Resurrecting The Past: The Whoopee Cushion!

Another episode in the Resurrecting The Past series...

It's amazing to think about all the little things that made being a kid fun and interesting back in the 1970s (and 60s and 50s for that matter...). One of these things was the humble Whoopee Cushion. I remember having tons of fun with these little inflatable gas bags as a Monster Kid. In fact, I believe that my nephew and even I had so much fun playing with a Whoopie Cushion on one occasion that I actually wet my pants with laughter! Yup, toilet humor is pretty base and crass, but it's also danged funny! Even as a grown up I have a very difficult time trying to stifle a laugh when I hear a fart in public.

Whoopee Cushions became a part of my past long ago. I knew they still existed, but didn't seem to find the need to actually own one or use one. At least not until very recently...

I've been trying to introduce The Little Monster to movies, TV shows and other things that I liked as a kid to see if she might find them of interest as well (like the classic candy I wrote about recently in Resurrecting The Past: Flying Saucer/Satellite Candy). Every once in a while something will suddenly re-enter my conscience that I hadn't thought about in years. A few weeks ago I brought the Little Monsters to out local mall. As usual we went to the Spencer's Gifts store while making the regular rounds of our favorite stores.

This is a great place for The Little Monster to be exposed to all kinds of old-school toys, practical jokes and novelties that were already old-school when I was growing up. She now wants a Lava Lamp for her room. She has seen a bunch of those little gags and tricks that you used to find in Joke and Smoke shops. And on this particular recent visit she pointed out something on one of the racks near the fake vomit and doggie doo. It was a Whoopee Cushion!

It seemed strange that it had never occurred to me to mention these to her before. Suddenly I had a golden opportunity to open up a whole new world of laughter for her! But it would have to wait...

The Whoopee Cushions we saw in Spencer's Gifts were those new-fangled self-inflating ones. This really is a wonderful improvement on the classic version, and a huge step forward in practical joke technology. They still look and act (or should I say sound) like the old ones, except that now you don't have to blow them up yourself. After a victim is embarrassed you can simply wait a few seconds for the cushion to reload itself and be ready for more action. Now you can save all your breath (which would otherwise be wasted on inflating the cushion) for the inevitable laughter that follows. In addition to this self-inflating version, there is even an Electronic Whoopee Cushion available nowadays. It's basically just one of those little hand-held sound generators where you push different buttons for different sounds. This one just happens to make farting sounds. The neat thing about it is that it looks like a Whoopee Cushion in shape and color o make it stand out from other fart machines.

While these advances in the world of Whoopee Cushions are impressive, I felt that it was my duty as a caring Monster Dad to make sure my Little Monsters' first experience with a Whoopee Cushion was with the classic rubber one that you had to blow up yourself. We visited the mall a few more times in the ensuing weeks and always saw those self-inflating Whoopee Cushions, but I held out. Also, The Little Monster announced at dinner one night that "That little circle-thing that makes funny sounds would be a great birthday present for Mommy!". I didn't know what she was talking about at first, because I hadn't even told her that the "little circle thing" was called a "Whoopee Cushion", but she was obviously intrigued by the idea of it.

Then, this past weekend we all went to visit Davis Farmland in Sterling, MA. It was a good time all around: seeing animals, eating ice cream and playing around in the splash park. On the way out The Wife said that The Little Monster could get one thing in the gift shop. I accompanied her to the shop while The Wife and The Tiny Creature went to the car to wait for us. That might have been a mistake!

Inside I saw this display of cool old-school jokes and toys that was geared more towards adults than kids (or at least adults who felt a sense of nostalgia for the days when they played with these things). I saw Whoopee Cushions on the right side and just HAD to get one. As a bonus, they were on sale and only cost .99 rather than $1.99! This was more of a gift for myself, so I got a few other things for The Little Monster that she was more interested in.

