Circa 1950, A.D. Kelly School in Wallace, Alabama. The "Pitchur Show" was held in the auditorium. Mr. Bill Grissett made his regular run on our route to haul us to the school house on Friday nights. Ride cost a dime, "Pitchur Show" cost a dime and a "cocolar" cost a nickel. Life was really, really good back then.
I cannot tell you how our school got a film projector and screen. Our Principal, Mr. B. G. Tew somehow gave our communities of Wallace, Barnett Crossroads, Wildfork and others something wonderful to experience just like our contemporaries from Brewton, Flomaton and Atmore had.
For a short time in my childhood we got to enjoy this event. My memory gives me, Gene Autry with his sidekick Pat Buttrum, along with the horse, Champ. When we played cowboy's and Indians, I was Gene Autry riding Champ or Audie Murphy on his horse, Joe Queen. I knew about Joe Queen from reading about him in a movie magazine. Audie was my favorite because he was so cute and he was a war hero. I heard people talking about his heroism. That made him my hero.
"If I can't be Audie Murphy, I ain't playing".
Back and forth until,
I played Audie Murphy.
Joe Queen could run like the wind, buck, and whinny. A rag tied around my neck, bare feet, whacking my leg to make Joe Queen go faster was fun rounded to the highest power.
Sometimes I was Gene Autry singing, "You Are My Sunshine" as Champ ambled along the trails where invisible Indians lay in wait. We never had any visible Indians in our games as we didn't have enough bodies. We knew they were hiding in the gall berry swale near the "mudhole". Gene Autry, or Audie Murphy along with Roy Rogers or Hopalong Cassidy always won the fight. Indians lay dead until the next time.
***Please Lord, don't let this description become politically offensive.
Back to the "Pitchur Show".
Daddy would know about the show from a long way out and had four quarters in his pocket to give to me and my three older siblings to enjoy ourselves.
The dime ride to the school house was such a fun time as we all built up a head of steam, so to speak, for the coming event.
Admission of a dime was paid at the door to the auditorium, seating was open to first come, first served. Lots of clambering about to choose and discard in hopes of better.
SHOWTIME:
Mr. Tew, on time, standing on stage in front of the little screen advising us of protocol.
"No talking after the lights are dimmed, no moving around, no trip to the restroom until intermission".
Understood and respected.
Lights dimmed, excited rustling, quieting of nervous giggles, shushing, Shushing, SHUSHING!
Projector light dimly reflecting, smoky light streaming toward the screen where heart throbbing sounds of music bring the beautiful lady wrapped in a shawl, holding a torch above her head. Columbia Pictures Corporation presents:
The Three Stooges. Moe, Larry & Curly.
Loud laughter and clapping.
Or, Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Or, The Strawberry Roan staring Gene Autry.
It didn't really matter what was showing as we were in that wonderful world of black and white fantasy, attention paid with dead aim focus.
Once in awhile the celluloid film would break, Mr. Tew would have to ask for the overhead lights be turned on so he could see how to rethread the thing back through the reel. Down time was good for socializing.
INTERMISSION:
Chaos! Pushing and shoving to the line in front of the tired old Coca Cola machine. Nickel shoved into the slot, thump, clatter, whollop. Grabbed, bottle neck pressed into the cap opener. So cold, filled with minutiae slivers of ice. So delicious!
Others squirming/squeezing in wait line to use the toilets..
SECOND SHOWING:
Usually a cartoon, sometimes a travelogue. Once a commercial film from Hershey showing how the chocolate bars were made. Funny to think of that now, but wonderful to view then.
Warner Bros. Looney Tunes kept us clapping and laughing. I vividly remember a travelogue sponsored by Greyhound Bus Lines showing a color film of driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. A beautiful young lady, dressed in a tailored suit of blue and gray with a perky cap on her head giving a guided tour as the film showed the beautiful scenery through the front windshield and over the drivers shoulder. It was if we were sitting on that bus looking ahead at all the beauty as we rolled along on that visual ride That was my first view of the Smoky Mountains. That memory is imprinted on my heart and mind even today.
THE END:
Loaded on the bus for the trip home, we all talked about and relived those movies. One vivid memory from a movie was of a little girl being frightened by seeing some Indians jumping off rocks to fight the cowboys. Lots of shooting, scalping, war whoops and fist bopping was nerve wracking to say the least. Cowboy's always won though. She cried all the way home.
Such pure and simple fun. I wonder if the young today will have this kind of experience?
I wish I could catch lightening in a bottle on this memory to share with others, but know this will have to do.
Time Hop 1950
"PITCHUR SHOW"
