Neale, Nancy Anne

English

Digital Commons @ Butler University

30 .MANUSCRIPTS"Kiddies" Matinees/Nancy Anne NealeFROl'I'r the time I was nine until I was about eleven, the Saturdayn~atil~ee at our neighborhood motiOl\ picture theater was thehlghbght of every week for me. I he theater was alwaysjammed with clozens of my contemporaries who had also come to seethe special "kiddies" show, which always included at least one west-ern. The western was definitely our favorite type of show, and eachof us hac! his favorite cowboy star. VYe really kept the projectioniston his toes. Whenever the show was started the least bit late or wasinterrupted in the middle, we always indicated our disapproval bystamping our feet on the floor as hard as we could. All of us seemedto be of the opinion that yelling, screaming, cheering, and boo!ngadded to our enjoyment of the picture; and many felt that belUgdressed in western clothes helped even more. Yelling back and forthto all our friends and eating pop corn and candy made the afternooncomplete.It had been seven years since I had attended a "kiddies" matin~ewhen, on 111ybrother's sixth birthday last June, I took him and hi,Sfriends to one. Two westerns were shown, but somehow they weren'tnearly as wonderful as the ones we had watched. The dialogue wastrite, the plot was not nearly as exciting, and the hero wasn't as hand-some. Furthermore, I was distracted by hundreds of little clemonswho were milling up and down the aisles or squeezing in and O~lt.ofOur row the whole time. A whole posse of little cowboys was Sltt111g!n the ro,:" behind us and all through the picture they took tU~'ns pol~-11lgcap pistols in my back, sticking candy in my hair, and putt111g theirfeet on the back of the seat in which I was sitting. The W01:Stpart,though, was the noise; it was absolute bedlam. The screa!Tl1l1g andyelling were much louder than when I used to frequent the rnatinees,and the stamping of feet was unbearable.There was no doubt about it; something had chanzed. Was it theshow or could it possibly have been I? bThe Steel TombDavid L. HodgeITwas 3 :30 a. ~11.on a Friday l~lte in October when I was awakenedby a C0111pa111011.I arose quickly from my canvas bed and hur-ried out onto the deck of the huge troop ship. It was a cold,windy morning, and touching the steel ship was like touching an ice-berg. vVe went down into the dining hall, where we had a breakfast

Kiddies  Matinees

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Kiddies Matinees

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