Today I finally broke out the wind-breaking marvel for the kids. I do have to say that they didn't really "get it" as much as I had hoped. The Tiny Creature was a bit frightened by the sound--and seemed to think it was thunder or some sort of explosion. The Little Monster seemed to be a bit more interested in the comic possibilities of the object. She is almost six now and has certainly discovered that bodily function sounds have some comic value. I think she'll have some fun with it, and that The Tiny Creature will also learn to love the Whoopee Cushion in time. I'll just have to see whether it will be worth investing in a self-inflating one or an electronic one in the future...

Just for the sake of posterity (or posteriority), here's a little video of the brand new Whoopee Cushion and the Little Monsters' reaction to it when they were introduced to it:

Worcester Movies on the Common II: "Back to the Future"

Well, it's taken me a whole week to finally write about this, but the second Movies on the Common show happened last week (July 28). The movie for this edition was "Back to the Future" (1985). I could use a time machine to go back a week and write this post in a little more timely manner, but...

This outdoor movie program is being put on by Worcester Film Works. The first show in June featured the film "Grease" (1978) (read about that show here: Movies on the Common 2011). There is still one more show to go at the end of August. That one will feature "Spaceballs" (1987). But, let's discuss show number two, shall we?

You can't go to the Worcester common and not check out the "Turtle Boy" statue!

The stage/screen set up behind City Hall

We all went to the show again (The Wife, the two Little Monsters and myself); and this time were joined by several other friends. It would seem that the word has spread about this outdoor movie series (as I had hoped it would), because there was a much larger crowd this time around. I thought the turnout for the first show was more than respectable, but the second one was even better.

The crowd grows as the sun sets

As an added bonus, they got the totally awesome 1980s cover band Flock of A**holes (you can figure it out) to play before the movie. It was a very nice evening and The Flock (as they're also known when children are present) put on an amazing set of classic 80s tunes that lasted a couple hours. Anyone who showed up just in time for the movie missed out on a chance to really get into an 1980s frame of mind before watching "Back to the Future". The Flock played tunes from all kinds of bands and artists like Prince, Billy Idol, Duran Duran and, yes, A Flock of Seagulls. They even played Huey Lewis and the News' "The Power of Love"--which would of course be featured in "Back to the Future"! As the evening wore on and the crowd grew you could see the 80s-vintage people starting to shed the years and get up and dance to the music from their formative years. Heck, I felt so immersed in the 80s I wanted to walk across the street to Strawberries to pick up Huey Lewis' latest tape, or head over to the Worcester Galleria to pick up an Orange Julius!

The Flock rocks!

It occurred to me last year (the 25th anniversary of the release of "Back to the Future") that there is an interesting juxtaposition when watching the movie now. It came out in 1985, and that was the "present" setting of the film. Of course, 1985 was twenty-six years ago and now seems very much like the past. When Marty travels back 30 years to 1955 we have to deal with the fact that the "present" he leaves is practically that old to us. The scenes in the "present" seem like a period piece now. Adults who watched the movie when it came out could probably relate to the scenes from 1955 the same way that many of the viewers on the Worcester Common last week related to the 1985 scenes. Okay, I could talk about this stuff for hours, but let's get back to the show...

The Common "opened" at 6:00 and people started picking out their spots. Jen from Worcester radio station WXLO 104.5 introduced the band and gave out some prizes through The Flock's set. The Theatre Cafe and Sweet Sister's ice cream truck set up shop once again, selling food, beverages and frozen treats to anyone who brought along their appetite. The Little Monsters got ice cream of course, and later on I even splurged on a couple hot dogs from the Theatre Cafe.

Getting ice cream from the Sweet Sister ice cream truck

The Creature enjoying her ice cream

Hot dogs from the Theatre Cafe

The only real "disappointment" of the night was that it was announced that Finz, the mascot of the Worcester Sharks hockey team would make an appearance. Unfortunately he never showed up. The Little Monster brought along her stuffed Finz and was a bit let down by his absence. With this only being the second show, the series is still in its infancy. They still have one more show this season to try to work all the (admittedly minor) bugs out.

