Playing Hooky

As I SEE It

By

Thom Gossom, Jr.

Playing Hooky.

It’s a beautiful day outside and you can’t resist. While others e-mail away at work and a precious few take a late lunch or maybe slip away for an afternoon of shopping, I’ve always enjoyed the rare day of clearing my calendar and playing hooky at an afternoon movie.

Perhaps it’s reverting back to childhood.

It was always a special treat to visit the flashing lights of the Carver Theater in downtown Birmingham, Alabama on a Saturday afternoon and descend into a world of make believe.

In those days my friends and I would walk into that crush velvet interior, smell the aroma of freshly popped popcorn, grab a bag and a soda and rush to our seats before the lights went down.

The trailing light of the projector would split the darkness with a couple of cartoons, maybe a short film and then two feature movies, where the hero always saved the world from some dastardly creature or person.

In the days before malls, stadium seating, texting and loud ear shattering sound effects, the downtown movie theatre on a Saturday afternoon was the “it” thing for us as kids.

My Dad agrees as he remembers his childhood. “It was a treat for us to go to the movies in downtown Wetumpka, Alabama. Even though in those days we had to sit in the upstairs balcony and the whites sat downstairs. It was so rare we got to go.”

At the Carver, the audience would often chime in with the dialogue on the screen. Someone might talk back to the movie as Tarzan proceeded to escape dozens of natives by flying away on a tree vine. In the 1960’s a patron might cheer on Jim Brown as he escaped the bad white men trying to do him harm. It was fun and an escape from the reality of the day.

Luckily, as an adult it is a pleasure I’ve been able to continue. My wise wife gives me prepaid theatre tickets and a cash card for concessions as Christmas gifts, allowing me to feed my guilty pleasure at an independent theatre chain. On my day of hooky I shuffle my schedule, hop my bike and peddle down the road with anticipation and a huge grin on my face. Having put the world on hold, I slip into the theatre, turn down my cell, load up on popcorn and a soda like I did in yesteryear and without a trace of guilt slip into the darkness.