Welcome to Three Word Wednesday. Each week, I will post three (or more) words. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write something using all of those words. It can be a few lines, a story, a poem, anything.
Leave a comment if you participate. Many fun and interesting people might visit your blog.
This week's words are:
Closing
Headlights
Virtual
I would have been first in line for tickets to the last show ever at the Twilight Drive-In Theater, had there been a line. Ten minutes before the movie was scheduled to begin, and the lot looked more like the movie had been over for ten minutes.
Though I suppose it didn't have any direct effect on me one way or the other, I found myself disappointed that more people hadn't come. Did people not care that the Twilight was closing? Didn't anyone realize what this place had meant to me and thousands of others?
Then I felt guilty. I hadn't been to a movie here in fifteen years. I was as much to blame for its closing as anyone. The Twilight never managed to get any current movies, or lately even many decent ones. But there was a time when that didn't matter. Coming to the drive-in was more about the atmosphere, being free from the folks, socializing and soaking up the evening air. The movie itself was almost superfluous.
In its heyday, the Twilight Drive-In was the place to be on weekends. It was a familiar and expected sight back then to see cars lined up in a long train of headlights, stretching from the ticket booth back well out onto the road. The Twilight was also known for having the best burgers in all of Cook County. The whole concession stand was great. It was like eating at the fair, except year round.
During my late teens, it was a virtual certainty you would find me there every Saturday night. At the drive-in, that is. There were first dates, hoping the movie would last just a little longer, affording me a few more minutes to work up a bit more courage to kiss her. There were not first dates, not noticing the movie was over, being the last car to leave, affording me just a few more minutes to kiss her.
I wasn't sure what I missed most about those days, I just knew I missed them. Those days when sneaking thru the gate in the trunk of a car was about the worst thing I or any of my friends ever did. The Twilight represented my life then. And soon it would be torn down. I felt like I was losing a friend, and I was sad that so few people had shown up for the funeral.
I was halfway thru my first Twilight burger when the screen came on, and I realized I had no idea what movie was showing. Not that it mattered.
"Making our love with the moon above at the drive-in picture show. It was burgers and fries and cherry pies in a world we used to know..."
This is my first time participating. I found you through Gautami.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, y'all.
ReplyDeleteI loved this week's words! This one was fun, but I could not come up with a title, suggestions appreciated. Untitled
Will try to read y'all's on the road.
Good morning Bone and my fellows Boners. That didn't sound right.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, a little "Holiday Cheer" for all the good boys and girls.
Rose
xo
I like that! Welcome square1!
ReplyDeleteThanks Bone. These words made me written to short verse after a very long time.
unfinished chapter
I posted the 13th chapter of Colliding Worlds
ReplyDeleteHint: Bone--Christmas falls on a Tuesday and New Years Day is on a Wednesday. It's a good week to chill out
I might need to be in a institution if my apartment's still being renovated
courting destiny
Slightly nightmarish...
ReplyDeleteVideo Games All Night
*I meant return not written.
ReplyDeleteIt's early Thursday here on my side of the world! Hope all of you are having a great week!
ReplyDeleteMy post is up.
I was asked to post a direct link, so here it is.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Another fun one. And what is up with all of these sneaking around stories. *grin*
ReplyDeleteLighten Up
Hope your hump day is going well, folks.
Write From Karen
writefromkaren.com
My first entry to 3WW
ReplyDeletehttp://anura.blogspot.com/2007/12/peaceful-end.html
Here is my 3ww for this week, thanks for the challenge
ReplyDeletehttp://a-mus-ing.blogspot.com/2007/12/silent-nights.html
Christy
No silly word games today, just biography! Gloom
ReplyDeleteDo this all the time...,these words brought it all back. thanks Bone.
ReplyDeleteHomecoming
Virtual?!?! Virtual?????? *GLARES* Uff da!!!!
ReplyDeleteChapter 23
I'll be around to read everyone's later!
(And um don't even think of it: I want to finish this story in 2007!)
good wednesday all... here's my contribution....
ReplyDelete"sweet 13"
Here's mine...
ReplyDeleteHaiku and Fractal
It's been a little while (when did life get so hectic) but here I am with a little piece:
ReplyDeletehttp://readingtoknow.blogspot.com/2007/12/3-word-wednesday.html
Here's my entry
ReplyDeleteChoices
I'm a People Person
ReplyDeleteI would have been sooner with my entry "Freedom pt2" but, my internet connection was down. I will be around later today or tomorrow to comment. Have a nice day everyone.
ReplyDeleteHey y'all. Here's my post for this week. It's flash fiction. There's one bad word at the end. Reader beware.
ReplyDeleteVoice Mail
Here's mine:
ReplyDeleteMine is here.
ReplyDeleteI also did one with all the words I missed while I was in the hospital. here.
In closing, I would like to say that the virtual headlights in Simpson's Road Rage game (playstation) don't exist, but who cares? It's the funnest thing this side of the Mississippi!
