Calling All Former Diana Theater, ABC Drive-In Folks

I never used to like it when my grandparents and parents would wax poetic about the good old days and how great life was back in the day. Life seemed pretty good to a kid living out on James Road, riding a bicycle down the dirt road, throwing rocks, hitting baseballs, shooting baskets, fishing under the bridge on 196^th Street and sneaking over to the dam to go sliding.

See what I’m doing though . . . waxing poetic about the good old days and how great life was back in the day.

Sigh.

I have become my Dad or my Grandpa.

Heck, there are worse things to become so I’m not griping. And if you’ll bear with me I’ll take you on another little trip down Memory Lane – and see if we all end up at the same place.

Do you remember the Diana Theater on 9^th Street in downtown Noblesville – right across from Beanie’s Cafeteria and beside the bus station and the old county hospital? How about the ABC Drive-In on Cumberland Road (when there wasn’t a heck of a lot of other stuff on Cumberland Road)?

Second question? Did you work at either one, or know someone who did?

If so, here’s a cordial invitation to join a few others who also worked at one or the other or both for a reunion.

Where and when?

Well, the obvious choice for “where” would be at either location. But since neither one exists anymore, that’d be hard. Where the Diana was located is now a parking lot. Not sure folks would appreciate a reunion that takes up parking spaces. The ABC, best as I can tell, was located where a Bail Bond company is now. Probably not the best spot for a reunion either.

One of our former co-workers suggested Jim Dandy.

You know the story there.

So we’re going to start with seeing how many of us are there. The group of three of us were there in the 1973-76 or ’77 timeframe. I can tell you that we had a ball. A woman named Ellen was the owner and didn’t put up with a lot of nonsense. A guy named Mike was the manager and let us get away with tons of nonsense.

We also got to watch all the movies – which was really great at first. But when you’ve seen American Graffiti 27 times, even the best movies get old.

But no complaints. I was a high school kid who played tennis every day, baled hay during part of the summer and then worked at the drive-in at night. It was a blast. In the winter, I could count on at least one night a weekend at the Diana. My Mom, God rest her soul, worked there a little bit when I was still in grade school. The same lady owned it then too. I think that’s why Ellen didn’t fire me several different times. Thanks, Mom!

At any rate, if you worked at either place – a lot or a little – we’d love to get a bunch of us together and reminisce. Oh heck, how about if you guys went there a lot? We’re not picky.

Tell you what. Email me and we’ll figure things out and hopefully a bunch of us will meet up . . . and if you have a good idea where, you might lead with that.

Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically in The Times. Timmons is the chief executive officer of Sagamore News Media, the company that owns The Noblesville Times. He is also a proud Noblesville High School graduate and can be contacted at ttimmons@thetimes24-7.com.