Somewhere in southern Michigan, about an hours drive from me, is one of the few drive-in movie theaters still open in the midwest. I've rarely been there, and haven't been back since this experience happened. Maybe we should take more time out of our busy lives to do things like go to a drive-in movie? 
It was 1996. The movie "Dragonheart" had just came out, and at the time I remember seeing trailers for the film on t.v. and thought it looked incredible. I've always kinda been into the whole dragon / Lord of the Rings type of fantasy, so this movie was right up my alley. Four of us decided to go see it at the drive in, and I found myself yet again with a 10-strip of some Beavis and Butthead blotter. This stuff seemed slightly abundant in those days.. it was a perfed blotter on a slightly off-white paper with a Beavis and Butthead printing. So there were for of us and 10 hits. We hopped in my Mustang and headed to the theater. I had no idea how to get there, but I had been (again) elected as the driver for the evening. My buddies knew how to get there though, and I remember we all piled in the car and left just as the sun was going down. As soon as we hit the freeway we dosed. I gave everyone 2 hits, and we hoped we timed everything right so we would be coming up good when we got to the drive-in.
I distinctly remember driving down an open road out in the country when the come-up began. My sinuses became extremely clear and I could smell everything. The sun was setting along a treeline in the distance.. the sky was full of color but darkening, and my body felt very vibrant and alive. My reflexes seemed to be reacting with acute precision. Everything seemed profound, as if it's existence (or lack there-of) was starting to make itself known to my eyes. By the time we pulled into the driveway of the theater, I was plainly aware that this particular experience would be one I wouldn't soon forget.
This "theater" is way out in farm land. The midwest is full of cornfields, so why not build a drive-in in the middle of one? It had 3 or 4 separate screens, and as we pulled in we bought our tickets and were directed by workers to our parking space at the Dragonheart screen. The place was busy with people and full of cars. We had about a half hour before the movie started, so we got out to stretch our legs and take a walk around. My friends: Jeremy, Chad and Eric; were all talking about how intense the trip was already feeling. It was probably nearing an hour and a half since we dosed, and the come-up was building with increasing speed and intensity now. I remember looking up at the blank white screen in front of my car and seeing it "shift" very quickly up into the now star-filled sky. "Holy shit!" I remember saying to Jeremy. When I looked at him he looked extremely insecure, and Chad and Eric had already started to walk up to the concession stand, giggling at the ground.
We follow slowly behind them, weaving our way through the rows of cars and walking what seemed to be a long, long way up to the concession booth. It was a small building, about half the size of a gas station that sold popcorn and soda and had a set of restrooms on the side. The place was lit up with fluorescent lighting, all buzzing and sometimes flashing. In that light I looked down at the rocks I was walking on, and it looked exactly as if I was standing in a small creek bed.. I could see every last pebble and strand of grass on the ground, but it was if water was flowing over it all, about 3" deep and swirling around my feet. The transformation had taken place, and my mind was totally in lsd-land. The 3 guys who were with me were all getting off really hard too, and we felt that since we had walked up to this concession stand that we HAD to buy some soda and popcorn. Not that any of us were hungry or thirsty, but it felt as if that was what we were meant to do. We were, after all, at going to be watching a movie, and the soda and popcorn seemed to become a mission that MUST be accomplished. I payed for everyones, afraid that one of them may give away our little secret. Talking to the girls at that counter was rough, and the lighting was really giving me a bad vibe. We all grabbed our sodas and headed back to my car.
If you've been in a '95 Mustang, you'll know that it's not a very big car. At all. Especially the back seat. But the four of us were comfortable, and getting back into the car seemed like entering a familiar but entirely different world. We all piled in, and the movie was just starting on the screen. There was a metal speaker attached to a poll at our parking space that you could either hang on your window or pull all the way into your car to hear the movie. It was a crappy little speaker that sounded no better than a mono AM radio, but it was loud, bright and tinny sounding. I don't know anything about what was happening in the movie.. I couldn't understand anything that was coming out of that little speaker, and it gave me an incredibly bad vibe. Looking through my windshield at an animated, talking dragon on a screen in the sky, I could hear all the speakers out in the lot echo around me. Fighting sounds, swords clashing and clinging, strange voices. Too much for me to handle. I look around at the guys in my car and they looked floored. Only the guy in the front seat was paying any attention to the movie, and the two in the back had the little speaker and were swinging it back and forth on its cord. I got out, as I started to feel like I couldn't breathe or be in that car anymore. Time to take a walk.
