Monday Morning Coffee: Hi Road Drive-In

Spent much of Sunday photographing in  NW Ohio.  Several new - to me - small communities as well as a couple of old "friends". After review and post processing, later posts will include several of these images

Driving home along a typical rural state highway - enjoying the fields of beans and corn - suddenly over on the right side there appeared an up and running drive-in movie theatre.  Off course, I had to stop, wander and photograph.  In some funny way, this was the highlight of the day.  Like finding a rare coin or stamp.  Discovering a forgotten book or, in my case, a photo negative long overlooked.

Now at one time - in the 50's - there were some 5,000 drive-in's.  Today there are a touch more than 400 left.  Daylight savings time has not helped in keeping them alive.  Doesn't get dark enough - here in the Midwest - till 9:00 or later, in the evening.  Also today there are many other ways to spent time. 

The Hi Road Drive-In theatre opened in the 1940s and enlarged their screen in 2006.  The Drive-In has two screens and a car capacity of 600.  The sound is provided by means of turning on your FM car radio.   A typical season begins in March and ends in October.

Below is Screen 1 along with the projection and food building. Construction is what you might expect.  Large screen placed high enough to be seen no matter you car's location. 

Turns out that any profit in this business comes from the food and snacks. The cost of movie rental and equipment needed to show films is not covered by the admission fees. This is the reason that the sign - at the entrance - states NO OUTSIDE FOOD allowed.  This is really a restaurant business.

Screen 2 is a different piece of work.

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It is placed on a small hill, mounted on the top of an old semi-trailer held by cables in the ground. Certainly a late addition to the theatre. Whatever works!

Returned to the car after a bit of "walk about" and photographing and drove directly home. Along the way, noticed several new interesting locations. They will wait for another time. The remainder of this trip was saved for the memory of the Hi Road Drive-In theatre.