The ubiquitous and peripatetic Silas Mullins opined last week that he thought that a column about the old Pine Theatre would be in order.

A column about the historic show house would certainly not be the first I have written. However, since it has been a while and since I am aware that not everyone has read every single thing I have written, here are a few more remembrances.

Memories of the Pine theatre began, for me, at the beginning. I mean the very start.

When the first phase of the construction began around 1936, we had just moved from East Pineville to a place on Main Street just about where Pat's Fashions is located now. It goes without saying that news that a theatre was coming and was now actually under construction was he biggest thing in our young lives at the time.

Most of us, especially the younger kids, had never seen a moving picture show. Our imaginations went wild and our anticipation grew with each passing day.

Every day, on our way to and from school, we monitored the progress of the construction. We walked from home to the old wooden schoolhouse that was situated where the Church of God is now located. We walked on the court house sidewalk opposite the construction site beside the then new Crews' Store building.

When the theatre was near completion, a contest was held to pick a name for the showhouse. As we know, the appropriate moniker was chosen. Throughout its existence, it would be "The Pine Theatre".

The name would be perpetuated forever in the hearts and minds of those who spent so many happy hours of their youth in the place where friends met, girls were flirted with and grown-ups went for a brief respite from the worries or the Great Depression and, later, World War II.

As part of the grand opening, children were marched down from the grade school and treated to a free movie. I don't remember the name of that movie, but the shooting began when we hit our seats and continued to the end of the movie--and we loved it.

The Saturday matinee was a young boy's dream. For a dime you could see two shoot-em-up westerns, a serial, previews and a cartoon.

However, it needs to be said that a dime was not that easy to come by. But ingenuity and a little work usually raised the ten cents. Thank goodness for the penny per bottle deposit. We sold most of our bottles to Crews'. We did, however venture into the otherwise forbidden confines of the pool room to sell our beer bottles.

( More about the Pine Theatre next week).

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