Do you know that there is still an operating outdoor drive-in movie nearby and still prospering?
On Saturdays it is open for a flea market, but every night it shows a movie, and this week it is showing the latest Spiderman, “No Way Home,” along with old favorites. Go to www.raleighroaddrivein.com for a full listing along with how to order food in advance and other tips.
It has a long history. On July 15, 1949, the Raleigh Road Outdoor Theatre south of Henderson began showing its first movie, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” making it the oldest drive-in movie theatre still operating in North Carolina.
Mark and Jennifer Frank bought the theatre in December 2011 and have made a few changes since then. They upgraded to 4K digital projection in 2014 and expanded the dinner menu to include cheese steak sandwiches, fresh-cut French fries and funnel cake fries.
These days the movie sound is heard on FM radio. “Most bring a portable FM radio, blankets and folding chairs to sit outside, in the back of their SUV or in the bed of their truck,” Mark Frank said.
Mark and Jennifer say it is a labor of love and they enjoy watching people experience the way movies have been seen for generations. “It is all about the memories” one set of grandparents said to Mark during a busy night. Another older couple brought the whole family to the drive-in and proceeded to show their kids and grandkids where they parked for “Rocky” starring Sylvester Stallone back in 1977.
The theatre is located about 20-25 minutes north of Wake Forest at 3336 Raleigh Road.
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Looking up something else in the March 14, 2018 edition of The Wake Forest Gazette, I chanced on the following:
*Preliminary work by the contractor, Fred Smith Company, began March 5 on the Stadium Drive Complete Street project. The town board approved the $6,789,876 contract with the Fred Smith Company in December. Utilities have been moved. The project should be complete in the fall of 2019.
The project includes resurfacing North Avenue. There will be a roundabout at the intersection of Stadium, North Avenue and Wingate Street. A center turn lane will be added to Stadium along with turn lanes at intersections and driveways and bump-outs for buses. From Glencoe Drive to the Richland Creek bridge there will be a 10-foot multi-use path on the south and a 5-foot sidewalk on the north. From the bridge to Wingate Street there will be sidewalks on both sides.
*Ligon Mill Road Operational Improvements is also listed as being in construction but Director of Engineering Eric Keravuori said this week he needs to update the website and “. . . just been busy with getting the bid package together. We hope to put it out for bid this spring. Duke/Progress is still relocating some utilities.”
The project for the section of Ligon Mill Road west from South Main Street to a new section built for an apartment project will provide a center turn lane and turn lanes for driveways and entrances. Acquiring the right-of-way from several owners has been one reason the project has appeared to be stalled at times.
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It’s b-a-a-a-ck! “Scary Santa” has turned up again in our daughter’s Facebook page. But she also wrote: “Full disclosure: This Santa isn’t really scary. I actually love it dearly and that’s why I display it at Christmas every year.”
But – for several years she and a brother insisted that the Santa scared them. And it does have a devilish slant to his eyes.
It is about 14 inches tall with a Santa hat and Santa clothing very tight on his round little belly and white plastic boots. We think it originated back in the 1960s or so and my mother bought it as part of the decorations for a first-grade classroom. Somehow, maybe when she came down here from Mexico, New York for Christmas after she retired from teaching, it came to our house and stayed.
We know it was here in the 1970s when the children were young because we used it to track ashes from the fireplace into the living room – a trick they immediately discovered and scorned. It was here for years and then disappeared to show up at our daughter’s house, where it now resides.
It’s not every family who has a somewhat bedraggled stuffed Santa as its favorite ornament.
Hope you hang your favorite ornament on a tree and have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
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