NBC7’s Dana Williams is in Santee where some people are sad to see the drive-in go.
It's an "if you know, you know" type of thing.
The Santee Drive-In Movie Theatre closed on New Year's Eve, and many San Diego County residents who are familiar with it aren’t ready to see it go.
“It’s really sad it's closing,” Suzanne Cook, who grew up in San Diego, said. “It’s kind of like the end of an era.”
The closure was announced through social media on Wednesday, Dec. 6. The statement read, in part, “Sadly, due to the loss of customers, higher costs of business, and competition with streaming services, we can no longer afford to stay open.”
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Hundreds of accounts commented on both the Instagram and Facebook posts with messages like, “Thank you for years and years of memories,” and, “So sad to see this place go.”
The family-owned drive-in has been a staple of the Santee community since 1958. Susan Boyd, who is now owner of the drive-in, sent a statement to NBC 7 in reaction to all of the sentimental responses from community members that read, “We would love to thank the community for their support and understanding.”
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The drive-in has been passed down for generations and is a slice of nostalgia for those who visit.
“We’ve got 10 grandkids and four kids, so we take two or three cars and just set out chairs and sit among the cars,” Phil Stieglitz said. “It was always good family bonding moments, just making memories.”
Stieglitz guessed he and his wife, Barbie, had taken their kids or grandkids to the Santee drive-in close to 20 times.
“I wish they’d keep it going,” Stieglitz added, as he reminisced on getting popcorn and soda with the grandkids during their most recent visit to see “Trolls.”
The drive-in offeeds movies every night of the year on two screens. According to the website, they are able to accommodate more than 1,000 cars at a time on the 13-acre property.
“I grew up out here in Santee, lived out here up until I was about high school age and we would go there all the time,” Ryan Urie said. “It was definitely a core memory."
Urie would go with his parents and said he has been “countless times.”
“It’s something that I definitely want to take my kids to,” he said. “Mine are a little bit of a younger age, but I want to take them before it shuts down just to have that experience with them.”
For Cook, her memories at the drive-in were from the early 80s when she was in high school and would meet all of her friends for showings.
“A lot of people nowadays that are growing up, they've probably never even experienced a drive-in because there are not very many left,” she said. “It’s less confining, you know, then being in the inside theater and it’s kind of fun sitting in the back of a truck, bring your own snacks, you know, and it's really sad that it’s closing down.”
