The End Is Near!

     Not the end of the world (nobody knows when that will happen). And not the end of my blog (I need this too much to stop doing it). No, it's the end of something far more important. Sunday night the Ashley Theater in Valdosta is closing for good. If you've read much of my writing you know how much I looooooove going to the movies. I would rather go to the theater than watch a movie at home any day. I love everything about movie theaters, except their closing.
     The Ashley Theater is the "Dollar theater" although it's actually $2.50. You've probably got one like it in your town (although for how long I don't know). "Dollar theaters" are usually the old theater in a town. A big, fancy, newfangled, corporate owned, all digital, 27 screen super cinema with stadium seating, theater comes to town, surrounded by a mall, restaurants, and pretty soon everyone is watching movies there and the little, privately owned and operated cinema suddenly looks like an outdated relic, a fossil that technology has passed by. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy going to the newfangled cinemas too (see my previous post, http://www.brandonbritton.blogspot.com/search?q=movies#!http://brandonbritton.blogspot.com/2011/12/36-day-17-written-tuesday-december-27.html). The sound system, the crystal clear digital picture on a ginormous screen, the oversized, plush rocking seats. They are nice.........but.....they don't have the dingy, small, cavernous, nostalgia and character of the old ones that are still lingering around like artifacts from my childhood.
     I have found, as I grow older, that I appreciate the simplicity of things from my childhood. The last little bit of technological darkness before the cyber dawn. Before DVR's, smartphones and the internet, when we only had three channels, no remote controls, vinyl records and a few little squares of light on my television constituted a video game (Atari). It was a time when most of these "dollar theaters" were built. Funny thing is, they probably charged about the same to see a movie back then as they do now. Wouldn't it be great if we could say that about a lot of other things (gas, milk, cars)? I guess I love these theaters because they remind me of the "old days" (I know that seems comical to many of you who are quite older than me). They still bear the same architecture, decorations and technology as they did when they were built and I believe because of that they are time machines enabling you to step back thirty years and breathe its air for a couple of hours. Or they are like museums recreating a time long ago that I actually lived in. Usually the theater itself is much more narrow, and quite a bit longer from front to back than our modern ones. Something about these dimensions creates a changed perspective of the screen and the audience. You can almost always count on a few seats being covered with a trash bag because they are broken. The movies they feature are stuck in release date purgatory, no longer new releases worthy of the megaplexes, and not yet ready for DVD release. The only place you will catch them is at the dollar theaters. I also like the fact that most of the time they are virtually empty. As much as I enjoy going to the movies, the experience is magnified if I am the only one in the theater (psychologically I still haven't figured out why it is that I enjoy this, and in general being in places by myself that would normally be filled with people; perhaps it's something to do with the only child thing). The fewer people in the theater the better. It gives it an almost creepy, spooky, 70's horror film feel (I know I'm weird, you don' have to point it out to me).
     My first "indoor" movie was at the Crockett Theater in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Not to be confused with the Crockett Cinema. You wanna talk about old theaters, the Crockett Theater was one of those old beauties from the early era of cinema. I'm talking 1930-50's era. It has the majestic, ornately designed "3-D" marquis sign out front. There was the single person ticket booth at the entrance and the inside......breathtaking. It looked like you were walking into a famous opera house. It even had a balcony, which we sat in! The movie was "The Goonies." I'll never forget my aunt Paula taking me and my cousin Clayton. I think this was when I first fell in love with old movie theaters. I was nine years old and I loved it so much that I had my 10th birthday at the movies. It was Rocky IV and I found a twenty dollar bill on the floor and for years after that I would walk the aisles looking under seats before I would leave the theater. Previous to this excursion I had only ever been to drive ins. You wanna get me talking about something I love? Get me started in on drive ins, but that's a blog for another day.
     Sadly, the Ashley Theater is another cinema for another day. A day that has passed us by and will likely never come this way again. When we visited Valdosta for the first time, literally the first time, a full year before being offered a job here, Po and I went to see a movie at the Ashley Theater. In the four years since we have been many, many times. Sadly, I will be out of town with work on Sunday night when they show their last movie, otherwise I would be there. I still may try to get by tomorrow if I can, just for one last time. Just like your favorite movie that you don't want to end, at some point the closing credits must roll. Too bad there won't be a sequel.