craigdailypress.com

bigrred1576 (Anonymous) says…

I have lived in Craig my whole life, and only remember going to the drive-in movie a few times as a child and a couple when they tried to bring it back. it has been an eyesore and a fire hazard for a few years now. Glad that they cleaned it up some, but also sorry to see a gravel pit take its place.

jb (Anonymous) says…

I agree it was an eyesore. I remember going there several times. What a great time!! It's to bad they couldn't remodel it and bring it back to life. That was a truly historic part of Craig in my opinion. And to burn it down? What was the purpose behind that? Couldn't they have just tore it down?

rebarr (Anonymous) says…

When a family member and I were talking about the drive-in he was reminiscing about the year it was built and how he helped unload the materials from the train. After that he worked at the new drive-in and talked about how the kids who worked there were given rides to work in what was called the “Tally-Ho” from town. It was built the year I was born and boy do I have some great memories of that place through the years! When we were kids Mom and Dad would load up the car and we would take our own treats. We would get one treat from the concession stand to share and that was always special. I can still remember the smells of yummy buttered popcorn and pizza. Then high school and all the good times with friends and summers I will never forget. An era that will be sadly missed for sure.

rjamom98 (Anonymous) says…

I remember in 91, when my hubby was activated for service in the first Kuwait, I would take the 3 kids to the drive-in for a friday nite outing. This was soooo important to us The first movie was always GP, and the kids were asleep for the 2nd. I would have a quiet time, with a movie!!

I am so sorry it is gone.

Taylor (Anonymous) says…

I guess no one has been down that way because the screen is still there…what did they burn? The snack bar? What used to be an historical icon is now truly an eyesore. S*** or get off the pot.

carn (Anonymous) says…

We used to go to the drive-in as teenagers, in the early '80s. We never went for the movies - the speaker boxes were too scratchy to really hear the dialogue (if you could find one that worked at all). We would be feasted upon by mosquitoes and eat crummy, overpriced food from the snack bar. Mostly, we went there to either neck with our boyfriends/girlfriends or drink beer and raise hell with our friends (or the other way around).

I do have fond memories of that place, but I agree it has been an eyesore, not only in the “ugly, dilapidated” sense, but also a constant, lonely reminder of good times had, never to be revisited. I guess I'm kind of glad it has been put out of its misery.

As to JB's post/question (8/29, 10:04), “Why did they have to burn it down?”: I don't know this for a fact, but I do know that often the fire department is asked to do controlled burns on abandoned structures in order to train firefighters in fighting structure fires. I'm guessing this is the case here. If so, at least the drive-in theater was useful in its demise.

Better to watch it go in a flash of flame and a puff of smoke than several days of the painful dismanteling of part of my adolescense.

jb (Anonymous) says…

Yes, they just burned down the snack bar. The screen is so big they are not sure how they are going to bring it down. This is what I understand from the article in the paper.

M_Evans (Anonymous) says…

Back in the 1980's we used to sneak in under the barbed wire, even though they always knew that we did it, they never kicked us out. There were a lot of drinking, fights, pranks, good times. I saw Heavy Metal, Conan the Barbarian, The Beastmaster, and probably 20 other movies less memorable because I was doing other things while it was on. I'm sorry to read that it is no more. I can't imagine where the kids get into trouble now.