Hey all you Krochety old mofo’s,
What’s was your favorite drive in theater as young whipper snapper?
For me, France Ave Drive In.
Drank a lot of beer, got in a lot of fights, and the girls, oh the girls especially when I got my van!
I’m a whipper snapper yet…so Cottage View was about the only one that was open in my early whipper snapper days… 
Never went to Vali-Hi…
7-HI for me.
If you went to Vali-HI, you would have seen “The Trouble with Girls” 
7HI.jpg
Don’t remember the name but was where the Home Depot is in W St Paul or is it IGH? Anyway had some fun there.
7-HI for me.
If you went to Vali-HI, you would have seen “The Trouble with Girls”
my grandpas house was right behind that 7-hi drive in. my mom said she used to sneak out and watch the movies from her back yard. love hearing those old time stories.
Really don’t mean to hijack this thread but I came across this forum post a long time ago and its really neat to read through all of the comments and imagine what the places were like back then. Im only 36 so many of them were gone before my time but I shared a lot of these with my parents and it was fun just to listen to them go back to memory lane.
apparently IDO doesn’t like that link. well if anyone wants to see it you can google “places i miss from minneapolis forum” and it should pop up
The Starlite Drive-In was the first drive in the state of Iowa, opening on September 12th, 1947.
I wasn’t there for the opening but I spent many a night there in my younger days. Sometimes watching the movie, sometimes not so much.
It was a big deal when the audio speakers went wireless and you tuned in the sound via your car radio. I still preferred the window speaker.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Walleyestudent Andy Cox wrote:</div>
7-HI for me.If you went to Vali-HI, you would have seen “The Trouble with Girls”
my grandpas house was right behind that 7-hi drive in. my mom said she used to sneak out and watch the movies from her back yard. love hearing those old time stories.
Then I’m sure your mom made it across that intersection to 7-HI Shopping Mall, anchored by a Red Owl on one end and Coast to Coast Hardware on the other end. All the kids went there to buy candy and hang out.
Anyone remember Jolly Troll? Another long lost gem.
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Are the any “Smorgasbords” around anymore?
In S. Mpls where I grew up they had Viking Village Smorgasbord at 27th and Lake
I grew up next to the 100 Twin drive in. Oh we used to harass the ushers. Sometimes wed find warm beer stashed around it during the day. There was also 65 Hi. That was one of the last to close.
How about red owl, zaires shopper city.
Any 7-11s left up there? They are everywhere down here.
Stationed at MCAS Yuma (Marine Corps) we used to get a case of beer and a bucket of Chicken Unlimited gizzards and go to the Yuma Arizona Mesa drive in…that was our party night out, either that or San Luis, Mexico.
Thanks for bringing up some old memories.
Rochester had two drive-in theaters. The oldest at the intersection of highways 52 and 14 in SE Rochester was iconic. There was a high sand hill behind the fence and as kids we’d climb up there and watch the movies. In cars later it was about like all of you others…beer, babes, brawls. The usual.
I think the town’s first drive thru restaurant was Chicken Delight located on 2nd Street SW, on the west side of Highway 52 going towards Country Club Manor….if there was more than a half dozen houses there at the time. Miracle Mile had just started to evolve. Broasted chicken was the featured food but they had burgers and the like too. Mike’s Drive-In, at Silver Lake Drive and North Broadway came later on. King Leos on North Broadway next to the dairy was the first fast food, per se, we had. Fifteen cent hamburgers. Wade’s broiler across Highway 52 from Miracle Mile and Barry’s restaurant on North Broadway were well known “after hours” places as was Golden George’s Pizza and Bilotti’s Pizza.
Lots of memories in this town.
Don’t remember the name but was where the Home Depot is in W St Paul or is it IGH? Anyway had some fun there.
That was the Corral Drive in. And that was my headlights bouncing off the screen as we drove in through the golf course so we wouldn’t have to pay. Also drove in there one night….they were showing “Vanishing Point” and “Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry”…..with 5 guys in the truck. The trunk lock broke, and I couldn’t get them out. Then I didn’t WANT to get them out because they were all yelling that they were going to kill me. Ah yes, the good old days. Glad that’s all over with
S.R.
Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry. Friggen awesome movies. Peter Fonda is da Man!
Not sure of the theatre but was real young and watched Jurassic Park from the back of truck. Scary as ell!! Good memories
the Iwa Jima, Jacksonville N.C. the Timberline Bemidji, when you went to the concesion stand you walked by the projection booth and your head would block the screen, then the horn honking would start. Also remember the truck driving thru at night fogging for mosquitos! lucky we are alive, I can only imagine what they may have used. Fun nights
our local drive in theater was on the far north end of town.
if you had any friends who lived near it you could sit in their back yard and watch for free or if you were brave enough you could sit along side of the state highway hoping the state troopers didnt catch you when they went through.
I will never forget one weekend late at night when the xxx movies were shown,I was taking my then girlfriend home when we drove by there.
I dang near drove my car off of the road and through the fence watching Linda doing what she did best.
I thought I had learned everything about the birds and bees growing up on a farm,learned something new that night as that wasnt much heard of in small town Iowa back in the early/mid seventies.
Billy and I used to go to the Vali-Hi drive-in when we were dating. They played three movies starting at dusk and it always seemed the movie I wanted to see the most was last. I’ve kept all of our ticket stubs over the years and pictured is one from our first drive-in in 2000 and one from 2003. I wish I would have written the movie names on them!
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65 HI and 100 Twin for me.
We used to go to the Siskota Drive-in in Sisseton, SD. My grandparents lived there and for a bunch of my cousins and I, as teens, it was absolutely the only thing to do there at night.
I believe it has been demolished. It’s sad to see the places where you had good times as a kid go by the wayside, but it’s a sign-o-the-times.
The last time I was at an actual regular multiplex movie theater I thought the same thing. These places cannot be long for this world. We were there on a Friday seeing a new-release movie with the kids and it should have been packed. There were 9 of us including me and the 2 grouselets in the whole theater.
Grouse
cant remember the names but st cloud had 2 at one time. one was where the current movie theatre is near fleet farm, another was out on hwy 10 south of st cloud!!!!!
yep!!!!!!!!! 
them was the good old days!!!!!! 
cept i was a lover not a fighter!!!!!! 
cant remember the names but st cloud had 2 at one time. one was where the current movie theatre is near fleet farm, another was out on hwy 10 south of st cloud!!!!!
yep!!!!!!!!!
them was the good old days!!!!!!
cept i was a lover not a fighter!!!!!!
The theater south of St Cloud on Hwy 10 was the 10-hi. Had a lot of fun there. I was at the other one a few times, but can’t recall the name.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/36187
Towards the end they started showing x rated movies to try and stay competitive but the indoor cinemas won out.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-history-of-the-drive-in-movie-theater-51331221/
I think the first movie I seen there was good guys wear black with Chuck Norris.
The 100 Twin was neat because it was right next to 94 (Where Medtronic HQ is now), so you could catch a glimpse of the show as you drove by.
Didn’t Elko Speedway open up a new one in recent years? I need to check that out and support them. Great to see stuff like that pop up again. I know a lot of people have projectors and screens to watch movies in their backyard, but there is nothing like being at the drive in.
there is nothing like being at the drive in
I don’t miss them, actually. Moths flying in front of the projector, single speaker hanging in the window with a tinny sound, rain, mosquitos making their way into the vehicle and windows fogging up for the wrong reasons. lol
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>glenn57 wrote:</div>
cant remember the names but st cloud had 2 at one time. one was where the current movie theatre is near fleet farm, another was out on hwy 10 south of st cloud!!!!!yep!!!!!!!!!
The theater south of St Cloud on Hwy 10 was the 10-hi. Had a lot of fun there. I was at the other one a few times, but can’t recall the name.
The other one was actually Waite Park… but called “The Cloud Outdoor Theater”
Glad someone finally mentioned 65-hi. Went there in high school to fog a few windows.
DT
Hwy 18 theater. Saw Bad News Bears back in the day. Its still open
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them was the good old days!!!!!! 
cept i was a lover not a fighter!!!!!! 
