Well, I"m not really traveling anywhere - except maybe in my mind. Something motivated me to post this on my FB page, and then I thought, "Why not? I'll post in on the forum." So, read it or move on, all up to you.
Story time:
Well, I'm having fun this morning. TCM always has lots of great 'filler' programs overnight. I just watched "The Stampede," an hour-long early John Wayne movie. It's always funny to watch early acting, like the fights, for example.
After that came an episode of Batman and Robin, long before Adam West. "Target - Robin." Batman infiltrates the Wizards gang (dressed in civvies.) To prove his loyalty, he is ordered to kill captive Robin. It is Chapter Six of "The Fatal Blast." (Voice over,) "Will the Wizard get to use his evil machine? Who is this that his men have captured? For the answer, see "The Fatal Blast!" Chapter seven of BATMAN and Robin, at this theater next week!"
So cool. Remember those days? You'd go to the theater on a Saturday afternoon. You'd get a serial episode, Batman and Robin, The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers (and his horse, Trigger,) Hopalong Cassidy, Sky King and Gene Autry. Serials, maybe 7 or 8 or 10 episodes in total, all black and white, one each week. "Come back NEXT week for the NEXT exciting episode of "THE LONE RANGER," with a hearty "Hi-Yo-Silver, AWAYYYYYYY " in the background. Color hadn't even been invented yet except for things like "The Wizard of Oz.
Then we'd get a cartoon. We all loved Loony Tunes - Bugs Bunny sometimes with Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester and Tweety. Then there was The Roadrunner, with Wily Coyote. So much cool stuff for kids in their tens to early teens. I would always ride my bike down there.
This led to probably my first criminal enterprise. Back then, you could have a T.V. Guide route. You'd go out and get your customers, then, each week, they'd send you your shipment in a large manila envelope and you'd go out and deliver them.
One Saturday, I finished my route and headed downtown. I most always would have two or three Guides left over. So I carried my envelope with me. I went to the Western Auto store downtown and went upstairs to the toy dept. I really have no idea why, as I had no money.
Anyway, being the days of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry (The singing cowboy,) Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, all us boys loved to play Cowboys and Indians. So I remember I was looking at the cap guns. I found one I liked and decided I had to have it. So I innocently walked around a bit more and found no one. I went back to the gun, slipped it into my envelope, walked down the stairs and walked out. Got on my bike and rode home.
I'm guessing I hid it in my dresser drawer because I remember that Mom found it. She asked me where I got it, and I'm thinking I said, "I found it." Whatever I said, I don't really remember. But it apparently was enough to either convince her, or was at least enough to keep me from getting my butt paddled, lol.
And, today, after Batman, an episode of none other than POPEYE, THE SAILOR, with Olive Oyl and Bluto. Funny, funny stuff. I remember seeing all these things at the Arcadia Theater in Temple, Texas. I'd ride my bike downtown. Such happy memories, such great times. Do you ever wish you could just go back to being a kid? Todays kids don't even know what it means to just go outside and play. Tag, Hide and Seek, Cowboys and Indians, Cops and Robbers. Riding our bikes around the neighborhood, waiting for the Ice Cream man. As a kid, I had no concept of distance. Turns out the school I went to, Lanier Elementary, was about a half mile south. Downtown to the Arcadia was only just over 1/4 mile further. But we could pretty much ride our bikes wherever we wanted - as long as we were home by dark. Our parents didn't worry.
Thanks for listening, folks. "Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end...."
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This was our home. The Pecan Tree usually had a good yield. Us kids would go collect the pecans. Then that night, we'd have a pecan shelling party. Then the next afternoon, Mom would cook up a couple of pecan pies.
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At first, my room was in the left rear in this shot. My sisters shared the room in front and Mom and Dad had the rear one. Then Dad converted the attic into a room for me. Huge. The attic was, of course, the size of the whole house. So he installed floors, wallboard, painted, put in a bed and a table and an electric train. Then my sisters got their own rooms.
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My grade school
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I learned to play trumpet right here, in this room.
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This is the Arcadia Theater at night. I don't remember if the family ever went there at night. We usually went to drive-ins - another long gone relic of a long gone era.
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The Arcadia today. Long closed and I think the buildings around it are not from my day..
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