The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 03:00 PM
The "Drive In" Experience Alive and Well In East Tn
One Maryville theater has all that, but their movie just happens to be under the stars. Parkway Drive In showed 'The Avengers' and 'Pacific Rim' Friday night.
Drive ins, once king in the 1950's, are hard to come by these days.
"Yeah it brings back a lot of memories," Karen Warren said. It's why her family comes back at least once a year
"I'm one of 17 children, so going to a movie theater was not in our cards," she told WVLT's Robert Grant.
Parkway is just one of three drive ins across parts of East Tennessee. The next closest one is about 50 miles down the road. Midway Drive In calls Athens. Tennessee home.
So what keeps families coming back?
"We're all at one spot and can talk and enjoy a movie together," Warren said.
Gates at Parkway open at 7 p.m. for movie-goers to get a snack and enjoy the weather before they press play on the movie when the sun goes down.
"People want to watch the movies under the stars like it was intended to be," Owner Doug Freeman said.
