Every Other Sunday

Growing Up in the Dark

By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 25, 2015

Every other Sunday

Maid’s day off
Poring over Sunday Herald
Debating what to see
Spread out
Living room
1760 Beacon Street
Heart of Brookline
Office on the first floor
Dinner at 5:30 PM
My job to
Turn on lights in waiting room
Open door for patients
At 7 PM
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Mom’s hours
Tuesday and Thursday Dad’s
Never on Sunday
Dinner and a movie
Downtown
Theatres along Washington Street
Between department stores
Jordan’s, Filene’s, Raymond’s
Art Deco Paramount
Smaller Mayflower
Huge Metropolitan
Shooting gallery
Live ammo
The Laugh Movies
Distorting mirror in front
Funny to see yourself
Large or small
Like eat me drink me
I begged for cowboys
John Wayne, Randolph Scott
Loved seeing horses
Long afternoons
B movie, previews
Lowell Thomas Movietone News
Eyes and ears of the world
Then the feature
Mom insisted on
Exeter Street Theatre
In the former
Spritualists’ Temple
Séances in the basement
Every Alec Guinness picture
Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford
Hilarious Terry-Thomas
Foreign films
Then rare and sophisticated
No candy or popcorn
At the Exeter
On Saturday afternoons
Walked to
Coolidge Corner or Cleveland Circle
The Egyptian in Brighton
Exotic lobby
Longer walk
Where I saw thrilling
King Solomon’s Mines
Stopped for penny candy
During the trudge home
Matinees
Saw everything
Didn’t seem to matter
Miracles in the dark
Took time to realize
They weren’t all great
Some better than others
Wondered why
Birth of a critic