Sunset falls on a historic season for drive-in

NEW YORK

Julia Wiggin was still shivering after running out to hang up the weekend’s marquee — “Ghostbusters,” “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” — at her Northfield Drive-in near Hinsdale, New Hampshire.

“It’s cold,” Wiggin said on a bitter, wet morning. “It’s definitely time we closed.”

After a historic season, winter is coming at the drive-in. Summer and early fall have seen their simple, oldfashioned lots transformed into a surprisingly elastic omnibus of pandemic-era gathering. It has hosted concerts and comedy shows, business conferences and Sunday services, graduations and weddings.

Dodger fans watched their team win the World Series from a drive-in in their stadium’s parking lot. Redcarpet premieres that would normally consume Lincoln Center uprooted to drive-ins. (At one, Bill Murray joked that he’d visit every car.) Even the campaign trail joined the trend, leading to the first ever presidential race that included a mini-referendum on the drive-in. “You know, people in cars. I don’t get it,” said Donald Trump after Joe Biden’s Atlanta drive-in rally.

Yet the drive-in has undeniably saved a small slice of 2020, offering socially-distanced salvation at a time when most large gatherings are off the table because of the pandemic. But, well, it’s starting to get pretty cold — at least in much of the country.