The Little Monster and her stuffed Finz doll

Speaking of bugs, the Worcester Film Works table had a popcorn machine at the first show that they were expecting to use to make and sell popcorn to the movie-going patrons. Unfortunately it malfunctioned and they had to buy a bunch of bags of Smartfood Popcorn to fill the machine with. I had figured they must have gotten the machine fixed for the second show. When I visited the table before the movie the machine was indeed operating, though the WFW people were a bit concerned that it wasn't popping the corn fast enough. Later on--during the movie--I took a look at the table and saw them selling bags of popcorn. Thinking that everything was running smoothly I went over to pick up bag. To my surprise I was greeted with a sign stating that the popcorn was Smartfood! Apparently the machine failed them again. This is beginning to become a bit of a tradition in itself. I have to admit that a little part of me hopes to go to the "Spaceballs" show next month and see the popcorn machine once again filled up with Smartfood! Of course I want everything to run the way it's supposed to, but it almost feels like this is the way it's supposed to go at this point...

The Worcester Film Works table...

...And the sign announcing the true identity of the popcorn later on.

After The Flock's set ended there was a bit of a delay while their equipment was removed and the screen was lowered. Because of the concert there wasn't as much of a chance to have the projector all set up and ready to go beforehand as they had last month. But once it got dark enough the movie did start up. There's not really much to say about "Back to the Future". If you haven't seen it then you SHOULD. If you have seen it then you know what it was like. The Wife and The Tiny Creature left before the feature presentation, but The Little Monster and I stayed right until the end. It was her first time seeing "Back to the Future" and if course I loved the experience of seeing it through her eyes. The highlight was probably when she came up to me during one of the time travel scenes and asked me with a solemn voice--"Daddy, did this actually happen?". I just love that kind of stuff! It's funny to discover how tough it actually is to try and explain the film to someone from a generation or two removed from 1985. Another great moment from the night was when the scenes with the clock tower in it played on the screen...just below Worcester City Hall's very own clock tower (There's a bit of that interesting juxtaposition toward the end of the video below)! All in all, it was definitely worth keeping The Little Monster up nearly three hours after her normal bedtime to see the whole movie. As we headed back to the car around 10:45 on a cool summer night I saw in The Little Monster that familiar ultra-tired state that I remember experiencing as a kid after a long night at the drive-in.

The screen is lowered into place after the band finishes up

SHOWTIME!

Marty rocks out!

Doc Brown informs Marty that they have to go "back to the future"!

As I mentioned, this was only the second of three shows for Movies on the Common. They've done an excellent job so far, and I'd definitely recommend trying to make it out for "Spaceballs" at the end of the month (August 25) if you can. They have one more chance to work out any little bugs that might still be lurking around in the series and fine-tune it a bit further. I can only hope that the success of the series will mean that it will return for a second year in 2012! Otherwise I'll just have to jump into the Delorean time machine next year and head back to 2011 to experience it all over again...

Here's some video from the night. It's heavy on The Flock's set, and the short amount of "Back to the Future" highlights didn't really come out very good. Still, it gives a bit of a look at what the show looked and sounded like for anyone who couldn't be there.

Sparklers on the Fourth: Upon Further Review...

The human memory is a fascinating and flawed thing. It's pretty common knowledge that eyewitness testimony is generally considered to be unreliable. In fact, there have been cases thrown out because it had been determined that prosecutors (or defenders) had planted false memories into the heads of people testifying. I think that the major problem is that the human brain (which is vastly underused according to most research) simply can not reliably recall every detail about everything that a person experiences. Instead it sometimes seems to take little fragments of memories and tries to piece together a "memory" which is probably more fabricated than based in reality. A memory we would swear is real could in fact be made up of fragments of actual (possibly unrelated) memories, stories about the past we've heard, and a bit of pure fiction created by our active imaginations all mixed together. Since it's in our heads we don't see any reason to doubt the memories that we have--sometimes even in the light of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Our brains seem to have an ability to use something like persistence of vision (which allows us to watch different frames of a film and fill in the blanks between them to make it seem that we are watching seamless movement) to make random bits of memories easier to use and relate to.

