The flame is flickering out on Ventura County's long and storied romance with the drive-in theater.

One by one, the "passion pits" have shut down, usually to make way for shopping centers or houses.

For decades, drive-ins were the destination of teenagers looking for some privacy on hot summer nights and a place where families could enjoy a picnic and cheap entertainment.

Those days could soon be gone.

After 34 years, the Simi Valley drive-in failed to open this summer. That leaves Ventura's three-screen Pacific 101 as the county's lone survivor of a plague that wiped out drive-ins all over the state.

Since September of 1996, six drive-ins have closed in Southern California, leaving moviegoers in Santa Barbara County, Orange County and the San Fernando Valley--regions whose suburban terrain was once dotted with outdoor screens--without a single drive-in. Only five drive-ins shine on in Los Angeles County.

The closures force drive-in devotees to make pilgrimages to recapture fond drive-in experiences from their youth.

"We bring the kids all the way down from Santa Barbara because they've all closed up there. We'll have nowhere to go if this shuts down," said Michelle Brown, a Santa Barbara mother of three.

Brown and her daughters were eagerly queuing up for the wide assortment of treats offered at the 101's blinding orange and yellow '60s-style, Formica-rich concession center.

They planned to load up with popcorn, candy and drinks before joining the rest of the family in their Suburban to watch "Hercules."

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Brown said her 5- and 7-year-old daughters like the drive-in much more than the indoor theater.

"They like to be in the car and move around and talk when they want to--the same thing I liked when I was a kid," she said.

Unfortunately, for nostalgic filmgoers like Brown, the 101's days may also be numbered. Although theater employees say they have a small number of regular customers, and attendance is slightly up from last year, they are facing a losing battle.

Theater owners say drive-in revenues can't even come close to the money that indoor "megaplexes" can generate.

"It isn't that it's just not very profitable, it's not profitable, period," said Neil Haltrecht, Pacific Theaters' real estate vice president. "People get nostalgic and say that they want the drive-ins to stay open, but if enough people went to them, they wouldn't be closed."

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