Restoring these classic drive-in speakers has been a fun little project for me. It’s kept me going through my recent surgeries, and it’s kept me going on days when I could use a little “me” time.
It’s also allowed me to revisit my past. And by “past,” I’m talking about the memories I had with my sainted grandmother, known to me as my Grandma Betty. I would spend the summers with Grandma Betty both in an effort to spend time with her, and also to get as far away from my toxic parents as possible.
On the weekends, if I was a good boy all week, Grandma Betty would take me to one of the Boston fun places – which, for me, either was the Museum of Science, the New England Aquarium, the Larz Anderson car museum, or the Neponset Drive-In.
Now the Neponset Drive-In wasn’t for movies, mind you. It was for their flea market, which was held weekday afternoons. Grandma Betty and I would drive from West Roxbury to Dorchester, site of the Neponset Drive-In.
And it was there that I learned the fine art of “haggle.” Well, I learned it too quickly. She taught me that if something at a flea market was listed for $10, try to ask if they can buy it for $8. Negotiate. Haggle. This worked well until she found out that I bought a Hot Wheels toy that was listed as 10 cents for 5 cents because I “haggled” the price.
Yeah, I learned the skill too quickly.
Anyways, the Neponset Drive-In had a big sign on its street-facing side of its movie screen. Here’s some pictures of it.
And here’s what it looked like at night.
That is so cool.
Apparently the Neponset was built in 1950, and here’s an article from Boxoffice Magazine describing the theater and its cost and opening nights.
In fact, when I worked on my drive-in speaker artwork When The Second Feature Starts, some of the tickets used in the wallpaper behind the speakers included tickets from the old Neponset Drive-In.
Sadly, not everything survives our childhood, and the Neponset Drive-In closed in the 1980’s. The land – and the neighboring landfill that may or may not have contained the remains of a few criminals – was later revitalized and converted into Pope John Paul II Park, which still exists today.
You know … maybe one of these days I’ll find one of the old Neponset Drive-In speakers and restore it. That would be fun.
Barring that … maybe I’ll create a drive-in speaker that pays tribute to that old flea market / drive-in locale.
I think that would also be fun.
Chuck The Writer 
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