memories #11                                                                                                        

                                                MOVIES AT MIDNIGHT

     The summer before the start of junior high, I began searching for areas of independence. After all, I would be seventh grader. This process of growing up, as my parents let out some rope to see what I could handle, was a pain.  

     I was beginning to show my unwillingness to cooperate with my parents, teachers and any other adult authority.  This, after all, was what becoming a teenager was all about.  I felt pressured into doing things I didn’t want to do.  Such things as mowing the yard, doing my homework and cleaning my room were at the top of my list.  I felt I could do some things without permission because I was now a full fledged teenager.

     That summer I made a new friend who had just recently moved to Durango.  He was the same age as I but had been more places and had seen more things then I.  I was awed by what he said and did.   No one in Durango could claim the same experiences.  This meant trouble but I couldn’t see that coming.

     My new friend had a job at a drive in movie theater changing the marquee in the middle of the week.  He invited me to help one summer evening with the promise of a free double feature.  The marquee needed changed after the first feature had been shown and the second one had just begun.

the marquee

     Our seats for this double feature were in a 49 Ford parked next to the concession stand or snack bar.  It belonged to one of the teenage girls who worked inside serving customers popcorn and sodas.  We watched the first feature with complimentary popcorn and cokes.  

     When the first feature was over I followed my friend to the marquee and helped him change the letters.  I didn’t realize how big the letters were until I held them in my hands.  It was fun, new and exciting doing something I had never done before.

     When we finished, we went back to the car and talked about driving and when we would finally be able to legally drive.  I was young enough then to not really have thought much about driving but my learned friend of the world had driven many times.  As we talked he told me that he had permission to drive the car we were in around the inside part of the drive and when there weren’t many cars at the theater.  This was one of those nights.   A turn of the key, the engine started and away we went.

     My friend decided it wasn’t cool to just drive around the parking lot and proceeded out the lot onto the main drag.  What a thrill!  I was dragging main with the older teenagers although none of them gave us a second look.  But we thought they did and that was important to us.  I imagine an hour passed before we decided to return to the theater.  

     We drove in as the second feature was ending to find cop cars waiting in the space we had vacated.  After the car was parked, we found out that the police were after us.  The girl in the concession stand had reported the car has stolen.  

     I was scared to death.  I nearly peed my pants right there, but that wouldn’t have been cool so my bladder remained intact and full.  The girl was upset.  She had not given permission to us to drive around in her car.  I was shocked.  My friend had lied and I was getting into trouble for it.

     After receiving a lecture from the irate police officers, they decided that each of us should be escorted home and our parents informed of our dastardly deeds.  Now I was really scared.  I didn’t want to face my father.  I would suffer numerous blows to my posterior accompanied by weeks of grounding.  This would be worse than any police scolding I could ever receive.  I broke down and began to cry and sobbed all the way in the backseat of the police car to our house.  

     As we approached the front door my sobs broke into loud wailings, followed by uncontrolled shaking.  My mother opened the door.  Perhaps father wasn’t there.  Just maybe I could escape some of the worst punishment and have my mother run interference for me.  No such luck.  Around the door stood my father.  

     After a rather lengthy explanation by the police officer and some private conversation between him and my father, the police officer left. My father turned toward me and I faced him with my bloodshot eyes ready for the worse to come.

     “To bed with you man”,  were the only words my father spoke.   I went without asking any questions and waited for my parents to come into my room.  The great lecture would be next.  I began to cry again. 

     I awoke the next morning apparently having cried myself to sleep.  Both of my parents were home.  Mom had breakfast fixed and Dad and I sat silently at the table.  Nothing was said for a long, long time.  Finally my father said he only wanted one thing out of this incident and I had no say about it.  I was not to see my friend again.

     I didn’t see my friend again.  He moved toward the end of that summer somewhere around Denver.  Years later we learned that he had been constantly in trouble with the law and had ended up in reform school.

     To this day I can’t remember what either movie was about but I certainly remember how I felt when we were caught.  I wonder what my father and the police officer talked about?