As I get out, Chad comes with me. We hadn't really talked to each other much on this trip, and we started just walking aimlessly through the lots. We kept walking by all the speakers, and when I looked across the field it looked as if they were organic now - growing everywhere out of the ground. Some were leaning, a few were knocked over, but it all looked strangely alive. Tracers were hard to see through. My hear was pumping and as I was talking to Chad, his entire body would "shift" nearly out of my view. Paranoia was starting to get at me, and I needed to go to the bathroom to put some water on my face. So the two of us head towards the concession stand, sticking out like a sore thumb in the middle of this field with it's incessant fluorescent lighting.
Sometimes while on a trip, I'd generally lose awareness of the public, and people around me in general who I didn't know or wasn't tripping with. They were there, but just there. Well as I'm nearing the bathroom door, 3 girls come out of the girls bathroom and start talking to me. They were asking my name, asking where I was from, what movie I was seeing, what am I doing, do I have any pot, just blah blah blah blah blah! I did NOT want to talk to them, and they were obviously hitting on Chad and I. I wanted nothing to do with them, but while I was in the bathroom the had been talking to Chad, and when I came out it seemed as though the wouldn't leave. "Well gotta go watch the movie! Nice meeting ya!" I said as we were walking away, but they just kept following us. At this point I remember I stopped talking 100%. I felt this huge burden of these 3 girls I didn't know following us back to my car. And we weren't even sure where my car was at this point, as the peak of our trip was coming on fast. But they kept following us and talking and talking and asking questions, and I just kept walking and FINALLY we came to my car.
Jeremy and Eric are sitting in the back seat, tripping balls. The speaker is on the ground next to the car. I look at the screen as I'm opening the dirvers door, and I see the dragon there, and hear noise all around me, and then the screen completely "smears" into the sky. It was as if it was stuck in my vision, smearing around with every movement of my eyeballs, and it took forever to leave my view. I remember just feeling "WOW" and getting in the car. As soon as we close the doors theres knocking on both mine and the passenger windows. Scares the SHIT out of all of us. It's those girls.. and they're talking to us and telling us to roll down the window. We do, and they demand we let them sit with us. I still was not talking, and had the absolute WORST vibe from these girls. They seemed at the time no more than an annoying fly buzzing in my face. Their faces were ugly to me, and I just wanted them to stop. But Chad opens the door and 2 of the climb in to the back seat and proceed to sit on the laps of Eric and Jeremy. Imagine their surprise! Chad gets back in and the last girl comes to my window wanting to sit on MY lap, but I wouldn't open my door. So she opts for Chads lap instead, and gets in and closes the damn door.
SEVEN PEOPLE IN A MUSTANG. Only thing going through my mind was "WHAT THE FUCK!?" Though it didn't last long. I hear Eric in the backseat say "Get the fuck off me you nasty bitch!" LOUD, right at the girl on his lap. The girls were displeased at this statement. Chad opened the door and pushed the girl on his lap out of the car, then the2 in the back storm out cussing and calling us assholes. It felt like a million pounds taken off my shoulders when those girls left. My friends were all mind-fucked by what had just taken place, and we were all in a state of confusion as we tried to figure out why there were just so many strange girls on top of us. I was in no state to drive, and I remember trying to concentrate on the movie on the screen - while listening to Phish now - and trying to break out of the spell the LSD currently had on my mind. By the time we left the theater it had to have been at least 4 or 5 hours, and we stayed parked in the same spot for 2 showings of Dragonheart. Neither showing made sense. I paid a lot of attention to the sky and the stars that night, and as we came off our peaks, my thoughts became rational again but the visuals stayed. I drove home fine, my senses felt acute again as time passed, and after driving home we spent the rest of the evening at Jeremy's coming down and enjoying our trips, laughing about the (what seemed profound) events that had taken place that evening.
Did I learn anything from this trip? Yes. Try not to get hit on by a mob of girls at a drive-in while tripping balls.
Also, buy a mini-van.
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