Closed for the season" has taken on a whole new meaning at the Hi-Lite 30 Drive-In Theater.

An Aurora staple for six decades, the theater usually opens for business this time of year and flourishes by Memorial Day weekend. But the popular outdoor venue currently sits idle, with its fate ultimately lying in the city's hands.

For longtime moviegoers, whose memories are those of rave reviews, the empty lot gets two thumbs down.

"We're heartbroken," said Cindy Ayers, a Downers Grove resident who patronized the drive-in with her husband and two children. "The kids were just crushed. (The theater) is about building tradition and family memories. It reminded me of when we went as kids."

Rose Fromm and her family often made the half-hour drive from Channahon.

Even though Frank Molnar sold the Shoreline All Suites Inn/Cabana Colony Cottages last year, he doesn't plan to close the doors anytime soon.

In fact, Molnar said he expects to continue operations and accepting reservations for another year or two. The property will even be featured in the first ad of the 2006-07 visitor's guide printed by the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

That all bodes well for his guests, many of whom return year after year.

But many other repeat visitors have had to find other places to stay as the number of "mom-and-pop" motels declines. Since July 1, 2004, the area has lost a total of 1,541 hotel rooms among its small properties, those with fewer than 75 rooms. Shoreline will eventually join them as it was bought by JMC Communities, a St. Petersburg condominium developer.

La Puente resident Salvador Gomez remembers seeing his first drive-in movie, "The Jungle Book," as a child. "My parents would take us to drive-ins all the time," Gomez, 44, said. "It was great because you get to go in your pajamas and fall asleep in the car."

Sitting at the snack bar at the Vineland Drive-In theater on Monday afternoon with his own son, Gomez remembered watching the flicker of the projector on the big screen inside his parents' car, or taking dates there as a teenager.

"It was just like `American Graffiti' for us," he said.

But as the years passed, and multi-multiplexes sprouted, drive-in theaters started to fold.

Now, Vineland, at 443 N. Vineland Ave. in Industry, is the only drive-in left in Los Angeles County.

"The residents of the great Middle West have a diet composed of bread in one of its many forms, meat and vegetables. In that territory adjacent to the seaboard the sandwich will never become as popular as fish as a principal item of diet. However, in wheat, meat and vegetable country the hamburger can never be displaced."

--Walter Anderson

Although several states, including Kansas, lay claim to creating the first American hamburger as we know it today, a Wichitan is credited for the iconic hamburger bun.

According to Linda Stradley of the Web site "What's Cooking America," when

Wichitan Walt Anderson co-founded White Castle in 1916, he not only developed the bun but also went on to create the company that became America's oldest hamburger chain.

An old friend from Pennsylvania retired to Florida, but never told me about it.

My friend toiled for many decades in the workaday precincts of the one-time hard-coal mining town of Wilkes-Barre, in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Then after 44 years of putting up with freezing winters, my friend packed up and moved to the sunny, sultry climes of South Beach in Miami.

My friend found a nice spot a couple of blocks from the beach where sun-bronzed models skip by in skimpy clothes. Lonely nights gave way to dusk-to-dawn parties. Not a bad life for a person.

But my friend isn't a person. It's a building.

Specifically, a shiny straight-out-of-the-1940s diner.

Scarborough,ME

John Tevanian of Naples is a lifelong devotee to the Bridgton Drive-In.

During childhood, he served popcorn and helped the family business by picking up trash. In his teens, he ushered cars into place and ran the projectors every night each summer. In his 20s, which coincided with a nation-wide downturn in the drive-in movie industry, he went off to Orono to earn a bachelor’s degree in finance, always with the idea that the business would not be there when he returned. Now, in his late 30s, and after 30 years of single-focused devotion to the world of drive-ins, Tevanian is riding high with the resurgence in the outdoor theaters' popularity.

“In the 70s, things were great. Star Wars, Young Frankenstein – we played them for years in a row. But, in the 80s, we went dead,” Tevanian explained. “When I went off to college, I thought it wouldn’t be here for me when I got back. But in 1989, after Batman came out, the whole industry started picking up again. In 1993, it kicked up even more and here we in 2006 and we’ve got two screens and celebrating the 50th anniversary. It’s been a good time.”

This year is a big year for the Bridgton Drive-In. It marks the 50th summer season since the sights and sounds of Hollywood first lit up the town’s skyline. Though the Tevanians didn’t buy the complex until 1971, the family has deep appreciation of the history of drive-ins and want to celebrate nonetheless.

It wasn't just the Friday flounder special that lured loyal customers to the roomy booths and the shiny blue vinyl-topped stools along the counter.

The regulars at the Gateway Diner gathered often to chew on gossip, along with the french fries, and uphold longtime social routines now enshrined by memories.

When owner Joe Phillips died on Sunday, March 26, at the age of 84, the doors to the diner were fittingly closed in his honor. And they haven't been opened since.

Phillips' grandson, Joseph Phillips IV, admitted the eatery's future is hazy.

Get your checkbooks out and start bidding; a rare Worcester Lunch Car is on the eBay trading block!

Following up on a story we posted last week, the former "Porter's Diner" and "Mindy's Diner" is now listed for auction. Porter's, Worcester Car #747 was built in Worcester in 1939 and was saved recently, when a group of preservationists pooled their assets to keep it from being demolished. The diner, by all accounts, is in very good original condition.

Though it is often difficult for small diners such as this one to make a go of it, we hope Worcester #747, a stylish green and cream barrel roof model, finds a good home. My wife, at least, has nixed the idea of us putting it in the back yard...

Here's a link to the eBay auction. Good luck!

Does the word "Kobe" ring a bell? No, not him. Kobe beef, from Japan, specially bred, outrageously priced, and most important, intensely marketed. By the way, it's not "KO-bee" as in Bryant, but "ko-BAY," as in parfait.

Kobe beef comes from Wagyu cattle, which are raised in the Hyogo region of Japan, the capital of which is the city of Kobe, as if you didn't know all that. You might also remember Kobe for the earthquake that nearly demolished it in 1995. But we're not here to talk about earthquakes. We're here to talk about beef, specifically Kobe beef, which will be appearing at a diner near you soon.

That's because Ruby's Diner in Newport Beach plans to start peddling Kobe beef burgers for $10 a pop, bun included. As Kobe beef goes, that ain't bad. $40 is not unheard of for a Kobe hamburger, and $100 or more for a Kobe steak is nothing to write home about, other than to write home for more money. Is Ruby's 10-buck burger a Kobe beef first for Newport Beach? Not exactly. According to Dan Marcheano, Commanding General of the Arches, where the best of everything is everyday fare, his restaurant was the first to introduce Kobe beef hereabout in 1988, with a $125 Kobe steak. Wow. $125 for a steak. You could buy two tanks of gas for that, almost. The Arches stopped selling their Kobe steak long ago, but Dan wishes Ruby's and their upscale burger well. "You take a shot and you make it up along the way," Marcheano said. "We're all in the same boat, trying to drag someone into the restaurant."