The old Ferguson theater in Hamlin, Texas where I grew up was the only theater in town and probably sat about 200 people. I was a teenager before I realized that its balcony was only for the "non-white" population. It did have a cry room, I remember. Once a month the movie schedule would be placed in all the grocery sacks at Piggly-Wiggly. We would circle all the movies we wanted to see and hang it on the wall above the kitchen table. Our family went often during the week(because prices were cheaper then). My brothers and I always went to the Saturday morning show featuring Hollywood cowboys like Roy Roges and Gene Autry.---------One of the only handicapped persons I knew in Hamlin was the pop-corn man, Mr. Andress ,who was blind. His popcorn machine was not inside the movie, but rather across the street from it(I don't know why). The smell of popcorn permeated downtown Hamlin about 6 :15 every evening before the movie began. Kids often stood and watched the old man pour oil and popcorn in his machine. We counted the seconds before the kernels popped. (There was not much to do in Hamlin). Mr. Andress's niece was there with him to count change--I thought that was a cool job. He always stuck his thumb just inside the lip of the popcorn sack so that he did not overfill the sack and have popcorn littering the sidewalk. In his dark glasses and big smile, he seemed happy greeting all the movie-goers and supplying their movie munchies. I admired his stoic ability to serve the public. Mr. Andress wasa fixture in my childhood and in Hamlin for many years until television forced the closing of the old theater. A bank now stands on its site. What a tragedy! That's all for now, I have to go pop some popcorn.
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