A Swiftly Tilting Planet

My out of focus picture of the moon.

Drive-in movies are akin to a history book for me. New Jersey operated the first drive-in movie in the United States but its personal history is of significance to me. Allow me to set the table because there came to be mouths to feed from this story.

I am on vacation with my children this week. It is one of the two weeks a year this divorcee gets to see his children in block time. We decided to go to the Delsea Drive-in in Vineland, New Jersey. It is the only operational drive-in movie theatre in the State of New Jersey. The double feature played the unlikely combination of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory then War of the Worlds. Drive-in movies and unlikely pairings appear to be a reoccuring theme in my life. I somehow pick my spots for drive-in movies.

The last time I went to a drive-in movie was a first date with my children's mom. We are divorced now and are as extinct as the drive-in speakers that clumsily hung in car windows. The drive-in movie had nothing to do with our demise. Instead, it represented the commencement of things to come. But, let this be a cautionary tale to anyone superstitious. Never see the horror movie Friday the 13th on a first date on a Friday the 13th day of the month! I can never escape this calendar irony when I revisit my first marriage. It is unprecedented irony super gluing my memory banks.

Behind the wheel of the parked car, I looked over at my youngest daughter and time seemed to catch up with me. Tossing the darkness aside, I galvanized the resemblance of her mother. It was the same naturally curly gorgeous head of hair and facial expressions that once filled the passenger seat when I was but a naive man looking for a wife.

Painful memories caused me to turn away from my daughter. I caught a glimpse of a full moon rising which shone a strange pumpkin color. A lot of things struck me as nostalgic. My mind teleported back to that legendary fright night of Friday the 13th. The return to the drive-in kept reminding me of my first date with the children's mother and the juxtaposed experience of our offspring at a drive-in movie for the first time. Time waits for nobody on this swiftly tilting planet.

A spidery dark cloud with tentacles moved left across the colorful moon. The sky soon swallowed the moon. The rain arrived a few minutes into War of the Worlds and it never relented. It comes as no surprise that even my picture of the moon turned out negative. The world moves too fast even when we try to slow it down.