I loved movies

1939, age 9.
In 1939, movies started to assume a very important part of my life. I loved movies; all kinds of movies.  Remember, at my age of 9 we did not have TV.  Only movies and radio were available for information and entertainment. We did have a Victorolla that had to be wound by hand to play 78 records.  But ours was broken so it didn't count. We had none of the miraculous inventions that young people can enjoy today.

Now back to movies. My parents would let me attend only one evening movie a week.  The cost of this movie was twenty-five cents.  Even that small admission cost was difficult to obtain.  The Vogue Theater (the only movie theater in Vernal) showed three different movies a week.  The best movie was shown on Sunday-Monday-Tuesday.  A different movie was shown on Wednesday-Thursday and the third movie was shown on Friday-Saturday.  What a dilemma!  I had to choose which movie to see each week.  I usually chose the best movie and went on Monday evening.  This was my family home evening entertainment.  Incidentally, I never heard the words, "Family Home Evening", until I had a family of my own.  We certainly didn't have an official family home evening when I was young.

A miracle happened in Vernal.in early 1940.  Another movie theater appeared, (The Main). Vernal now had two movie theaters. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.  There were now six movies each week from which to choose. Saturday, the day the Main Theater opened, a grand opening was held and all the movies were free. They showed three different movies, news, cartoons, and a serial.  I was there when the doors opened and spent the next six hours in ecstasy. One of the movies starred Diana Durban.  I fell in love with her and dropped my affection for Margaret O'Brien.  "Sorry Margaret, but Diana was just as cute and in addition, she could sing.

The new theater started showing matinee's  every Saturday. The admission was ten cents.  Sometimes, if I behaved myself, I was allowed to attend the Saturday afternoon matinee.  This matinee was a movie addicts bonanza.  There was generally a double feature movie, a cartoon, the news, and a serial. For those of you who are unfamiliar with a serial, let me explain.  A serial was an adventure or mystery story that was shown in weekly chapters. Each chapter lasted about fifteen minutes and a new chapter was shown each week for thirteen weeks. At the end of each chapter, the hero was in danger of being exterminated by such things as being thrown over a cliff or having a steel plate with long, sharp spikes slowly coming down or being crushed by a huge machine or being cut in half by a buzz saw, etc. etc.  We had all week to worry how the hero was ever going to survive.  Then the following week we had to go back to see how the hero escaped. I seldom (if ever) missed the matinee

Grandpa's - favorite poetry.  All 'rit by Shel Silverstein

                                    Hot Dog
I have a hot dog for a pet,
The only kind my folks would let me get.
He does smell sort of bad, and yet,
He absolutely never gets the sofa wet.
We have a butcher for a vet,
The strangest vet you ever met.
Guess we're the weirdest family yet,
To have a hot dog for a pet.

                          Hurk
I'd rather play tennis than go to the dentist.
I'd rather play soccer than go to the doctor.
I'd rather play Hurk than go to work.
Hurk? Hurk? What's Hurk?
I don't know. but it must be better than work.

        Prayer Of The Selfish Child
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
And if I die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my toys to break.
So none of the other kids can use 'em .  .  .
Amen.



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