Kiddie Show

The Jefferson Theater (a movie theater) in downtown Beaumont had the kiddie show on Saturday afternoon.

This is the modern day Jefferson. The building on this side has been torn down. This was one of four theaters in downtown Beaumont which had three more suburban theaters and three drive-ins.

Basically, a kid could get into the Kiddie Show for a quarter and watch 3 cartoons, a serial, the first movie, a cartoon and a second movie. This consumed the entire afternoon. Cheap babysitting for the parents.

There was also a Hammond Organ that rose up from the floor where the organist would entertain us while we waited for the movies to start. We were a rude bunch and about half way through the organist’s numbers we began to chant, ‘We want the show! We want the show!’

Typically my folks gave me fifty cents to spend on this afternoon of entertainment: a nickel for the bus ride, a quarter for admission, fifteen cents to buy three(!) items from the concession stand and a nickel for the bus ride home.

This is what an unairconditioned bus looked like in those days

The bus stop was two blocks away from our house.

I think we went as a group: Linda, Wayne, Terry and me along with some neighborhood kids.

This is one of those remarkable differences between then and now. There was absolutely no worry about a kid being snapped up by a weirdo.

The darker side: On the ceiling of the bus was a rail running longways from the front of the bus to the back. On this rail was a sliding sign that separated ‘coloreds’ from’ whites’. Negros (as we called them at this point in time) were separated from the whites bu the position of the sign (more on this later).