Bill Muhlenfeld is owner and publisher of Distinctly Montana magazine and other publications. He lives in Bozeman with his partner, Anthea, and always finds time to enjoy the great outdoors, when he is not writing about it.... 

So today we received a query to write about drive-in movies for the magazine.  What?  I had no idea that these still existed anywhere in the USA.  And in Montana?  It hasn't even stopped snowing yet.  How long could a drive-in movie season be?

My friend Google and I went on a research mission and found that there were 43 listed in the state with names like "Fortress,"  "Go West" and, of course, "Big Sky."  Wow!  Then I noticed a button at the top that pointed to "all, open, or closed."  I clicked on "open" and was left with just two, the Silver Bow in (of all places) Silver Bow and the Amusement Dive-in in Billings.  41 were, it appeared, permanently closed.

When I was young, in Illinois, drive-ins were a very big deal.  We first went with our parents and family in the old Ford Galaxy, and had a freedom of movement which felt both odd and joyous, to be out so late at night running for popcorn, chasing fireflies before the show, running again to the toilet or for cheesy chips and hot dogs.  As a teenager they were the venue of choice in high school for creating an inescapable closeness with a date who was kind of trapped...in a good way.  Who could care what was playing?

In some respects, things haven't changed much for the few drive-ins that are left.  Here are the "rules" for Silver Bow:

Please keep your pets inside your car or cab of your truck at all times

No outside food

We don't have outside speakers; so if you are planning on sitting outside or don't have a working car stereo please remember to bring a portable radio with you

No littering

Turn off your headlights

I hadn't thought about drive-ins for years I suppose, but I've been thinking about them most of today, and how much the small act of just going to a movie has morphed to something beyond our wildest imagination.  Really, why would anyone go to a drive-in today?  Nostalgia, I suppose.  Might be fun to try it though.  Silver Bow here I come.