“Movies, they were the thing. Movies took you away. You could count on popcorn and happy endings.”
I woke up to another cloudy day, but rain is predicted so I don’t mind the clouds so much. We are still in the 40’s, and the high today will be 47°. I haven’t any errands so I’ll stay close to home today. I noticed some paper I missed in the other side of the yard so I’ll grab my prisoner stick and get cleaning.
When I was a kid, I mostly walked to Sunday mass. I sat in the back of the church, the best place for a hasty exit. I never wore a hat, but I did wear a lacy mantilla. One time I Bobby pinned Kleenex to my hair when I forgot my mantilla. As silly as it looked, other women too wore the same head covering, Kleenex with Bobby pins. They were always white Kleenex. I found mass boring. Back then it was still in Latin. I was not a fan of sermons. They made the mass longer so I went to mass downstairs where there was no sermon. The pews were always filled. People stood in the back. They didn’t want a sermon either. A couple of times I also stood and sort of hid in the back where there were racks on the back wall filled with pamphlets. I used to read them to pass the time. I was never devout.
Every kid I knew had a sled, ice skates and a bike. They were the necessities of life. My bike was my favorite. I remember the Christmas when I got it. That blue bike was the first thing I saw when I was going down stairs and peeked over the railing to see what was under the tree. My eyes saw only that bike.
My favorite Sunday dinner was always roast beef, mashed potatoes and peas. My mother made great gravy. It was never lumpy. I used to put the gravy in the well I made on the top of the potatoes. Sometimes I mixed the peas and the potatoes. It was ugly but tasty. Mostly we just grabbed cookies for dessert. They were the mobile foods.
My new TV is delayed so I am still watching my iPad and my computer. Last night I watched Revolt of the Zombies from 1936. It was wonderfully bad. I just wished I had popcorn oozing with butter or cheese popcorn or a candy bar, maybe a Milky Way or a Mounds. I’ll put them on the shopping list, all of them.
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February 12, 2023 at 2:19 pm
Sunday lunch.
Once upon a time we would go down the pub for a couple of beers, coming home for a heavy lunch featuring roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes and probably desert. In a semi comatose state, we would plonk down in front of the TV to hear Brian Moore present highlights of the previous day’s soccer games in “The Big Match”
It was idyllic really and repeated each and every week
Right, TV is off, Dylan is singing, my new book on Harold Wilson awaits along with a big boy nap before the Super Bowl
February 12, 2023 at 5:50 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I’d be seated beside for that lunch. It sounds perfect!
My father would be the one plonking down in front of the TV, but he’d watch football, his favorite Giants back then, pre-Patriots.
Our Sunday always included Sunday breakfast, the paper and donuts. My father used to bring donuts home after church. When we lived on the Cape, the best donut shop was down the street where you could watch the process and go home with warm donuts.
No TV here. I just recharged my iPad so I can watch TV.
Enjoy the game!!
February 12, 2023 at 7:15 pm
Hi Kat,
I agree with you about the roast beef dinner. Today we hit a high temperature of 68° under clear skies.
Your popcorn songs reminded me of a friend of my father. He lived in Kansas City Missouri and he made several millions of dollars from the popcorn business.
There’s a famous shopping center in Kansas City called, The Country Club Plaza. This was the country’s first planned suburban shopping area designed with cars in mind. My father’s friend needed something for his retired father to do in the late 1950s. He opened a popcorn store down the block from the movie theater in the Plaza. He and his father sold caramel popcorn and other specialty flavored varieties. His store was so successful that he opened up popcorn stands at the entrances to the first chains of discount department stores in the late 1950s. He bought popcorn machines for a couple of hundred dollars and paid an employee minimum wage to sell bags of the stuff for a quarter. This led him into opening snack bars in the same stores. When I asked him if popcorn was profitable, he replied. “I buy a 500 lb. bag of un-popped popcorn for $20. Just imagine how many hundreds of small bags of popped popcorn you get from a 500 lb. bag at twenty five cents for each small bag. 🙂
Think how much money the movie theaters make from the concession stand. They could almost give the movie away for free. 🙂
Watching the Super Bowl even though I don’t have a dog in this fight.
February 12, 2023 at 9:45 pm
Hi Bob,
We stayed in the 40’s until a little while ago when we went down to 38°. Rain is a probability starting by 11.
Wow, who knew popcorn could be so profitable. That guy intuitively picked the right spots for his popcorn wagons I like the first one down the street from the movie theater. I wonder if it cut down on their huge concession stand profits. I sneak in candy and sometimes popcorn against the rules. Usually I just buy a drink.
I’m not watching the Super Bowl. I don’t have the interest with no dog in the fight.
February 12, 2023 at 9:56 pm
We always sneak candy into the movies, but we never tried to sneak in popcorn. Usually we go to the movies before dinner and if I eat popcorn it fills me up. I can’t pass up the large size with the free refill. 🙂
February 12, 2023 at 10:19 pm
I sneak in a package of cheddar popcorn every now and then. I like what the theater sells if the popcorn is fresh. I Mae sure it has just been popped.
If I go to the movies, it is to an early matinee.