I've seen this happen myself on a message board I frequent that is dedicated to the old Creature Double Feature show on Boston's WLVI Channel 56. People will swear that they remember seeing a certain movie on the show even though that movie isn't on a list of the movies that aired on Creature Double Feature. It's pretty understandable, and has happened to me too. A lot of great movies were aired on all the Boston area TV stations during the time Creature Double Feature was on. Combine a hazy memory of watching one of these movies with the fond recollection of sitting in front of the TV on Saturday afternoons to watch Creature Double Feature and you have a hybrid memory of watching that movie on CDF--even though you never did!

I recently wrote about a very old memory of mine from the time of America's Bicentennial celebration in 1976 (see Sparklers on the Fourth of July!). I had a very limited recollection of being in my hometown watching a huge parade held in honor of the Bicentennial. I had taken my memory "fragment", figured out approximately when it must have been from and decided that it had to have been from 1976. I was pretty happy with solving an old mystery, and the blog even generated a couple of comments from people who also remembered that very same parade. Those comments were really a great affirmation that I had done something right. However...

I decided to look at some microfilm from the local newspaper to find some stories and photos of the Bicentennial parade to see if I could jog any additional memories of the event. I spent several hours over a few visits to the library and managed to come up empty. All the towns around my hometown (Uxbridge, MA) had various parades, carnivals and fireworks displays, which were all listed in the newspaper. After the Fourth of July these events were all subsequently reported on. But nothing at all seemed to be written about the huge parade in Uxbridge. Uxbridge is a small town, but I couldn't believe that nothing at all would be mentioned about the parade. Finally I found a big article about "The First Annual Firemen's Muster" in Uxbridge, which was an early part of Uxbridge's big 250th anniversary celebration, which would take place the following year (1977). According to the article, the muster "marked the beginning of a year long celebration of Uxbridge's 250th birthday. 'Incorporation Day' is June 27, 1977". (Worcester Telegram, Monday, June 28, 1976; page 9E)

Armed with this clue I decided to look at the newspapers from late-June 1977. It turned out that Uxbridge did indeed have a big parade around the Fourth of July (like I thought), but it was in 1977 instead of 1976! Skipping a parade in 1976 is pretty understandable considering that they knew they had something big to celebrate the following year. They probably just let the other towns in the area take care of all the Bicentennial celebrations so the 250th Anniversary Committee could concentrate on their big plans for 1977.

My first indication that I was looking in the right area was when I found this photo from the Friday, June 24 Telegram (page 15E). I couldn't get a great scan of it, but the caption says: "UXBRIDGE-The town is making some last-minute repairs along the Bicentennial parade route. The celebration is planned for the weekend. Francis Roy of the Highway Department used gasoline in a wheel barrow to burn tar from tools." Note that the paper erroneously referred to the it as being a "Bicentennial" parade rather than a 250th anniversary parade. That's understandable, considering that it was only a year removed from the country's big Bicentennial celebration in 1976.

Worcester Telegram: Friday, June 24, 1977; page 15E

Saturday's Telegram provided a complete listing of all the 250th anniversary activities and events. The parade was scheduled for 2:00 on Sunday, and it was listed as being a "six-division parade, expected to include about two dozen floats". Sure sounds like the one I was thinking about...

Worcester Telegram: Saturday, June 25, 1977; page 8

Sunday's Telegram (the day of the parade itself) reported on the full day of activities from Saturday's Heritage Day in Uxbridge:

Worcester Telegram: Sunday, June 26, 1977; front page

Worcester Telegram: Sunday, June 26, 1977; page 20A

And, finally--after all this searching--the Monday, June 27, 1977 Telegram had coverage of the Uxbridge 250th anniversary parade. All signs point to the fact that this was indeed the event that I was remembering which I mistakenly thought had happened in 1976 in the previous blog.

