PSoTD

Anyone my age probably has some fond memories of the drive-in movie theater. Cheap movies, family nights, later on it could be date nights, and make out nights, and whatever else nights. For me, first and foremost, I remember it as the cool place we went as a family when I was little to see Disney movies - Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, that kind of stuff. They came with various kinds of kids recreation - usually playgrounds - and the infamous snack bar which they constantly promoted during intermission.

Sunday night we took our kids to their first night at the Drive-In at Haars in Dillsburg.

It's the only drive-in near here anymore, as drive-ins have been in demise for decades. It's not the business model - it's the value of land as property bought in the 1950s for purposes of the drive-in eventually become surrounded with development, and the push and the offers for either commercial or residential development of the drive-in finally overwhelms the opportunity afforded with the business model. Drive-ins are sheer Americana, the confluence of America's love affairs with cars and with Hollywood, but our economy does not appreciate highly nor value heavily sheer Americana. Please don't try to tell me it does and use examples of antiques or collectibles or old houses, because the economic value isn't based on Americana but on 1) supply and demand, and 2) speculation.

My kids' generation may be the last to really know the drive-in theater. There are somewhere around 500+ left of them in this country (probably less, this list appears old).

Going to Haar's on Sunday night brought back the whole family and child value of the drive-in, and we'll go back in the near future. I want my kids to know the drive-in before it disappears from sight. Then they can tell THEIR kids about this fabulous place of fun that once entertained their generation.

The more we get this cultural/national mix going around the world, the better off we'll all be. The world should be a melting pot - and not of the global warming kind.

From the Galway Advertiser:

The idea that someone would want to settle in Ireland and make his future here would, during the 50s and even into the 70s, would have seemed astonishing to people of the older generation. The 'Irish Wake', which forms part of the nostalgia industry of the now thriving Irish Diaspora was once a tragic feature of the national experience.

And a word on the Irish Diaspora itself. Those who left Ireland during the hard times in search of work and prospects felt they had little or no choice. The enormous change now is that those who are now working in the United States, Australia, France, Japan, and elsewhere have chosen to do so. Educated, confident, proud of their heritage, today's emigrants are either temporarily so or return to Ireland on a regular basis, many with homes here.

But as a new kind of Irish emigrant has appeared, so this country has found itself dealing with the dramatic new phenomenon of immigrants from - literally - around the world, attracted by the success of the Irish economy. And the transformation of the social, cultural, and political scene has been equally dramatic. From the flourishing Brazilian community in Gort, to the Chinese takeaway in Caherciveen, the eclectic mix of African and Eastern European music, the astonishing variety of foods now available in every large city and even small town - all this eloquently attests to the diversity that now characterizes Ireland in the 21st century.