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Discover Mid-America — July 2008
(Editor’s Note: As a way of introducing Discover’s newest associate, friend and fellow writer Mike Walker presents this month’s Refurnished Thoughts column. —BR)
Deeper into the love of the ‘old’
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by Mike Walker
I can’t remember when, as one writer put it, I became nostalgic for times I never lived in. But sometime in the early ‘70s, I began to migrate from the Beatles to Benny Goodman, from Grand Funk to Glenn Miller, from Al Green to Al Jolson. So what’s a Tin Pan Alley singer, ukulele player, Coke bottle collector, and country drive-taker to do? Turns out, in my case, to work for an antique, collectible and “historic tourism” publication.
My obsession with the past goes further than that. Long ago my wife and I began taking serendipity country drives. Our idea of a good time was to wander small town squares perusing quant little antique shops or exploring old, abandoned farm houses whose walls echoed the voices of families who lived their long ago. We loved to visit old country graveyards, with markers that told so much more than dates of dying, also of lifetimes of dreams, loves and heartbreaks.
One thing I do remember from my childhood is the magical experience of going to “the show.” Before the malls and megaplexes took over, going to the movies meant an escape to paradise. Grand palaces like the Worth Theatre, built in the 1920s in Fort Worth during an American obsession with all things Egyptian, gave me thrills as I sat in the luxurious balcony watching a color cartoon, a newsreel and two movies.
My wife and I spent the summer of 2006 scouring the back roads of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska for classic movie theaters where the experiences of my childhood remained alive. We stayed in bed and breakfasts, old motels and sometimes camped under the stars, waiting with anticipation to find the next hidden movie theater gem, and we found over sixty. Based on our travels, we wrote a book called Cinemental Journeys: An Uncommon Guide to Classic Movie Theaters — Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska. We loved movie houses like the Story Theater in Story City, IA. The Story, built in 1913 originally an vaudeville house, has undergone almost no renovation since 1933. The actors’ dressing rooms in the back are intact with signs warning “No Spiting!” (Ah, the days before spell check.) If you’ve got three bucks, you can get a ticket and a lollipop, and get change back!
Now it’s my fortune to promote the world of antiques, all things historical, flea markets and crafts. While the corner grocery stores, full-serve gas stations and neighborhood diners are mostly history, bulldozed away by the corporate behemoth, antique shops and flea markets remain to this day as mostly “mom and pop” enterprises. I salute all of them for everything they do and I look forward to doing what I can to help them succeed.
Contact Mike Walker at mikewalker@discoverypub.com.
> Refurnished Thoughts Archive — past columns
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