Patchogue Sunrise All Weather Drive In

As a kid the 70’s, my parents couldn’t always get a baby-sitter or afford one so when driving through the ticket booth, they had me hide down on the back seat floor to save a couple of bucks. I remember the big metal speaker boxes hung on the window and the gravel, and they didn’t stop the film if it rained. They showed mostly new PG or R-rated movies so my parents went at night and relied on me falling asleep in the back. They’d keep an eye on me but I would occasionally wake-up right in time for something nasty like the sinking severed leg scene in Jaws. I was only 5, it looked real but I knew it was fake so it didn’t bother me. Jaws 2 was the one that gave me nightmares. I think the first flick we saw there was Zardoz and I woke-up for the giant floating head crashing down at the end. That was cool. In ‘77, I saw the poster for The Incredible Melting Man near the snack bar and I wanted to see it so bad but they said no. It was a safe place for families in the 60’s and 70’s but it got seedy and rowdy by the mid-80’s. My friends and I heard about a trail through the woods behind the screen to get in for free and discovered that it was a gay hook-up spot. We actually saw two naked dudes prancing through the woods in the dark carrying a small foam mattress and giggling. These things you don’t forget. Not long before it closed, we heard about a gang-brawl there or something like that and people stopped going. That’s what always seems to eventually happen. You couldn’t have a big open-field drive-in like that today, especially in Patchogue. They occasionally do pop-up screen movie nights in the parking lot behind the church but they have to hire security.

The townhouses have been open for sometime. Called the Vineyard.

Opened with “The sons of Katie Elder”. Indoor screen(1 screen, 750 seats).