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The bus took us to Neenah Avenue, where it met with the Irving Park trolley line at the entrance to the old Dunning state hospital. (Many a parent of that era cautioned their children never to talk to the people who reached through the iron bar fencing.) Via the Irving streetcar (sometimes with transfers to a north- or southbound car or the “L”) we could reach the remotest areas of town.
My pals and I made almost weekly forays to Saturday matinees at all the northwest-side theatres. During the summer, we sometimes took in an additional Sunday-afternoon show. On rare occasions we would make a day of it and venture all the way to the Loop and one of the truly lavish downtown movie palaces.
Neighborhoods, and especially kids, have lost something precious with the demise of local movie theatres. I treasure the memory of riding those Red Rocket trolleys to the Patio and others. Whatever your opinion of today’s movie fare, watching in a multitheatre box is not the same experience.
