When I was a kid; I remember when

 When I was a kid; I remember when

Folks today have an assortment of social media and surround sound at their fingertips. Wow. When I was a kid, we didn’t even have a TV. However, that didn’t stop me and my brothers from watching TV. We would sneak off to the neighbors' houses and peek through the window and watch THEIR TV. My brother was good at reading lips and making different sounds to make up for the fact that we could see the TV but could not HEAR the TV. 

We seldom had a nickel to go to the Movies so when Mom and Dad said 'Hey you all let's all go to the Movie Theater for a treat", we all looked dumbfounded and shocked. Really? 'Can we bring popcorn and even spare a bit of butter?" "Sure," Mom said, "though there won’t be any butter left for toast in the morning." And so we headed out to downtown to see our first movie. The theater was said to have a piano and a piano player played upon it during intermissions. Friends of ours had told us about the lush red velvet-lined seats, the gigantic curtains in front of the screen, and a movie screen the size of a house. They told us about the coming attractions part, and how the whole room got quiet when the movie started. And they told us the best part was…. Then they stopped and said they didn’t want to ruin it for us so we could find out for ourselves. 

The walk to the Movie theater was about six miles. Yes, I did say walk, as we did not have a car nor the dime for a bus ride. About a mile from the house, we met our dog, Buster. He wasn’t really our dog, he sort of belonged to the whole neighborhood. Whenever any of us kids had to eat something we truly detested and could not stomach no matter how hungry we were, we would sneak it into a pants pocket. Later when we were playing outside if Buster came around we would feed the morsel to him. Sometimes it was pretty old by then but he always swallowed it down in one quick gulp. I think that was his way of not dealing with the taste. He was always hungry. I guess our moms made almost everything taste good, so Buster was on a lean diet. 

Along the way, we played kick the can if we found one that did not have a deposit on it. The ones with a deposit we handled carefully to ensure we got a penny for it. Sometimes we would kick the can into the road and a car would come by and squash it. In that case, we would use it as a flying saucer. I think kids today call them frisbees. 

By mile three, the buttered popcorn sure was smelling good. You could see the butter stains on the paper bag. There was no such thing as a plastic bag back then. Now they tell me everybody has plastic INSIDE THEM. Go figure. 

Pigeons and gulls flew down to the trees nearby at about mile four. Mom held the popcorn bag tight to her side, then tucked it into her jacket just to be safe. We all offered to carry the bag, but mom just laughed and said, sure, and maybe when we get home we will ask the fox if it will keep an eye on our two chickens for us. 

By mile five my brothers and sisters, all five of us, chatted up what we thought would be the best part about the movie theater and what movie might be showing. Would it be Pinocchio, or Dumbo, or Boom Town (Western film), or Rebecca (a Thriller). And where would we sit? We all opted to sit in the very front row if we could. Every one of us wanted to have a piece of the entrance ticket as a souvenir. 

It was nearly two o’clock in the afternoon by the time we arrived. We could have gotten there sooner than the nearly two hours it took us if Mom and Dad hadn’t stopped to talk to folks who were sitting on their porches along the way. Seems like the whole town had Sunday off and had nothing better to do than sit out and watch traffic go by, and talk the ears off folks in a hurry to get to the movie theater. 

Finally, we were there. Standing across the street looking up at the building and the MAJESTIC THEATER sign, we could not believe how big and colorful it all was. The 40x27 Posters were printed using lithography on lightweight paper, which created solid blocks of color. The posters sure would make great kites. My sisters liked the Cary Grant posters the most. Mom and Dad liked "It's a Wonderful Life".

We all crossed the street in a rush to read the NOW PLAYING Matinee-only sign. We had missed Godzilla by a week, but the list of current attractions had us drooling as we watched other folks line up at the box office to buy tickets. We watched with intense focus how they reached into their pockets and pulled out a lone nickel or dime. How they with seeming ease and lack of concern quickly hand over the precious coin to the woman behind the glass window. We watched with interest at the mechanical device that shot out a ticket which she tore off the strip and slid across the counter to the eager customer. 

Over and over we watched the tantalizing process repeat itself as the line grew shorter and shorter. 

As the last of the patrons with unencumbered coins, make the trade of a lifetime, we heard the man in a semi-formal black tie announce that the movie would begin in two minutes. By this time we would have been shaking in our shoes except we kids were all barefooted.

No more looking through someone’s house window at a five-inch TV screen with no sound we could hear. Now we would know what a real movie looked like.

Well, that is as close as we got to seeing a movie theater movie. Dad lost two nickels on the walk through a small hole in his worn pants. We all agreed if we could not all go in then none of us would.

We all crossed the street again, only this time much slower. Mom and Dad sat on the bench at the bus stop while we kids sat on the sidewalk. No one said a word as we imagined the movie was beginning to play. We all imagined our own movie, one Pinocchio, one Bambi, one Rebecca, one Doom Town…

We all clapped silently while the curtain went up. All our eyes grew larger as the coming attractions played out. 

Once the Movies (in our minds) began, Mom passed around the best-tasting movie popcorn we had ever tasted. Yet, we made sure to save some for intermission. 

About the time folks started streaming out of the theater, we all teared up just a bit and could not wait to start walking home and telling each other about the best parts of our own movie. 

The walk home seemed to go faster even though we talked to as many people on the way back as before. We met up with Buster about a mile from our house and gave him two kernels of popcorn - one at a time. And for once he actually chewed a little before swallowing. Then he wagged his tail and joined us as we walked the rest of the way home seemingly knowing he was in the presence of some very wealthy folks given that we had gone to the movie theater and brought him back some real movie theater popcorn. 

We weren’t poor back then. But we did know some kids who were. They hardly ever got a chance to play in pastures or meadows, never got to make kites out of old newspapers and a rag for a tail, never had any disgusting-tasting food left over to feed Buster, and they never got to go see the Movie Theater like we did. We were blessed and happy kids indeed. 

Laugh, Dream, Try, and Do Good

Bernie