It’s dusk at Kingston Family FunWorld, and the cars are beginning to arrive.

As the sun sets, vehicles file into a field punctuated by marker posts and framed by three giant white screens that sit at odd angles to a little red building in the centre.

It’s drive-in movie night — a scene that’s been set for more than five decades at the property just a little north of Highway 401 out Division Street. Since 1965, when the drive-in at McAdoo’s Lane was first built, there has been a nearly nightly pilgrimage of parents and children, friends, couples, and the odd stowaway to see the latest Hollywood productions on the big outdoor screen.

For 23 years, it’s been the backdrop for the Wannemacher family’s life, led by Dan with his wife, Ruth, and their three children by his side.

Now, more than two decades later, Ruth Wannemacher is closing this chapter of her family’s history. The land and business have been sold, and the final night of movies at the Kingston Family FunWorld drive-in will be on Sunday, Sept. 1. The go-karts will continue until the end of September.

“There are so many images I have of drive-in people,” Wannemacher said, smiling and remembering those years. “They have their chairs, their tents, they’re all set up. There was one day a couple came in in a truck and they had literally taken their living room couch and put it in the truck. Drive-in people are really fun and entertaining. We get so many regulars. There are so many people who bring their pets …”

Dan Aykroyd and Avril Lavigne were both regulars at the drive-in in the past. The Glorious Sons recorded a music video at the site. Big moments in people’s history have happened under the glow of the projectors.

“People get engaged out here. I’m sure we’ve had a lot of babies made out here,” Wannemacher said.

The drive-in theatre, the go-karts, the canteen, the batting cage and the handmade mini-putt that Dan created “with a bag of cement and his friend Jim” — Kingston Family FunWorld has been central to not only the Wannemacher family’s lives, but to the lives of many Kingstonians.

“It was his dream,” Wannemacher said, looking out over the property, go-karts whirring in the distance. “He had such big ideas.”

In July 2016, Dan died suddenly after a heart attack.

“It was a Friday morning,” Wannemacher recalled. “One minute he was there, and next minute he wasn’t. … This was Dan’s dream; this was his thing. All of a sudden three years ago when our world turned upside down, I found myself running two businesses, three kids, one roof. It was a lot.”

Wannemacher made the commitment to run her husband’s business for another two years.

“It was for him. I’ll do this for two years to honour him, somehow.”

She made it through three, and during those three years, Wannemacher had multiple offers on the property. She didn’t want to let it go until she felt it was the right time.

“This was Dan’s world, not mine. I came out here one morning, before all the staff got here, and walked the whole property talking to Dan. ‘I need a sign. Is it OK? Is it enough?’ I didn’t want to do it anymore.”

That night, Wannemacher’s projectionist got into a car accident. Then a projector stopped working.

“There were three big things. I came outside and went, ‘Enough! I got the signs,’” she said.

Wannemacher doesn’t know the intentions of the purchasers — a numbered company from Montreal — but she doubts they’ve purchased it to run FunWorld.

“There’s not a lot of this type of land left in the city of Kingston, and I’m right off the 401. But when I sold it, I sold it as a full piece, so the company has purchased the business. It was a big decision. But it’s the right time.”

FunWorld employs approximately 35 people at peak season. Some of those staff have been with Wannemacher for 20 or more years, and she knows that the news will be sad for her current and former staff and for the many people who have made FunWorld a family tradition.

“People love this place. They just love the drive-in, and the go-karts, too. FunWorld is a Kingston family tradition, but Dan’s been gone since 2016, and the commitment I made to myself is completed, and I’m proud of myself. I know he’d be shocked that we kept it going. He’d be shocked, and proud,” she said.

Wannemacher broke down.

“People have been very generous. I know they’re going to be sad to see it go. I know there are going to be a lot of stories, and it’s one of the reasons I didn’t tell anyone earlier. I’ll spend the next two weeks in tears.

“It’s emotional, big time,” she said through tears. “I’m sure I’m going to have a lot of people sharing their memories with me over the next two weeks. But it’s time.”

mbalogh@postmedia.com