HOMETOWN PRIDE
Pride In My Town’s Gardens
January Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Hometown Pride”
Keeping Watch On Those Who Approach
One of the thrills of growing up in England in the 1950s was being taken to the cinema. Nobody I knew back then owned a television set or a motor car.
The big screen was where we saw the latest movies and heard news reports from around the globe via Pathe News. On Saturday mornings, we attended matinees and saw the films our parents watched when they were children — movies starring Abbot and Costello and the Marx Brothers.
The Criterion cinema situated in the centre of my city, Kingston-upon-Hull, had miraculously survived the blitz of the Second World War. The city had been devastated by the bombing, and rubble-strewn bomb sites were still prevalent twelve or so years after the war ended.
The Criterion cinema opened in February 1915, and a notable feature was the two stone lions guarding its entrance. Something was reassuring about seeing these great beasts proudly standing guard as we stepped inside.
Cinemas were big business back then. Yet within a decade, television had them killed off. Most were closed down, demolished, or turned into Bingo Halls or Supermarkets.
