Jessica Leo-Kelton: Don’t let the Gepps Cross Mainline Drive-In cinema become just a memory
THE Gepps Cross drive-in is an Adelaide icon which must survive its latest setback, writes Jessica Leo-Kelton. WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE DRIVE-IN MEMORIES?
- Suspicious fire causes $400,000 damage at Gepps Cross drive-in
- Gallery: Old pics of Adelaide’s once-thriving drive-in movie theatres
THE year was 1994, the movie Muriel’s Wedding. And I remember it like it was yesterday.
I managed to stay awake for Toni Collette’s memorable turn as the unremarkable Muriel but then clambered over the back seat, into a pile of pillows and blankets to sleep it out for the more adult movie which headlined the Mainline Drive-In’s triple header that night.
Despite my crystal-clear childhood memory of my drive-in debut it would be many years before I would again find myself craning up at the big screen, this time adorned in my best 80s garb for some fundraiser which required us all to dress as outlandishly as possibly in the era’s finest and head along to the Gepps Cross site for a screening. I can’t even remember what the movie was. But I remember the drive-in.
Since then, my husband and I have sporadically made visits to the Mainline, often entertaining the idea before then deciding against it when the movies on offer didn’t suit our preferences. However, we always knew it was there and even just this weekend gone as we returned along Main North Rd from a country trip, I remarked that we must go to the drive-in again soon sometime — maybe this time we’d even smuggle in the dogs.
So, like many South Aussies, when I woke this morning to learn a fire had broken out at Adelaide’s last remaining drive-in, I felt that sad pang of nostalgia and immediate fear that I will never again have the opportunity to roll on up, recline my seat and have the luxury of being able to do whatever I liked within the confines of my Suzuki Vitara’s four doors.
There’s a lesson in this for all of us — often those little things which bring us joy in our neighbourhoods or cities, are those which we take for granted.
The park around the corner which you only intermittently used before a new development came in and razed the space. Or the coffee shop just down the street which was your quick caffeine fix before a big box supermarket moved in.
There is admittedly a special kind of nostalgia attached to a drive-in — especially the Mainline as it is our last — and many would have memories far more prolific than mine (legend has it that a colleague not here today to verify the story was even conceived at the very site). But what a shame it would be if the next generation had no reference point for a cultural site as steeped in old-school movie magic.
So now we know the Mainline Drive-In will survive this spot fire, make sure you round up the family and make a date with the great big screen in the sky and soon — who knows what memories you might make.
Jessica Leo-Kelton is Messenger News editor-in-chief