Movie night set to bring back memories

ROYAL CITY — The Royal City SummerFest Committee has organized a free Movie Night in the Park for this Friday, August 12, and it may remind some of the older folks of the now rarely-seen drive-in movie theater.

There is one in Milton-Freewater, still being used. I was surprised when Pat and I drove by it recently. It was mid-day. So it was poor timing.

But it took me back more than 60 years, to the cool summer evening breeze, the smell of popcorn and the sounds of people visiting from car to car before the movie.

There was even a children’s playground right under the screen. You could watch a movie and the kids.

I went to movies at the drive-in at Sunnyside as a kid, sometimes Toppenish and occasionally Yakima. We often went on Buck Night, when an entire car of people got in for a dollar.

With that many people, it was difficult for those in the back seat to see through the heads of those in the front seat. So we turned the volume up on the speakers, and some of us sat in chairs or stood outside the car.

Movie Night in the Park, at Lions Park, will be a lot like that, except that everyone will experience the cool of the evening. You’ll sit in chairs or on blankets you bring from home.

The good news is that no one will have to sit through one of my old fogie movies. The SummerFest has chosen the 1985 PG classic “The Goonies.”

It will start after dark, or about 8:30 p.m. It will be shown on what the SummerFest Committee describes as an “enormous” screen.

SummerFest suggests you bring your mad money. You will be able to purchase refreshments, including cotton candy from Kalley’s Cotton Candy.

So all of you folks who say there’s nothing to do in Royal, go to the outdoor Movie in the Park Friday in recognition of the Royal City SummerFest Committee’s efforts to make your community a pleasant place to live.

I’m betting you’ll walk away saying you had fun.