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LIBERTY CENTER, Ohio What began on a nostalgic whim 10 years ago has become a much bigger story of family love.

Meet the Saunders, Rod and Donna, both 53 and owners of the Field of Dreams Drive-In theater in rural Henry County, near Liberty Center and its affiliated Field of Dreams Drive-In theater in Tiffin.

Are they sentimental about the vanishing era of drive-in movie theaters? Guilty as charged. The funny thing is, though, theyre finding out thousands of other people in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan are, too.

A decade after they rolled the dice and went Kevin Costner on their Liberty Center farm plowing it under and putting up the first of two drive-in theater screens on that site the Saunders are turning a modest profit. Their improbable story is so close to that of fictional Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, portrayed by Costner in the 1989 film Field of Dreams, that they have used the movie title in the name of both drive-ins.

Though their other drive-in the one in Tiffin doesnt have the same storyline, its also full of charm.

The Tiffin drive-in was originally built in 1948. The Saunders bought it in 2011, four years after they started showing movies on their Liberty Center farm, when they learned its previous owner was about to shut it down. It has capacity for 400 to 500 vehicles, while the Liberty Center site with its 250-vehicle capacity is Ohios smallest drive-in theater.

The couple now can sit back and laugh about the zany, learn-as-you-go experiences that began a decade ago at their Liberty Center homestead as they started chasing a dream they shared since they were youths in Fulton County.

We both went to drive-ins. We had our own memories of them growing up, Rod recalls.

Rod grew up in Wauseon. Donna grew up in nearby Delta. Like many people, both lamented the closing of Wauseons Star Drive-in, which shut down in 1999, whenever they drove along North Shoop Avenue and saw its abandoned screen.

Finally, after a couple of years of hearing her say that, I said somebody ought to open one, Rod says.

Tech-savvy Donna, an information systems professional for Owens-Corning, tracked down a guy in Texas who sold step-by-step instructions on building a drive-in theater from scratch. The plans cost them only $20.

The pages werent even numbered or in order, Rod says with a laugh.

Their first thought was to buy property in Napoleon. Then, after taking a closer look at costs, a friend of Rods came up with a different idea: Put it in your backyard.

They did, somehow navigating their way through a maze of regulations and past zoning board officials who were entering uncharted territory themselves. Along the way, they received untold hours of labor donated by friends and relatives, many of them nearby farmers.

After all of the sweat and money they poured into getting the Liberty Center drive-in ready to open, they had a lot of people pulling for them. But they also said they had a few who called them complete fools, destined to fail.

We got a letter two days before we opened saying how stupid we were, Rod recalls.

Rewind to when they opened in 2007. Among other things, the couple had to learn on the fly how to thread 35 mm movie film projectors to avoid breaks in movies they were showing. Now, of course, its all digitized. Movies are beamed in via satellite, and there isnt nearly as much left to chance in the projector room.

Think its hard enough carving a drive-in theater out of a cornfield? Try doing that as the movie industry is about to go from analog to digital, requiring you to buy four digital projectors two in Liberty Center and two in Tiffin that each cost $80,000 to $90,000.

But, somehow, the Saunders are paying their bills. They even managed to get through the 2008 global financial crisis, which came only a year after they opened.

Theyre not getting rich but say they love what they do, especially the family aspect of their business.

Their son, Denton, 27, a Fremont Middle School special education teacher nine months of the year, runs the Tiffin drive-in throughout the summer. Rod, a Toledo Technology Academy physical education and health teacher, runs the Liberty Center drive-in, along with Donna.

The drive-ins helped put Denton through undergraduate and masters programs at Bowling Green State University and their daughter, Callan, 25, through her Eastern Michigan University program in athletic training. Callan worked two years as a sports trainer at Notre Dame Academy before landing her new job as the director of the Anytime Fitness salon in Wauseon.

One of the biggest ancillary benefits has been the socialization opportunities the Liberty Center drive-in has given their other son, Rockne, 23, who has cerebral palsy.

He started out in the box office and has done everything down to offering friendly waves to drivers.

He likes hanging out around the girls, Donna says, explaining how he likes people-watching of all kinds and has a soft spot in his heart for babies. We laugh and call him our unofficial popcorn-taster. He does entertain customers.

Little things like that give the Liberty Center drive-in its own special charm. Its a throwback to yesteryear and a refreshing break from anything resembling a stiff corporate atmosphere.

Part of the fun is trying to find the site in the first place. Tucked away on quiet, two-lane Township Road 6, the Liberty Center drive-in is barely in Henry County, a quarter mile from the Fulton County line. It should be noted, too, that in calling Township Road 6 a two-lane road, the county engineer apparently had a generous definition for width. It feels more like a wide, one-lane road. Large tractors and other farm machinery can slow down traffic. The theater has been known to fool more than one GPS or cell phone, and when corns about ready to be harvested its easy to drive by the site without knowing it.

For directions, go to fieldofdreamsdrivein.com/liberty_directions.html. On that page is this generous offer, a sign of the familys hospitality: If you get lost, please call Donna at 419-966-2988 and tell her what road you are on.

Between the two drive-ins, the Saunders employ about 44 part-time workers. Many are kids saving up for college, but some also are schoolteachers who want a pleasant summer job.

The Saunders said theyre especially proud of the relationships theyve built with other families. The Ross family, for example, has had three different girls Leah, Meagan, and, now, Brie work for them. They said they enjoy seeing kids grow and mature as employees. Rod calls their youthful workers our kids.

It gets back to the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you have them do unto you, he said. We treat the kids in our workforce like our own kids.

Has it been a well-oiled machine? Not always, the couple laughs.

Like any business, they learn what works and what doesnt over time. But above all, its important to them to maintain that down-home charm.

The fun doesnt begin when the first movie starts. The Saunders have installed a volleyball court, putt-putt golf, and corn hole games. People arrive early to engage in friendly competition and play until showtime.

Theres also a fire pit where older adults are known to hold court and enjoy a cold beverage while kids are off having fun.

Food concessions include freshly grilled burgers and homemade pizza, the latter of which is hand-delivered to people guest who place special flags on their car windows.

Weve learned that being the smallest drive-in in Ohio, we need to listen to our customers, Rod says.

Donna says the drive-ins have been a perfect business for us with Rod being a teacher and having the summers off.

Dentons not the only one whos followed in his fathers footsteps as a teacher. His wife, Olivia, 27, whom he married May 20, teaches sixth grade at Oak Harbor Middle School.

And theres the stars.

Not the movie stars the skyward ones. The Liberty Center drive-in is in such a rural location, far removed from urban light pollution, that visitors cant help but occasionally let their minds wander as they gaze upward.

This is the 84th year for drive-ins. The first one opened in Camden, N.J. in June, 1933, according to the website drive-ins.com. The number of drive-in theaters peaked in 1958 at 4,063. This year, there are 321 left in operation.

Their decline has been accelerated not just by technological changes and the advent of megaplex indoor theaters but also by urban sprawl. As cities sprawled out in the country, prices for rural land shot up. Even many profitable drive-ins were enticed to sell.

Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.

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