Saturday Matinee

movie-theatre
The movies on allowance day.

Queues winding round corners, making the feast inside even more fantastic because access to it was so difficult. I no longer remember everything I saw, but the emotions, the excitement, the smell are still vivid. The sound of a bell, the light slowly dimming. Eyes tight shut, the more so for the hands pressed against them; and when finally you looked again, the miracle was already there on the screen. The pictures, the flight from reality, the world of dreams: experiences and people I believed would become part of my everyday life in the future. Tragedies so great that there was still a lump in the throat many hours later. Wonders so great that my feet did not touch the ground all the way home.

~ Liv Ullman, Changing (Knopf, 1976)


Notes:

Comments

  1. Oh, yes…and…at our Saturday Matinee I fell in love with Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers over and over again…but not before we sang the Star Spangled Banner. I was too young to read the words to the song projected on the screen, but held my hand over my heart and pretended. Every Saturday. Again. And again.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. My favorite instant memory was a double feature with Jason and the Argonauts and Gulliver’s Travels.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I remember. I saw “Grease” at least 12 times. I make no apologies 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  4. I love going to the movies. In our world of instant gratification and access, it still seems like a slow, indulgent treat.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. i have always loved the moving pictures.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Still my Magic Place.

    Liked by 1 person

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