Worcester Telegram: Monday, June 27, 1977; front page

Note that in the above photo caption there is a very important clue. Both of the people who commented on my previous blog (about my memory being of the 1976 Bicentennial parade) recalled rain that day during the parade. This photo, titled "A Change In Weather" mentions the fact that the rain came halfway through the parade. Here's more coverage:

Worcester Telegram: Monday, June 27, 1977; page 3S

Worcester Telegram: Monday, June 27, 1977; page3E

While this all of this amply covers the parade and festivities of Uxbridge's 250th anniversary celebration, there were a couple more interesting things I found. The parade took place on Sunday, the 26th. The actual anniversary occurred on Monday, the 27th. To commemorate the date, and to close out the celebration, a time capsule was buried on the Town Common.

Worcester Telegram: Tuesday, June 28, 1977; front page

Although I never realized this event happened one day after the parade, I was very glad to learn this fact--as I also have a pretty strong memory of standing on the Common on that day as the time capsule was dedicated and buried. I couldn't actually see anything because of the crowds, but do remember thinking that it was a momentous occasion. It seemed incredible to me that the capsule would be buried for fifty years--FIFTY YEARS! Of course, fifty years is actually a pretty short period for a time capsule to be buried. But to my seven-year-old mind fifty years practically seemed like an eternity. It was hard to conceive that I might be around to actually see the capsule dug up and opened. Heck, it was going to be opened in 2027--I had seen movies that took place in the 2000s, but couldn't imagine that era actually arriving in reality. Well, of course were now in 2011. the time capsule has already been buried (and forgotten about by many I'm sure) for 34 years. It only has 16 more years left before its scheduled excavation date. I'll be 58 when it's dug up. That little seven-year-old boy on the common couldn't envision himself being fifty-eight years old, but this forty-one-year-old doesn't find it nearly as unbelievable.

Here is the marker for the 250th Anniversary time capsule as it appeared on the Uxbridge Common in December 2010

Life went on after the 250th celebration of course. On that same Monday the time capsule was buried--the actual date of the anniversary--there was a regularly scheduled town meeting. I certainly wouldn't have been interested in hearing about this as a kid, but it seems worth at least mentioning here as the very last "event" of the town's anniversary commemoration:

Worcester Telegram: Tuesday, June 28, 1977; page 3S

In closing, I'd like to apologize for any confusion my original blog might have caused because of its inaccuracies. Another funny thing about the human brain is that we have a tendency to believe what we read. This can be especially dangerous with the internet, where we read things every day without having any real way of knowing if it's accurate (Wikipedia is a good example of a great resource whose "facts" have to be taken with a grain of salt). There's no real "rules" when it comes to blogs, but I always try to be as accurate as possible when I write something here. There may never be more than a handful of people who will read it, but I just don't want to mislead any of those who do happen by.

See you in 2027!

Resurrecting The Past: Flying Saucer/Satellite Wafer Candy

Even at a very young age I remember sometimes wishing I had been born a generation or two earlier. Most of the movies I loved watching while growing up were the monster/horror/sci-fi ones from the 1950s and 1960s. As much as I enjoyed watching them on TV--beamed out to me from Boston area stations like WLVI 56 (and its Saturday afternoon show Creature Double Feature), WSBK TV38 and WCVB Channel 5--I also always wished I could have been around when those movies first came out and people went out to see them, brand new, at local theaters and drive-ins. I suppose we always look at the past through rose-colored glasses, and I'm sure I did that too. I idealized the 1950s and 1960s, concentrating on all the good and interesting aspects of them and being blind to the problems and strife that all eras have to some extent.

It wasn't until quite a bit later that I realized that growing up in the 1970s and early 1980s wasn't really that bad. I certainly wasn't as far removed from the ways of the 50s and 60s as a kid growing up today would be. Even though I didn't get to see all those great (and not-so-great) movies in the theaters it was still a wonderful thing to be able to have them on TV all the time. You certainly aren't likely to see the likes of "It Conquered the World", "Them" and "The Amazing Colossal Man" on regular TV these days. In fact, while there are exponentially more viewing choices today than the ten or so channels we could pick up on our old TV set growing up, there still isn't a reliable outlet for those kinds movies.

