Today, another look at an episode in my forthcoming book The Iron Lung Mystery, which is Number 6 in my Double V Mysteries series.
Above we have a shot of the entrance to the Neponset Drive-in movie theater in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Elmer and Juliet move away from the scene of the crime for an evening to take a young child for her first experience at a drive-in movie. (And, as with so many events in this series, it's also Elmer's first experience. Having lived a hardscrabble boyhood during the Great Depression, and then spending several years as a young adult in prison, Elmer's missed out on a lot. Juliet is only too happy to be his guide.)
Also along for the ride this evening is the attorney who hired the duo to ferret out the mystery in this case, and he happens to be Elmer's old friend from boyhood days. We've got one foot in the past and one foot in the unsettling present in this novel -- and the future? Well, we know what lay ahead in pop culture in the 1950s, but we have to let Elmer and Juliet see for themselves and cope as best they can. But the little girl enjoying the cartoon in the front seat (back in the day you got two movies and a couple cartoons for your ticket)? Her future is in Juliet's and Elmer's hands.
The Neponset Drive-in was on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester, right along the Neponset River on the site of a former dump. It opened in September 1950 and was popular for years, just about a full year before our characters' visit there in August 1951, but as with many drive-ins in the colder climates, fell out of use and in disrepair by the 1970s and 1980s. It is long since gone, now the site of Pope John Paul II Park.
Perhaps you have happy memories of going to the drive-in in younger days. I'd love to hear them.
More on The Iron Lung Mystery in weeks to come, and I'll let you know when you can pre-order.
The photo above is from the Dorchester history website: Dorchester Atheneum 2
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