Last Friday night, Jamie, Brittany Murdock, Curtis Delong and myself traveled downtown to the Warner Theater one last time and saw “The Wild Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.” I don’t really recommend the movie, but I’ll save that for another blog post.
For seventy nine years, the Warner has been THE theater in downtown Morgantown. I imagine my brother even saw a movie or two at the Warner when he was in college. For the last few years it has been the Sunday gathering place for Stonebridge Baptist Church as well as being a great movie theater.
Any time I wanted to see a movie that wasn’t going to make it in the “mainstream” theaters, I could almost always count on the Warner to screen it. Even movies that had gone through their season in those newer fancier theaters would often times make their way to the Warner.
I think one of the first times I was able to hang out with my good friend Trey Dunham, a group of us went to see a cheap movie at the Warner on a Friday night after a Cru meeting. On another occasion, another friend encouraged me to go see the movie Pan’s Labyrinth because it was so pregnant with meaning but didn’t make it into the larger theaters. I even remember watching the movie “Into The Wild” with a group of friends, and being completely caught off guard by some of the more raw scenes depicting the life and times of Christopher McCandless. I had read the book, and it is one of my favorites, and the movie did an incredible job capturing the journal entries of Christopher and re-telling them on the big screen. I also remember crying my eyes out as I watched Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ed Harris tell the story of Radio. Great movies all, and many more movies that probably wouldn’t make their way into Morgantown otherwise had a season at the Warner.
I also remember a film festival in which my friends Cameron, Colleen, Karen, Jess, Kyle, Deanna, Meghan, and others produced and entered a film, and Colleen WON! Such cool community stuff seemed to take place in the Warner.
It’s a shame that the Warner Theater is now closed. Sunday night was it’s last showing. Friday night, I bought the last large Cherry Coke that would ever be sold (it was the last large cup they had!). It offered the people of Morgantown a theater that was part of the downtown life of the city. If one lived in town, he could walk with a group of friends down to the warner and see a movie for a reasonable price. The Warner didn’t have the latest sound system or stadium seating, but it had character. In a nation that is just beyond 200 years in age, it’s not often that we have an opportunity to enjoy something that has age and character. For the people of Morgantown, until Sunday night, a young person could walk into a theater that maybe their great grandparents visited on a date.
So long Warner Theater. Although I’ve lived in Morgantown for a small portion of your existence, I’m grateful for the many memories acquired while watching movies with friends in your historic space.
Since my roommate Derek and I started a road trip at the beginning of July, I thought I would try going without shampoo and just using soap instead. It’s been an interesting adjustment for sure.
Two weeks into my new washing regimen, I talked to my dad about his use of shampoo. He said he rarely uses it, but rather uses soap, and has for most of his life. I took his experience as a confirmation of sorts that maybe I didn’t need shampoo and conditioner. The irony is that I had just purchased some eco-friendly shampoo and conditioner, and now I may just be saving it for special occasions.
My latest conundrum has been with regard to what soap to use. I looked at some castille soap, and considered buying a bar, but then I thought back to my childhood and ivory soap. I read the ingredients, and they seemed simple enough, so I’ve started using Ivory again for the first time since my childhood.
I’m not sure I’ll stick with it, in fact, I’d love to hear your thoughts regarding soaps and shampoos. (I hear that some people make their own soap out of olive oil or coconut oil too!)
Derek just made up some laundry detergent using Ivory soap, borax, washing soda, and water. I’m curious as to how it will work. It ends up costing us about a penny/load to use this detergent in our front loading washer.
The irony of this post, is that I hadn’t intended to write about all of these uses of Ivory, but I felt I should explain before telling you about my olfactory memory and using the soap for the first time since childhood. The aroma took me back to learning to wash my face and body in the bathroom sink alongside my dad. As I breathed in, I found myself remembering being little, and putting the soap in a washrag and lathering it up as I scrubbed my face and arms after playing all evening in the dirt. I can remember our little bathroom on fifteenth street, and moving from an old bathtub with feet to a shower during my gradeschool years. I remember my dad standing at the mirror with me and we would wash at the same time—I think partially because much like many little boys, I avoided washing like the plague (after all, my dirt was a badge of honor and a mark of the fun I had while playing—plus sometimes soap would get in my eyes and burn). Then he would take a cup full of some kind of magic concoction, and wave a brush in it, and then he would use the brush to apply this concoction to his face—his shaving cream wasn’t in a can, but a cup.
Because we only used Ivory growing up, it’s aroma is one I identify with what “clean” smells like, and it’s one that brings back many memories of our life growing up before the days of the internet, blogging, facebook, and twitter. It reminds me of catching fireflies, eating cherry pie made from the cherries out of our back yard, and swinging on our old rope swing. It was usually before or after those summer events that I would find myself lathering up and cleaning up.
Hope that your week is off to a “clean” start, and that it is filled with aroma’s that evoke nostalgia.