I suppose a few factors went into the realization that the 1970s weren't as "bad" as I thought while growing up during them. First off, the TV channels I was watching were being programmed by people who had probably grown up during the 50s and 60s when the films I love came out. It was natural for them to put them in the schedules since that was what they were familiar with. Also, the movies that were churned out for double-bills at drive-ins and movie theaters were so plentiful and still of semi-recent vintage that they were probably the easiest things to plug into schedules. It would be like seeing movies from the 1980s on TV today (and that certainly does happen). Movies from the 1950s and 60s simply weren't as old in the 1970s as they are today (which is a pretty obvious fact indeed).

One other aspect of the "old days" that lingered into my formative years and I was lucky enough to still be able to experience was Penny Candy. It's amazing to think there was a time when a penny was actually worth something, yet they were. There was a small convenience store down the hill from my house that I would frequent. This little old-timey store actually still had jars of Penny Candy that you could choose from to spend the small amounts of change a little kid would be likely to have in his/her pocket. Not realizing the connection to the past that I felt so much nostalgia for, I would pick and choose as many pieces of candy that I could afford and take them home with me in a little paper bag. Most of these candies still exist today of course--but you're not likely to find them for sale in individual pieces. They either come in sealed packages or can be bought by weight at certain places. Caramel bullseyes, Swedish Fish, wax syrup bottles, and those little candy dots on paper strips were among my favorites.

But one thing I always remember as being a bit extra special was the Flying Saucer Candy (which I just found out were also called Satellite Wafers). These little things were made up of two saucer-shaped wafers made of an edible paper-like material that were sealed together and contained a number of tiny, colorful candy beads inside which would rattle when the saucer was shaken. These weren't a particularly sweet candy. In fact the wafer part had pretty much no taste at all. It was like eating something that was sort of cross between paper and cardboard. The candy beads themselves were sweet, but so tiny you didn't really get much flavor from them either. I think what made them so special (to me at least) was the overall experience of eating them. It was simply fun to put them in your mouth and bite down on the wafer to get to the candy inside. Or you could let the wafer part melt in your mouth first. Plus, you could shake them like a little maracas. And (probably best of all) they actually looked just like little flying saucers or UFOs! Nice.

While I've seen most of the other Penny Candies from my youth in recent years--even buying some of those paper-mounted colorful candy dots for The Little Monster (and myself of course) while on vacation last year--I hadn't seen the Candy Flying Saucers/Satellite Wafers for many years. Well it turns out they still exist and can be found pretty easily now that we have the magic of the internet (it's funny to find myself using cutting edge technology to track down something like an old-fashioned candy treat from my youth).

I hadn't even thought of these particular candies in quite some time until a couple weeks ago when I visited the Grafton Flea Market (Grafton, MA) for the first time this season. I used to go there all the time, but now that I've moved just far enough away to make it a bit of a distance I only get out there a few times a season. Well, there's someone there that sells candy, nuts and dried fruit on little plastic bags. A lot of the candies are of the old-fashioned, Penny Candy variety. And the bags aren't factory sealed packages, but simply baggies tied up with a little twist-tie. This dealer has been setting up there for many years. The funny thing is that I don't recall ever buying anything from the stand through all my hundreds of trips to the flea market. I decided to check out the variety on this last trip and was pleasantly surprised to see those little Flying Saucers! I simply had to pick up one of the bags for a dollar. The bag contained a dozen of the colorful saucers. That works out to about eight cents apiece. While not "Penny Candy" by any means, that doesn't seem all that bad considering the general level of inflation. The six- or seven-year-old version of myself probably wouldn't have been able to afford such an indulgence, it really wasn't much of a hardship to hand over a dollar bill for that little bag.

