A New Favorite Place
When we did our walks around the new neighborhood, we were in for a real treat. My mother liked good movies and lucky me, I was the one that would get to go with her on “Wednesday!”
The O’Fallon Theatre at 4026 W. Florissant Avenue gave dishes out on Wednesdays and we started collecting the dishes, by going each week. Before “TV” going to the movies would be the thing to do. I do not know what THEY CHARGES FOR ADULTS, BUT FOR KIDS IT WAS ONLY TEN CENTS. By going to the O’Fallon theatre with my Mother so often, I was learning how to pay for us to get in and hand the ticket to the person collecting them as we went in, and also to keep my half of the ticket, and where to sit inside, so that we could see the picture. All of this was so that I could bring my brothers to see the movies on Sunday afternoons.
So, after a time and understanding what all I would need to do and of course feeling secure in taking care of my brothers, while in the Theater, we were now ready to go. Sunday afternoon, I was given three dimes and off we went down Carter Avenue and made a right turn through the gas station at Warne Avenue, and crossed over when I saw the Food Center Store in the middle of the block because if I went all the way down to the end of the black, it would have been too dangerous with my brothers.
Where Warne Avenue and Florissant Avenue intersect, the roads have an extra street or to and too much traffic for little kids to try to look out for? So, I crossed where I was told it would be safer and we all got to the Theater – safe and sound. There were a lot of little kids who were also there and we were in time to pick out good seats
Once the shows started, we sat there tied to our seats; I do not believe we even got up to go to the bathrooms? There was one picture and then there were newsreels of the WAR NEWS and shorter preview films, then the cartoons – which we really liked, then another movie, and then another movie, and we just had our faces glued to the “silver screen!”
It must have been around nine o’clock in the evening and my Mother was looking for us in the Theatre, and had someone with a flash-light to help find us. She just couldn’t believe that we would sit so long in one spat. But there was no way I was going to be asking someone what time it was in the middle of a movie, so we watched until someone came and got us! Every time that we were allowed to go to the movies – it was the same old story – we sat, glued to our seats, enjoying whatever was on the silver screen!
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