THE MOVING PICTURE SHOW

Mother said that if Daddy got home from the field in time, they might go to the moving picture show. Margaret and Jenny had just had shampoos and baths. Jenny paraded around, swathed in a big towel. It felt good to be so clean after a week of sweaty playing in the hot dusty August weather.

“We’re going to see Shirley Temple,” said Margaret. “She’s the prettiest little girl in the whole world.”

Jenny asked, “Will she be in town?”

“Of course not,” Margaret explained. “There will be big moving pictures of her on a screen on the stage. She lives in Hollywood, California. That’s where they make movies. It’s a long ways west of here.”

Jenny went into the parlor and looked at the western horizon where the sun always went down. Margaret had been to a movie once when she stayed with her cousin in town for a week. Jenny had never seen a movie. Mother said that some people went to every movie that was shown in town. She said she guessed that was all right if people had nothing better to do with their money. Jenny knew that going to the show must be very expensive.

Finally Daddy came home on the tractor. He did the chores, got his bath in the horse tank behind the barn and then got dressed in clean clothes, wearing a clean white shirt and his good trousers, while Mother got supper. Jenny was so exited about going to the show that she could scarcely eat a bite. She thought they would never all be ready, but at last they were.

After the drive to town, they got out of the car and walked toward the Blair theater in the refreshing cool of the summer evening. Jenny was awed by the red. yellow and orange lights that ran around and around the sign made of little light bulbs without ceasing like water flowing. Daddy walked up to the glassed- in ticket window.

“Two adult’s and two children’s,” he said. Jenny was so proud of Daddy. No matter where they went or what they did, he always knew what to do. He was never ever frightened.

As they walked through the first door, Jenny could smell pop corn, and she saw a pop corn machine. Some people were buying sackfuls, but Jenny didn’t ask for any because Mother had already said they wouldn’t buy any pop corn at the movies, that it was just too expensive. A big boy in a white uniform with red braid on it and a matching cap, pushed aside a velvet curtain and shone his flashlight so they could see to walk down the sloping carpeted aisle. The floor seemed to fall away under Jenny’s feet as she walked. The boy showed them a place where the four of them could sit. All around Jenny could see the silhouettes of many heads.

“Watch the picture,” Mother said to Jenny. but a tall man was sitting in front of her and she couldn’t see the screen, so Mother traded places with Jenny and told Jenny she could stand on her knees in her seat. This was much better. They were showing the last part of the Shirley Temple movie and would be showing it again. Jenny gazed intently at the bright screen. How fast the people moved and how fast they all talked. Everywhere they went, it was raining, even inside buildings and houses, but they didn’t seem to get wet. Jenny thought the little girl with the curls and dimples was very pretty indeed. She sang and danced and laughed and cried. She must have a whole closet full of beautiful dresses.

Jenny’s eyes burned. She looked away from the screen and up at the ceiling. From up high and to the back she could hear a faint hum. She saw some beams of light. It looked like fireflies were flitting back and forth in the beams. Somebody from the balcony threw down their empty pop corn sack. Jenny wondered where it landed.

Next there were pictures of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They were being chased by a cat with big feet. The children in the first rows screamed with laughter, but Jenny couldn’t find anything funny about the stuttering animals as they jerked nervously about the screen, smashing into things and always chasing or being chased. After the cartoon, there were pictures of real people, men making speeches, a woman flying an airplane, soldiers marching, and the king and queen of England with their two little girls. Then the Shirley Temple movie began again and after a long while Daddy said, “This is where we came in,” and started to get up. Jenny was glad it was time to go.

The lights outside the theater seemed dazzlingly bright. The sky was totally dark by now. It was a different world inside the theater and it was different than when they had gone in. Jenny got her directions turned around and didn’t know her way back to the car.

“How’d you like the show, Jenny?” Daddy asked.

"It was Okay.” Jenny said. She wished she looked like Shirley Temple.

Margaret said she just loved the show. All the way home she kept singing, “It’s a gooood ship, lol-lee-pop. It’s a sweeet trip. To the can-deeee shop. And there you are . Hap-py landing on a chocolate bar.” This was one of the songs that Shirley Temple had sung.

“Say, does it rain a lot in Hollywood, California where they make the movies?” Jenny wanted to know.

“Well, I suppose it rains a lot more than it does here,” said Mother.

So that was it. That was the reason it was raining all the time at the show.