While I was excited to re-discover this tiny "lost" part of my childhood, I was also looking forward to sharing these Flying Saucers with The Little Monster too of course. It didn't take her long to "get" what was fun about them (or at least if she didn't, she did a good job of humoring her old man). She seemed to enjoy eating and playing with the little flying saucers. In fact, a neighborhood friend of hers came over to visit and she told him about the new candy treat. I gave him one and his reaction was "this doesn't taste very good". That's an understandable and very honest thing to say (nice tact kid!), but it just showed that he's more accustomed to all the "boring", but super-sweet candy choices that kids of today are familiar with. He wan't interested in using his imagination and putting in the extra "work" that transforms Flying Saucer Candy from a tasteless treat into a fun experience that includes nearly all the senses (taste, sight, touch and even hearing). Luckily The Little Monster didn't let me down in that department! A small link to the 1950s/60s carried on through the my youth, and now I've been able to pass it along to another generation of Monster Kid in the 2010s! Yet another proud moment in the Monster Dad experience.

Here's a look at the Flying Saucers that were in the bag above

A blue Flying Saucer

And a pink Flying Saucer

A peek at the little candy beads inside a Saucer

The Little Monster prepares to enjoy a Flying Saucer/Satellite Wafer Candy!

Here are a few resources where you can find Flying Saucer/Satellite Wafer Candies (and other nostalgic old-fashioned candy too for that matter) if this post has got you wanting some:

• Candy Favorites
• Hometown Favorites
• Blair Candy
• Old Time Candy
• Groovy Candies
• Retro Candy Online
• O'Ryan's Village

The Oak Street Drive-In

While preparing to (hopefully) make a return trip to Pennsylvania for the 2011 Drive-In Super Monster-Rama, I got to thinking about another drive-in related event (or at least semi-related) from a couple years ago. In September of 2009 I turned...FORTY-YEARS-OLD! Yep, I suddenly went from being a young adult to middle-aged seemingly overnight. As the dreaded event was looming I kind of wanted to do something special--something beyond just another standard birthday party. I'd heard about the phenomenon of backyard drive-ins, where people would set up their own system for projecting movies onto a big screen in their own backyard. It sounded very cool to say the least and got me thinking about the prospects of entering the hobby myself. We don't have a very large backyard, and there isn't a lot of "extra" money floating around at the moment to purchase a nice DVD projector. Not only that, but I'm not exactly handy when it comes to designing and building major things around the house. It seemed like the Backyard Drive-In dream would have to remain just a dream for the foreseeable future...

The Wife and I both thought about the possibility of trying to pull off a backyard drive-in event as part of the 40th Birthday celebration. She had access to a video projector through work (though I had no idea how to set up a sound system for it that would be heard by a crowd outside rather than using the little speaker on the projector itself). I was going to attach a white sheet to the side of our garage for the screen. It was pretty exciting to think about actually pulling this thing off. I was sort of thinking of it as being a chance to see if it was worth investing the time, resources and money into a "real" backyard drive-in project. It was going to be a test run of sorts to see how realistic the idea was.

Then a friend of ours made us aware of a company called Jericho Entertainment. This was a local company which arranged and ran backyard drive-in events for people (among other party activities and DJ services). They had a lot of different options and ideas and we decided to try them out. It was a bit more expensive than what we were planning on doing ourselves, but it also turned out to be a WHOLE LOT better than anything we could have done ourselves! It was worth the money to really do it right.

The first step was to have the Jericho Entertainment people stop by to check out the backyard and then to decide on how we wanted everything to be. They had an inflatable screen available, but I chose the one that had a PVC pipe frame (I believe it was 12 feet across). It looked a lot more like a real drive-in screen to me than those inflatable ones. The movie choice was an easy one..."Star Wars" (1977). True, I could call the film "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope", but to me it's just plain old "Star Wars"--just like it was in 1977.

