Movies

     For my next entry in Blast to the Past, Carol and I talked about what movies were like when she was growing up. It was interesting listening to the memories Carol talked about, and how her movie experience is quite similar in mine!

       Carol started off our conversation by describing what movie theatres looked like when she was a teenager. Carol said she and her family normally went to a theatre. Their favorite theatre was the Esquire, which is located in St.Louis. Carol recalls the Esquire not being nearly as fancy and technologically advanced as it is today. One thing that interested me the most was when she said how the ushers were much more interactive with the customers. She told me that the ushers would actually escort them to their seats in the theatre. I thought it was quite odd how people were assigned seats within the theatre instead of being able to sit wherever they would like, like how we do today.


The Esquire in the mid to late 1900s

 



The Esquire today



       Carol associated the movie theatre with family and the drive-in movie with non-family persons. When carol was growing up drive-in movies were the "cool hang out spots" for teenagers, specifically. Carol went on to tell me how often dates occurred in these locations. She deemed drive-in movies as more private and romantic than the normal movie theatre, because they would be in the comfort of their own car instead of in the open with a bunch of other people. Specifically, she would go to the Airway Centre. This shocked me a lot because I pass the sign of the Airway Centre on a daily basis. I was quite shocked to have learned that that spot once use to be a drive-in movie. Now a Shop n Save and an elementary school have taken over that location.

 

The sign of the Airway Centre Drive-in.


       Next, I asked Carol about her favorite movies at the time. She told me how she greatly favored Disney movies, such as Snow White and Cinderella, at the time. She was a very big Disney fan growing up. I could relate to Carol because I, too, grew up on Disney movies and loved them as well. She told me she liked them because they always had happy endings, and they made her long for a prince charming. Clearly after hearing this, Carol's favorite genre is romance. But, I was kind of surprised when she said she was a little guilty for liking horror movies as well!

 

       As of today, it has been a few years since Carol has been to a movie theatre. When I asked her how does she access movies, she told me that she watched movies either on TV or on Netflix and/or Hulu whenever one of her kids come over. She still makes movies more of a bonding experience with her family to this day!