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Close Encounters Of The Third Kind ... At The Bethel Drive-In

A white homemade sign lists the movie of the evening in black letters on stilts in a field, with a vertical sign reading Bethel suspended to the right, with a red arrow pointing to the white sign with the movie information on it.
Erica Heilman
/
VPR
You never know who you might meet on a hot summer night at the drive-in in Bethel, Vt.

It’s the dog days of summer. It’s high season at the drive-in movies. Independent producer Erica Heilman went with her friend Kelly to the Bethel Drive-In for an all time classic.

Erica: Where are we?

Kelly: We’re at the Bethel Drive-in in Bethel, Vt. We’re going to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’m real excited about it. It came out in 1977. I watched this…

Erica: Before you should have.

Kelly: Yeah, and it’s in me. And that’s why I came out here …

Erica: It’s in me! It’s in me too.

Here, Kelly and Erica broke into song to sing the song from Close Encounters.

Kelly: It’s in me, do you know what I mean? And I came here to get some answers.

Erica: I didn’t. I came here just to be entertained …

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Kelly: Because I said "Can you come with me to the movie?" Because no one else would come to the movie!

Erica: That’s my friend Kelly Green. She’s a lawyer. She lives in Randolph, right up the road from the Bethel Drive-In. And when Close Encounters came to town, we both felt pretty strongly that it was the best movie you could hope to see at a drive-in, especially a tiny drive in surrounded by trees and hills in central Vermont, in the middle of the summer.

They watched, as the abduction scene began.

­Kelly: They’re definitely coming for Barry.

Erica: They’re coming for the kid. Definitely coming for the kid.

Kelly: He's coming for them.

Erica: Yeah.

There was some screaming.

Enter: Marie and Steve.

Erica: Where are you coming from?

Steve: We’re from Braintree.

Erica: How often do you come to the drive-in?

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Marie: Often.

Steve: Yeah, we do. Whenever they have a good movie, you know, that we're interested in.

Erica: Have you seen this one before?

Marie: Not since we were young — real young. So I actually originally saw in the theater when it came out and I was like 12, 13. So now I'm almost 56.

Erica: This is a great one. I love this movie. It's burned into my memory from childhood.

Marie: We can't remember...

Erica: Don't you remember the song?

Steve: Kind of like the three notes or something.

"We've come here a lot for dates, especially during COVID, because it’s the only place that's open."
Jillian, Rochester

Erica: Doot, doot, doot, doot, doot!

Steve: Yeah.

Then came Courtney and Edgar from Roxbury.

Erica: What was your strong impression of the movie?

Courtney: I’ve never seen it. He’s seen it a bunch and he was like "We have to go."

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Erica: What is your lasting impression?

Edgar: The Devil's Tower, I would say.

Courtney: You told me about the mashed potatoes.

Edgar: Yeah, when he plays with the mashed potatoes to make the Devil's Tower.

Erica: Can you sing the song?

Edgar: No.

Erica: The song is burned ...

Edgar: Doot, doot, doot, doot, doot.

Edgar and Erica: Doot, doot, doot, doot, doot.

Kelly and Erica got back in the car.

Kelly: I have definitely seen UFOs. I just don't think that they were being driven by alien life. I mean, it really just means "unidentified flying object."

Erica: Do you really have to be a lawyer about this? I mean it's "unidentified."

Kelly: That doesn't necessarily mean an alien is flying it. It just means that you don't know enough about airplanes or drones or you could just be an idiot.

Erica: So you didn’t believe. You weren’t believing …

Kelly: Well, I doubt I have seen … I’d be shocked …

Erica: It’s hard to be such a linear thinker.

Jillian and Leland were also there at the drive-in.

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Erica: Where are you from?

Jillian: Rochester.

Leland: I'm from Randolph.

Erica: Is this a date?

Jillian: Yeah, I guess so. We're here with our friends celebrating our graduation. But we've come here a lot for dates, especially during COVID, because it’s the only place that's open.

Leland: We bring pillows, put them in the back. Get some snacks.

Jillian: Yeah. Get snacks.

Leland: And you just kind of hang out here.

Erica: And how many dates do you have to be on before you'd be comfortable coming to the drive in? It would be hard to go on the first date.

Jillian: Yeah. Don't come here on a first date. You have to be comfortable enough with that person to be in the back of your car for a long time with them. So like, it's different for everybody. I guess whenever you want to do that.

Erica: Do you believe in, I mean, do you believe in them? There are obviously unidentified flying objects, but do you believe in life out there?

Jillian: 100%.

Leland: Definitely, because the universe is infinite.

Jillian: God is so great. And I think that if He created humans, He definitely had the power to create something else and He probably did.

The abduction scene resumed, and with the mother screaming "Barry!!!!"

Kelly: Yeah, lady, you really have one job, you know?

Erica: I know.

Kelly: It’s to not let the kid out the pet door.

Have questions, comments or tips?Send us a message or tweet us@vprnet.

Corrected: August 17, 2021 at 9:28 AM EDT
This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Jillian's name.
Erica Heilman produces a podcast called Rumble Strip. Her shows have aired on NPR’s Day to Day, Hearing Voices, SOUNDPRINT, KCRW’s UnFictional, BBC Podcast Radio Hour, CBC Podcast Playlist and on public radio affiliates across the country. Rumble Strip airs monthly on Vermont Public. She lives in East Calais, Vermont.
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