgemere Drive-In in Shrewsbury (2004) and Tri-Town Drive-In in Lunenburg (2009).
Sadly, drive-ins are fading from America's collective memory.
The Wamesit Drive-In in Tewksbury, located off Route 38
The Chelmsford Drive-In, located off Route 110
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