Jan 17 2009
The Saturday Matinee`
“WE ARE NOT OLD - We are just on over-time!”
Hooray! Saturday! When I was a kid, the best entertainment for Saturday was the matinee at the local movie theater. My next door neighbor/good buddy, Shirley, and I would each get a dollar from our parents and run uptown (we didn’t have a downtown), all of three blocks away from our houses. There we could spend a whole Saturday afternoon watching one or two movies, complete with popcorn, candy and a soda - all for $1.00. It was a safe way to spend the day when you were about 10 years old. If there were any perverts, I don’t think they attended the movies.
We watched mostly Westerns, because that’s all the movie theater could afford to show. We didn’t get a lot of first-run stuff, and there were lots of Westerns to choose from in 1959. We did get the occasional “horror” show, which was our favorite.
The one horror show I remember the most vividly was called “The Screaming Skull”. The basic theme was that the skull of a murdered woman kept showing up to haunt her killer. The crazy thing would come out of a fish pond behind the house and go flying through the air, screaming and following this guy. Not a big deal compared to the technology in movies today, but to us it was thrilling.
Thrilling enough that when we left the theater (in broad daylight) we ran home as fast as we could go, looking over our shoulders occasionally to make sure the skull wasn’t following us.
When we both got a few years older, like 16, we still went to the movies, but usually separately, and in cars - with guys. The drive-in movies were the best! (I don’t really remember any of the movies that were playing there - I might have been busy).
The only thing that stands out in my mind about the drive-in movie was the night I think I saw a UFO. My date and I were (watching the movie - wink, wink) when I saw a bright light come swooping up; it went behind the screen, and did not come out the other side. (This was before pot, so I’m pretty sure it was a real light). Don’t tell me it was an airplane or a helicopter - it was MY UFO.
Today, I do not attend the movies. I do well to afford the price of the ticket, and would have to hock my stereo, television, and the car, if I wanted to have both popcorn and a drink - forget the candy.
Of all the scary movies I watched over the course of my life, the only one that ever had me looking around corners and under beds was “The Thing”–the remake with Kurt Russell–and I was 18 at the time. By the way, every time my kids ask me why we can’t all go to the movies together, I ask them how long they can go without electricity or food. That doesn’t stop them from asking, but I say it anyway.
Thanks for your comments “maninthemoon”. I visit your site often. Hope you have recovered from your last “trip”.