Speaking of drive-ins, they were cheap entertainment. You could pack a carload in and pay one price. My parents had a station wagon and that was a thing to do on a Friday or Saturday night. The local drive-in would play double features-first a kiddie movie, and then a serious adult movie. Kids were supposed to fall asleep after the kiddie movie. That didn’t always happen. I remember watching Patton from the back seat of the station wagon, when my parents thought I was asleep.

Alternately, we went to the dirt track races over at the Antioch (CA) Speedway on Saturday nights. It was another one of those “stuff many people into a car for one price” things. This was back when Nascar was still a very regional, very Southern thing.

My parents did the best they could with the money and time they had to give us a decent childhood.