Not only is "Star Wars" (of course) one of my all-time favorites, and a safe choice for both the adults and the children who would be attending the party, but also a movie I have fond memories of seeing at our local drive-in when I was a young lad. There are a lot of movies that I love and would love to see on a backyard drive-in screen, but this really was a no-brainer and an easy decision to make. My only real regret from the night was that I didn't think to ask them to run the original, non-Special Edition version of the movie (the version I had seen as a kid). As the date of the party/backyard drive-in night approached I did a little research to find out just when my childhood local drive-in ran "Star Wars". Since the movie was released in May of 1977 I figured that it must have hit the drive-ins that summer. Well, I couldn't find ANY listings for it playing at my hometown drive-in for that entire summer season. I was starting to doubt my own memory of lying in the back of my father's van watching "Star Wars" and playing with my C-3PO an R2-D2 action figures. Then I decided to check out the listings for the following summer (1978). Wouldn't you know, there it was. I never realized that "Star Wars" was re-released in July of 1978 (most likely as a way to get it into all the drive-ins that missed it the first time around). It just goes to show how huge a thing "Star Wars" was that it was re-released only one year after it first came out (and was then re-released once again in the summer of 1979!).

Here's the fruit of my researching labor.
This ad from the Quaker Drive-In (Uxbridge, MA) from July 14, 1978 announces that the next feature would be "Star Wars"

And this ad is from the start of the "Star Wars" run on July 21, 1978.
While I can't pinpoint exactly when I saw it, at least I know it was on or after this date.

Back to the story... On the night of the party the Jericho Entertainment people arrived early to set up the screen and the video/audio equipment. Then they ran the whole show once it got dark enough (yet another thing that we didn't have to worry about ourselves--making it even more worth the money spent). We had also elected to go with the deluxe package, which included a popcorn machine and root beer on tap (both of which were manned by Jericho staff). It was another nice touch that added a lot to the night. The Wife had also bought a whole bunch of movie-type candy which was set up on a table for people to help themselves to. We were very happy to have a nice turnout of family and friends attend our little show/party. We had invited most of the people in the neighborhood as well. While not many of them showed up, we were glad that we at least invited them--as the sound system was very impressive and you could hear the sounds of "Star Wars" blaring all around the block (and even further). It would have been interesting to have the police show up to investigate a noise disturbance complaint and have that "noise" be "Star Wars" rather than loud rock music. Luckily that didn't happen.

Finally the sky was darkening and it was time to start the show. After a few drive-in intermission ads from a DVD I own and a little welcome announcement from The Wife it was time for the Feature Presentation. How wonderful it was to be sitting in my own backyard, surrounded by family and friends, as the opening notes of John Williams' soundtrack of "Star Wars" filled the cool evening air. About halfway through the movie we had a little "intermission" to do the whole cake-and-presents birthday thing, then settled back in to watch the rest of the movie. It was a very special night for me, and a great way to leave the Thirties and enter the Forties.

Here are some photos from The Oak Street Drive-In's September 2009 presentation of "Star Wars":

Our humble little backyard before the party

Set-up of equipment and construction of the screen underway

Screen is ready to go and sound is being set up as the crowd gathers

As an added touch I put out my old Quaker Drive-In speaker.
Yes, it's from the VERY SAME Quaker Drive-In where I saw "Star Wars" all those years ago!

Some of the tempting candy treats available to our patrons

Jericho Entertainment personnel manning the popcorn machine and root beer tap

One party guest went WAY overboard with generosity and got me this huge Millennium Falcon.
It's practically as big as The Little Monster!

The Little Monster, all ready for "Star Wars"!

You can't have a drive-in experience without PIC!

The crowd anxiously awaits the feature presentation...

Here's some early action from "Star Wars"--as seen in our very own backyard!

Darth Vader makes his first appearance on our big backyard screen

The Little Monster and I settle in for some "Star Wars" fun!

It was a great night, and a grand time was had by all!
...At least I hope so anyway.

Here's just a little bit of video I got from the night to give you an idea of what it was like:

We were considering having another backyard drive-in night this summer or early fall (2011), but it doesn't look like it's going to happen at this point. If we ever do manage to get our act together and have another one, I'll probably end up writing about that one too.

Thank you for reading, and please remember to return your speaker to the pole before you drive off!

Update: If you'd be interested in learning more about my old drive-in speaker please click here -- Resurrecting the Past: Drive-In Theater Speaker.