Friday, December 3, 2010

End of an era - 1952 Apex movie theater fire

Old Apex Theater - source unknown
End of an era - 1952 Apex theater fire

The now missing white building on Chatham Street (beside the railroad track) was the original and only local Apex movie theater from the years before 1952. The theater burned one Sunday morning in 1952 while many of its long time  patrons attended church a short distance away. It was the nearest and most popular movie theater for local patrons and was a favorite among local places to be.

The theater is fondly remembered as the local destination on any given Saturday to visit with friends and see the latest black and white movies of the era - Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and Lash LaRue cowboy adventures, Superman and Buck Rogers adventures and other action movies. The theater also featured weekly serial adventures based on Superman, Batman, Flash Gordon  and other characters of the time. There were always cartoons featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Felix the Cat, Popeye the Sailor and other characters from the early days of Walt Disney Studio productions and other producers.

Admission to a full day of entertainment was 10 cents. If you had a little extra change, theater snacks were available - popcorn, soft drinks, various candies and the ever popular Cracker Jacks.

Segregation was prevalent during this era and a balcony was provided for black customers and downstairs seating for white customers. Restrooms were also segregated and signs were ever present on bathroom doors indicating "white only" or "colored only". There were occasional rounds of throwing popcorn and empty boxes to and from the balcony and occasionally animosity would lead to a fist fight erupting in the adjacent parking lot after the movie.

The movie sound would often be drowned out by the sound of passing coal powered locomotives pulling hundreds of freight cars past the theater. The point thought to be the highest level of the railroad track was near the theater so trains were always laboring to get over the rise as they passed by.

Following the great theater fire of 1952, patrons were left to find other sources for movies and entertainment and many ventured to Raleigh, Cary and Durham to other theaters. During the rapid growth phase of Apex in 2000 and beyond, a large multi-theater facility was constructed in the local Beaver Creek Shopping Center bringing family movie entertainment back to the local area.
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Sunday, November 21, 2010

Lookin' for the apple - Summer 2002








One of the occasional visits from a friend that passed through our back yard from time to time in Hanover, Virginia.
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Fire in the night - February, 2002

In the wee hours of one February night in 2002, we awoke from a sound sleep to see glimmers of red light dancing on the windows and walls of our bedroom in Hanover County, Virginia. The phone was ringing and brought one of those sickening moments when you get a call in the early morning darkness and you wonder if something terrible had happened to someone you know.

As we jumped up to look out the window, it seemed as if every firetruck in the County had parked along the streets bordering our corner lot and firemen were everywhere pulling hoses up into the yard.

The firemen were rushing to put out a fire that had climbed up the steep bank from the side street as it turned the dry leaves and pine needles under our trees into a layer of ash. That winter had been unusually dry and the leaves under the trees were prime fuel for the flames as they quickly ran up the bank. The fire crept to about ten feet from the end of our home and stopped only when reaching the green winter grass between the trees and the house.

Fire investigators never settled on a definitive cause for the fire at three o'clock in the morning, but suggested it had been caused by one of the ever present careless smokers that drive around thumping cigarettes out of car windows. The investigation concluded with a statement that the fire was most likely caused when a cigarette had been tossed out and rolled down into the ditch, then smoldered until the dry leaves caught fire. Once the fire started it roared up the bank and into the grove of trees.

As we stood in the road next to the fire trucks along the front, we learned from our neighbor across the street that they just happened to see the flames during the night and called 911 to notify the fire department. We will be forever grateful to caring friends for making that call in a neighborhood where neighbors knew neighbors and watched out for each other. The end of the story could have been much different had the neighborhood been one of those where people don't know or care who lives next door.


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Friday, September 24, 2010

Out for a stroll on Red Hill


On any given spring or summer day you may find these geese strolling along the side of Red Hill on West Chatham Street in Apex NC. The geese have become a regular part of the character of that area and they frequent the small pond just up the hill from this scene.

In May and June of each year the hill in the right of the picture comes alive when the Erin's Prairie daylily flowers come into full bloom.

During winter months Red Hill, a name that goes back to the 1940s-60s, was a favorite place for local sledders when winter days were short and snow blanketed the town. The hill was routinely blocked off by local police for a day or two, depending on the severity of the snow, and sledders from all over town would flock to the spot to race down the steep hill. Many a run down the hill would end in the ditch on either side or sometimes lead to crashing into a tree along the way. Rarely did anyone ever get seriously hurt, much to the surprise of the many that raced down the hill.

Even during modern times, the hill continues to be a destination location for sledders on the occasional day when a deep snow falls around the town. This has truly become one of the places where memories are made and remains a site for one of the traditions locals remember long after they have grown up and found other activities to bide their time.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Dad's garden

In the 1950s and 60s my Dad always planted a garden in the back yard. He labored long and hard all summer to raise a crop of vegetables and melons when the days were long. He would get up early before the day got hot and go out and labor in the garden each day to make sure everything was done that could help produce a bounty my Mom could can for the winter. When times were good and the rain came, most times the garden did well.

My part of the job was to pull weeds and chop the garden with an old hoe. Several days each week after school I headed to the garden to carry out the work assigned to me to help the process along. Chopping, pulling weeds, setting stakes, tying up tomato plants and later picking the beans, okra, tomatoes and squash as they began to come in made up a daily routine. The days got hotter as they got longer and each year the task seemed to last forever. When I got older, I was allowed to spray a white powdered insecticide with an old tin hand-pump sprayer onto the blossoms and plants in a continuing struggle to stay ahead of the season's bugs that also wanted their share of the produce.

After most summers we ended the season with a lot of jars of all the items the garden produced and stashed them in the small pantry in the kitchen. During the winter, one or two of the jars would be taken out every day or so to add to the other food items my Mom would bring home from the grocery store. The old garden went a long way to help provide the food we needed and is now a cherished memory of life "back in the day" when times were slower and life was good.

As I got older, the garden slowly faded into the past. My Dad continued to make the effort to have a garden most summers, but as he got older his time was more often spent going to his day job at the local auto dealership each day. The space the garden occupied gradually became part of the lawn I continued to mow until I graduated from college. My Dad passed away a month before I graduated from college and the annual garden became a thing of the past and a distant memory of how it used to be.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

The old leather belt

 

Ahhh... the old leather belt. The one that served through many years in my career job and through all the years of raising four wonderful children with my wife and lifetime partner. The belt that was my favorite for some 25 years or so. It recently wore out from buckling it too many times and almost broke in half at one of the holes. I tucked it away thinking that after a while I would eventually decide to part with it.

Then one day I discovered a new product called Gorilla Glue! The glue that can hold most anything together. Almost as popular as Duct tape!

I applied some Gorilla Glue to the leather along the tear and clamped it to dry overnight. The next day I checked back to see if the glue had worked it's magic, and surely enough the belt was in good enough shape to occasionally use again. It hangs proudly once again on my clothes rack next to the new one I purchased when I thought this one was gone for good.

Yes, it does get to be worn again from time to time and will eventually become one of the items I pass on to my family.