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Hopalong Cassidy and a Saturday Afternoon
As a child growing up in the late fifties and early sixties, Saturday afternoon meant only one thing...."The Saturday Afternoon Matinee!" Where else on earth could a kid go on a Saturday afternoon, and be entertained for a couple hours by the likes of Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Laurel and Hardy and The Three Stooges....all that for 25 cents...and that included a good half hour of cartoons beforehand AND a box of popcorn and a drink to top it all off! It didn't matter if the movies were crap and it didn't even really matter if you'd already seen them five or six times already. What mattered was that you were there and you were having fun!
Back then if you were a kid, EVERYBODY went to the movies on Saturday afternoon and sometimes they even showed a movie worth watching. Our dads would take turns each week piling us all into the station wagon and dropping us off at the local theatre, as our mother's stood at our doorways smiling and waving goodbye, and thinking about all the things they were going to get done over the next few hours without having us all underfoot! We'd all stand in line outside the theatre, waiting to go in and sometimes the lineup seemed to stretch for miles...but it was probably only a hundred yards or so....uppermost in our minds...the question...would we get in or wouldn't we...or would they decide just as we got up to the ticket window that there were no seats left...ohhhh...the anticipation. Inevitably we would get in...but that was all a part of the enjoyment of the afternoon really...the uncertainty of knowing if there were enough seats available or not.
The lobby always smelled fantastic...containing the beautiful aroma of freshly popped corn and hotdogs and the sweet smell of every candy ever manufactured or known to mankind! More often than not though...your dad had only given you a quarter...25 cents...and after paying the ten cents to get in...you only had enough to buy a drink and a box of popcorn....not candy as well. Oh the agony of choice.....should you forfeit the popcorn for one week and go fo a nice fat candy bar? Popcorn always won out. I mean...it was no fun chucking pieces of a candy bar at your friends...that pure pleasure really only gave you satisfaction when it was popcorn and popcorn went a whole lot further...you could chuck pieces of it at your friends and at the screen and, at the end of the day, still have lots to eat yourself!
The cacophony of hundred's of children's voices filled the air as we sat and twisted in our seats waiting for the film to roll. One glance told you who was there and who wasn't. Little girls looking in earnest for the cutest boys in the class and little boys swaggering in and pretending they didn't care...the tough ones forcing the weaker ones to give up their choice seats in the pursuit of right that probably still goes on today. Giggling with your friends at something somebody said and blushing profusely when you caught the eye of one of the sixth graders who just couldn't help noticing you.....but in reality not for the reasons you were thinking...
And then....the lights went out......the chatter of children's voices dimmed somewhat for a few minutes as the sound of the clattering film reel started up and the curtains across the stage pulled back to reveal flickering images of Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the cat or my personal favourite Peppe Le Peu.....I never enjoyed or got into the Road Runner and the Coyote....never quite being able to undersand why that stupid coyote would spend endless hours chasing a bird that always managed to outwit him...and not only that, always got lambasted himself...all in pursuit of a bird that didn't seem to have enough meat on him to satisfy anyone's hunger anyways! Nevertheless, it didn't matter, even if we had seen the cartoons a hundred times before, we all howled our way through them....laughing at every pratfall and comical annoyance coz that's just what you did when you were eight or nine and at the movies with your friends on a Saturday afternoon. And then.....the real film would start, and sometimes it would be a continuation of the previous week's showing...a serial, and we would all revell in finding out finally what had happened to our onscreen heroes after the cliffhanger of the week before, and sometimes it would be a regular feature film. We'd sit there and take it all in....chattering to our friends the whole way through...yelling at the screen when we didn't like what was happening, rauciously laughing at the funny parts....dust motes swirling through the stream of light pouring across the theatre from the projectionist's hole in the back wall. That alone was a mystery....the projectionist's cave...that unknown room at the top and back of the theatre where all the magic was produced and put forth for our express enjoyment....lucky guy...he got to see all the films over and over again...and not only for free...he got paid for the pleasure on top of it all!
All too soon the adventure would be over, and we'd all be piling noisily out of the theatre looking for our father's cars in the crowd of cars waiting...engines purring...another Saturday afternoon gone. The next week at school, the playground at breaktimes would be noisily filled with kids re-enacting all that we'd just seen...boys swaggering with their invisible six shooters and girls pretending to be femme fatales in need of rescue...scenes that had been played out in front of our eyes on the big screen, magically played out for real spurred, on only by our imaginations and boundless energies. Oh, to be a child again....and experience the magic of a Saturday afternoon matinee and revell in the sound of a thousand voices...and all the magic that went with it.....wouldn't that be great...if only for a moment...
Not quite movie theatre popcorn, but delicious nonetheless....go ahead, your family will thank you with undying gratitude for this...
*Poppycock*
Makes tons!
When my kids were small and money was short I used to make this every Christmas to give away as gifts to deserving friends and relatives. Crunchy , sweet and chock full of nuts it is way better than any you could buy!
2 cups salted butter
2 ½ cups castor sugar
1 cup golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 ¼ cups un-popped corn
3 cups whole almonds
You will need a large roaster, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Failing that coat it really well with butter.
Pop the corn, transfer into roaster with your hands, shaking out the un-popped kernels. Stir in the nuts.
Place the butter in a large heavy pot over medium high heat. When it is almost melted, add the sugar and syrup. Stir constantly to dissolve the sugar, then often to avoid scorching. When it reaches a boil, set timer for 5 minutes. Boil for 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from the heat and carefully stir in the vanilla.
Pour over the popcorn/nut mixture in the roast pan. Mix well, then stir about every 10 minutes with a buttered wooden spoon until cool. Break apart into clumps and store in an airtight container. (*note: you can use mixed nuts instead of just almonds)
Written by mariealicejoan Blog about this entry |
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Sounds like we went to the same movies. Every kid in our town was in the movies on Saturday. And at intermission time, they often had yo-yo contests. Good fun and great memories. Dawn
http://journals.aol.com/adlessor/ACoupleofNomads/ -
Congratulations on the nomination for the VIVIs and good luck on November 2nd
Guido
http://journals.aol.co.uk/pharmolo/NorthernTrip -
Wow, great entry. Of course, there were those of us who rooted for Sylvester to catch Tweety. I miss those cartoons, but I can't imagine having those as well as all those trailers they play before a movie now, that would just be too much.
Fred
http://journals.aol.com/ravenjuiced/those-eyes-that-the-che rubim-dre/ -
Well we didnt have television in those days so this was all so special to us ,and yes the highlight of the week ,.,.,Love Jan xx
28/10/06 04:50
Beautiful post.
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