When I was a kid, 15 years old in Buckfield, we used to head over Streaked Mountain to see a movie on a Saturday night. That was in the day when theaters sold 10-cent popcorn and ushers with flashlights showed people to their seats.
It was a place to hang out, visit with friends and, maybe, pull the pigtail of the girl sitting in front of you.
Through the years, the small theaters died out and nothing took their place. Finally, years later, in came a new cinema complex. Happy days were here again. For 16 years or so, our youngsters had a place to meet again. More movies, more games, and a big parking lot.
Alas, due to rising costs, the cinema has left town. What will the youngsters have for recreation now?
I am an old man now, and my wife and I sit in front of the television, watching gangster films, science fiction, zombies, etc. We live right next to the old Paris Theater and sometimes, at night, I look out at the dark building. I seem to get a whiff of popcorn and can almost hear Clark Gable say again to Scarlett O’Hara, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
Anyway, it is the end of an era that has slipped away from us … “gone with the wind.”
Reginald Jack, South Paris
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