ReplyDeleteGood words, Bone. Always a challenge:
ReplyDeleteTHE AGREEMENTS WE MAKE
I wrote...:) we will see if the pressure of the last part of the semester is good for my writing skills or not...:) I have to say virtual was a little hard to fit in but its there!
ReplyDeleteI'm shamefully, of course, but I actually posted it last Thursday!
ReplyDeleteI promise to do this week's, too. Eventually . . .
Come explore the Fair
ReplyDeleteanother week of excellent choice words...as always challenging and fun
ReplyDeleteheadlights
Thank you all for participating this week. Sorry I was so late posting. I've not had much time to write this week.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading what you all came up with.
If your goal was to make a girl cry on a Friday night, you hit it.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Even knowing it's fiction, this post manages to hit a chord. One that hits at the heart of small town America. And I know STA.
We're losing it, one small store by one small drive-in. Is that progress? Some people might say so, but I'm never 100% convinced. Even though as a kid I would have been. How times changes us I guess.
OK Bone, it's simply beautiful
ReplyDeleteClassically written and timeless
For some reason this was my favorite part
There were not first dates, not noticing the movie was over, being the last car to leave, affording me just a few more minutes to kiss her
I think because while the whole post is wonderfully written this added something more personal
It's true. We lament change yet when was the last time anybody was at a drive-in?
This is so you:
Did people not care that the Twilight was closing? Didn't anyone realize what this place had meant to me and thousands of others?
With guilt as the beginning of the next paragraph
Relateable story, I like it! Often I'll think highly of smething but in actual fact it's not all that special...but just the memory boosts its value : )
ReplyDeleteHey Guys,
ReplyDeleteI am participating for the first time here, and I really like the concept and the set of 3 words given for this week.
http://skely.blogspot.com/2007/12/kill-him.html
Cheers,
Skely
Hey Guys,
ReplyDeleteI am participating for the first time here, and I really like the concept and the set of 3 words given for this week.
http://skely.blogspot.com/2007/12/kill-him.html
Cheers,
Skely
"I felt like I was losing a friend, and I was sad that so few people had shown up for the funeral."
ReplyDeleteI agree with tc....Do you remember the one in R.C.? there were others....
trying to turn the dial to get the sound to come in just right....
Yeah, Tag, I thought of the one in RC and I was also just thinking of the old theatre in V. Or any of the shops in LF that have had to close down because they couldn't keep a business that would survive the competition of Wal-Mart 18 miles away.
ReplyDelete:(
Hi Bone. I have been reading your blog for a long long time but never had the nerve to comment before
ReplyDeleteYou talk about the Twilight the way I talk about my husband. I just realized that. He's always been there. We started dating when I was 14 and he was 19 and in college and I thought he was so sophisticated and bright. That was 22 years ago. Now I think he's kinda boring and not as bright as the guys I go to school with.
He makes a good living and is a good father. Now that the kids are getting older, he bores them also
He hasn't been home the last couple of nights and isn't answering his cell.
You write so well I feel like I should be reading you in a paper or magazine. And you seem so nice I think I can tell you all this.
He says I tell strangers everything and don't tell him jack but I've been reading you for years. i feel like I know you.
I guess I should try to find out his interests and stuff though he only seems to like watching football and I hate it
Here's mine, finally! I hate this busy time of year and can't wait for December 26th!
ReplyDeletehere
This story was mesmerizing from the first line. I could feel the emotion in it from start to finish. I had to read it three times and then continue checking your tags to make sure it was fiction; I just couldn't believe anything so incredible could be made up from thin air.
ReplyDeleteI also had to search several times for the three words. Not really a surprise, since I always do with your writings. You work the words in so easily that they blend seamlessly with the rest of the story.
Before this, I had a longing to visit a drive-in - since I never have - but that longing is now an ache. I'll have to google and see if there are any left in my area.
~Lillith-Tenille
Blast it, Bone, you are so believeable. There were still a few driveins in WA the 3 years we were there, but we never remembered to try them out... maybe that's what's missing. Now I'm depressed we didn't go while we were there. Thanks a lot.
ReplyDelete(Computer crashed, only getting a few minutes on the net once in a while. Will read everyone else's after the 21st, while we're dog sitting.)
I have never been to a drive-in ever!...Bet I am missing quite a bit, it was a lovely read. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed these words too. Thanks for the continued prompts, even with everything difficult that is happening in your life. Here's my submission:
ReplyDeleteTEXT GOES HERE
Sigh Late to the dance...again.
ReplyDeleteMy contribution for 3WW.
I was still little when the last of the drive-ins were going out. I got to catch one or two movies in one before then though and I loved the whole concept. It doesn't take much to excite a kid, but when there's soemthing as grandiose as a drive-in, it's awe inspiring.
ReplyDeleteWe're fortunate here. Two towns over a retired couple built a drive in theater called the Montana. My husband and i were only able to go once, but I really enjoyed it. I hope we can go again some time.
In India, there exists no such thing as driving-in theatres.
ReplyDeleteMust be fun to have those, I suppose.