Mom's Movie Story

24 May 2000 - Mom's Movie Story
My mother grew up in the late 30s and 40s. She lived in the city of Charlotte. Times were very different then. A child could walk on the street alone, go places alone and be safe. Her mother worked so she was alone a good bit of the time. She loved to go to movies. Anytime she could talk Grandmother out of a quarter she would head straight for the theater.
She would go to all kinds of movies. When she would go to a scary movie she would have to bypass the cemetery on the way home and walk out of her way around it. She watched romances. This was during the day that women in film would hold cigarettes in the long holders. She thought smoking looked so glamorous. She fell in love with Al Jolson by watching the movies of his life, “The Jolson Story” and “Jolson Sings Again”. She passed that love on to us. Jolson died almost 20 years before I was born but I know all his songs by heart. I remember Jon and me listening to the old records when we were very small children. When it came right down to it Mom would watch about any movie.
She went to a movie one afternoon. I think she was about 9 years old. She was alone. That sound terrible now but as I said before it was a different time. She was safe. I don’t know if the movie was not as interesting as she liked, or if she was more tired than usual, but she fell asleep. When she woke up the theater was totally dark and empty. She felt her way out to the lobby. The streetlights allowed her to see. The theater was closed and locked. She was locked in.
I have known this story my whole life. I think it had to be so scary for a little girl to be locked in like that. Mom didn’t know what to do. So she stood at the big glass at the front of the theater. Finally someone saw her and called the police. The manager was called. He came and let her out. Her mother and father and neighbors were all frantically looking for her.
That is just a little story, part of my family history that I didn’t want to forget.