The Silver Theatre

On rainy days during the summer, my mom would drive all of us kids (I was one of 6) up to Silver Spring and drop us off in front of the Silver Theatre.   We would spend the entire day in the dark theatre,  eating candy and popcorn, watching movies, telling stories and secrets with our best friend,  chasing each other up and down the theatre and between the rows of seats, and just plain having fun.  I'm guessing now that this was mom's way of escaping us actually being INSIDE the house ALL DAY (a punishment back then for kids and mom).   And, we were never alone.  It always seemed that all our friends in the neighborhood would be there too.  During intermission between movies, a man would come out on stage and  maybe put on a little act and/or pull movie stubs and call out winning numbers for prizes.  We always wished and wished that we would be the winner – but we never did – except for the fact that we had captured a memory that would last a lifetime.  We almost looked forward to rainy days.