What: Catch a flick.
Where: Fun-Lan Drive-In, 2302 Hillsborough Ave, Tampa
Must-Do? Says Who? People who grew up in the 50s.
Casualties: $6 a person.
Keyword: Sketchy.
Fun-Lan is a funny place, at least on a rainy Tuesday evening. We went to catch the 8:45 Simpsons Movie, which didn't actually begin until approximately 9:04. This meant that there was a 19 minute window during which we sat in our car, parked askew in a dark, nearly deserted flea market lot, listening to silence on 89.3 FM, staring at a blank movie screen. A thunderstorm stirred, brewed, and then dumped copious amounts of rain on us. We wondered if it was worth staying for the movie, and if it would be possible to convince the ticket-taker to return our $12. I considered driving up to him and feigning a disconcerting hissy fit until he refunded the moneys, but then the movie came on.
We watched the first bit of the movie through our windshield wipers, with bolts of litghtning cracking all around the screen. That was cool, although it might have been more appropriate were we watching a thriller rather than a cartoon. But eventually the rain abated, as it always seems to do, and we enjoyed the rest of the film under a relatively clear night sky.
This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2007.