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June 9, 2020
The View From Dry Creek Hill
By Charles Prokop
www.DryCreekHill.com
There’s one feature of the new normal that I wish had been around in my really, really old normal—some drive-in movies are reopening because they provide social distancing. I needed that argument way back when.
I had a girlfriend whose mother had a few hard and fast rules about her daughter’s dates. One of those rules was “absolutely no drive-in movies.” I never bothered to try to win a debate with my girlfriend’s mother because I knew it was futile. I knew how that argument would go. If I wanted to keep dating her daughter, I should shut up and forget drive-in movie dates.
I was afraid the rule was just about me, but I’ve come to learn from my wife that this was not an uncommon rule for parents with daughters. I guess we should give credit where credit is due and recognize these parents as early adopters of social distancing requirements.
But history has a nasty habit of coming full circle. It seems that healthy social distancing and drive-in movies go together these days. It’s too late to help me now, but I can just imagine sitting on the sofa in my girlfriend’s living room. I would passionately explain to her mother how the social distance of the drive-in would not only make for a pleasant evening, it would be good for our health!
On second thought, I think I know how that argument would go. I’d have a date at the drive-in movie, alone in my car. My girlfriend and her mother would be a healthy social distance away in their car. If I was lucky.
I had a girlfriend whose mother had a few hard and fast rules about her daughter’s dates. One of those rules was “absolutely no drive-in movies.” I never bothered to try to win a debate with my girlfriend’s mother because I knew it was futile. I knew how that argument would go. If I wanted to keep dating her daughter, I should shut up and forget drive-in movie dates.
I was afraid the rule was just about me, but I’ve come to learn from my wife that this was not an uncommon rule for parents with daughters. I guess we should give credit where credit is due and recognize these parents as early adopters of social distancing requirements.
But history has a nasty habit of coming full circle. It seems that healthy social distancing and drive-in movies go together these days. It’s too late to help me now, but I can just imagine sitting on the sofa in my girlfriend’s living room. I would passionately explain to her mother how the social distance of the drive-in would not only make for a pleasant evening, it would be good for our health!
On second thought, I think I know how that argument would go. I’d have a date at the drive-in movie, alone in my car. My girlfriend and her mother would be a healthy social distance away in their car. If I was lucky.