State Theatre

Every Saturday we wanted to go to the movies, We would beg Leon for Money to to , perhpas 25 cents cor the movie , and a dime for popcorn and soda. The movie always had seriels, Lone Ranger, Zorro or something similar. Every week it ended with a cliff hanger, if you missed a show you did not know what happened to your hero. one week Zorro was riding a buckboard over the edge of a cliff, It was horrifying, Of course we knew he would make it but what if they decided to end his reign?Man the suspense was intruguing. Coy and I often discussed the options. Next Saturday we would pick up the story line, with the buckboard scene, and at the last minute you would see Zorro jump off and make it. Always left us in suspense. Of course there was a movie too but the weekly seriels kept us coming back.
We were pretty much allowed to roam Red Bluff. After all it was a small town and I had a brother, or My Dad working at one or more of the restaurants. The togetherness of my family helped us through the hard times. Often I wonder how we made it at all. My sisters were not much help and it made me angry to have to help with the dishes. I wanted to go play, or get into mischief.
We often played ball with our cousins, We did not have a regular baseball so my dad improvised. He would take a walnut, tap a small nail into it, with a piece of string attached. He would then wind the twine around the nut until it was the size of a baseball. We had so much fun with a home made ball. At least we had fun until it came unraveled. One time we hit it over the fence into a ladys yard. She went out picked up the ball and took it into her house. My cousin, Wayne Benefield, walked over and asked her for it, she shut the door, He then leaned on the doorbell, when she opened the door again, he held out his hand and said, "The Pill, Lady the Pill." She handed the ball over. On another occasion we would stop and pick plums from a colored ladys tree, We did not go into her yard but would pick them up outside. Every time she saw us she would say "Move on boys, dont bother them plums, them plums belong to me". We still laugh about that.
I loved going to the Red Bluff Plunge. I was a pretty good swimmer, I was self taught. When we went I always went to the highest diving board. I was never afraid of the water. Guess you can tell that by the pipeline walks I took. When I joined the Navy that lack of fear helped me a lot. Guess that story is a few years down the line.

Yes life in Red Bluff was a lot of fun, for the most part, we went to movies, we roamed the streets, we had our Benefield cousins to play with, We had lots of aunts and uncles around. when we moved back to arkansas all that was gone. No more movies, we lived in the country, We did go swimming in the old creeks but never made it to the local swimming pool. We were no better off or no worse off, still just poor with no real baseballs or bats. Oh yes, our bats were usually an old two by four that was whittled down or an ax handle. We always made the best of things, After all we were a family and family sticks together.

Come back and check me out I have lots more stories.