The End of an Era is Nigh!

As many of you may know, the loss of all our drive-in theatre's, bar one, (and I say one because Menlyn does not count) is a tragedy that cannot go without at least minor protest... even if this is the only minor protest out there!

The night before last myself and the joburgtourguide (follow her here on blogspot) decided it was high time we went through and watched a couple of flicks at the drive-in... and for those of you who are not in the know, the last of these glorious relics is Velskoen in Randburg off Malibongwe! And what an awesome place to go and relax, and forget your problems for a few hours.

To our surprise, our dear friend who joined us on our outing had never once in her 28 years been to the drive-in cinema. Now this in itself is a real shame in a sense because, in my opinion, she has missed out on a real childhood experience. I still to this day remember going with my folks when I was a wee lad to go watch 'Fifel Goes West', cracking the window in the car and placing the '1950's two-way-radio' shaped speaker on the window, drinking my overly sized slushy and eating my freshly made popcorn... and those nights in matric when we could take the folks car with a bunch of friends, a bottle of crackling and a few secret smokes, and more recently at varsity, the freezing winter nights spent with our canadian friend, jackets and sleeping bags and most importantly a hot cup of coffee!

These are defining moments that I cherish and it makes me sad that this type of experience is on its way out, as marked by the closing of TopStar, a truly Jhb landmark. Shouldn't we be more concerned by this, or are we a lonely few who feel this way about the drive-in and what it has to offer?