As far as part time jobs go for teenagers growing up in the NSW Southern Tablelands regional city of Goulburn, a young Adam Skelly realised he had the pick of the crop.
For a couple of years during the late 1980s, he manned the gates, sold tickets and helped out in the kiosk of the beloved Goulburn Village Drive-in located in Lansdowne Street.
With customers paying per patron rather than per car, Adam remembers having to check inside car boots and even under suspicious looking blankets across the back seat for stowaways.
Many Goulburnites may have a guilty conscience reading this, but Adam said those caught were dealt with firmly but politely.
"Every now and then we'd do a spot check," Adam said. "Sometimes we would find three or four people crammed into the boot. They would be very embarrassed, but we never kicked anyone out. We just asked that they pay for the extras."
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Adam's father also worked at the drive-in for many years, and his best friend's mum, Judy Staines, was in charge of the kiosk there.
"Me and two mates from Mary Street got jobs there. We ran the front gate and ticket box and checked for extra passengers, which we found on a fairly regular basis."
Adam said he will never forget the day Crocodile Dundee opened.
"Cars were lined up back through Cathcart Street, Knox Street, Robinson Street, and Lansdowne Street. We were turning cars away every night and that went on for weeks," he said.
He also remembers Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile being popular movies.
"Back in those days we didn't have the sound going through the radio. You had to wind down the window to get a cast iron speaker from a pole there."
The Drive-in was prepared for the Goulburn winters.
"There was also a little electric heater hooked on to the pole," Adam said.
The owner was a Kiwi who taught Adam and his mates to load the film onto the projectors, which was a big responsibility.
The drive-in was very family friendly, and was even equipped with a playground at the front for the smaller children.
"When the feature was about to start a film would play with an announcement saying 'the movie is about to start, please return to your car'," Adam said.
Before the movie and during interval people would rush to the kiosk, where pies, hot dogs, chips and Mrs Staines' famous hand made choc-top icecreams were crowd favourites. Adam and his mates would sometimes help her on the weekend, making and wrapping the icecreams.
Going to the drive-in was often a social event, with families or friends parking side by side. I asked Adam, I thought delicately, if the drive-in was also a "place of romance"?
"My father would be able to tell you some stories about that," he laughed, adding that in the early days, people were allowed to take alcohol in.
"People would arrive in utes or panel vans and reverse their cars in. They'd lift the tail gate up and lie there, watching the movie like that."
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By the late '80s, the drive-in's popularity was beginning to wane as VHS machines became more popular. Adam said while the crowds were beginning to dwindle, the hardworking teen, who also held part time jobs at Goulburn Woolworths and the local newsagent, treasures his memories of the drive-in.
"It was a pretty special time," he said. "We were lucky growing up, we had the drive-in, a bowling alley, the cinema, a roller skating rink and a pinball arcade."
In some cities, drive-ins are enjoying a resurgence right now. This is due partly to the social distancing rules being imposed on cinemas, but also to good old fashioned nostalgia.
Another former Goulburn local, Darren Parlett, wrote on the website cinema treasures about his fond memories of the Goulburn Village Drive-In.
"This drive-in opened 21st December 1972. This was the place to be on a Saturday night because there was very little to do in our inland city of Goulburn, and it did show first run movies and hosted many dusk to dawn events as well.
"Also I had the chance from 1981 to 1983 helping out in the projection booth, and that was a blast for any mad movie lover!
"The best Box office films were "Star Wars", "Crocodile Dundee", "Mad Max" and a double bill of "The Exorcist" plus "Friday the 13th" really packed out the old Goulburn Drive-In."
Darren writes that the last film he saw at the Drive-In was "Down and Out in Beverley Hills".
