Our local film theatre was at the top of Bastings St (the hill was a steep climb for bikes with no gears and was the venue of the Billy Cart Derbies) and the events were just as D(W)T described them. Except that the matinees were all on Saturday afternoons. I was completely unaware of this anachronism until I started studying French, when it bothered me a little. Rolling Jaffas down the floor, checking out the cartoons on the Minties' wrappers or the gossip on the FanTales' wrappers.

But there were also the special events films, often held at the local Rechabites Hall or the parish hall, where we'd be treated to Fatty Arbuckle, Abbott & Costello (the actors, not the politicians); I never worked out the reasons behind those events.

Little slabs of icecream between wafers were my favourites.

And all that ended when I started playing team sports on Saturday afternoons. The cinema (as it later became) was stripped and taken over by something else (and the Rechabites Hall no longer exists, although it lasted long enough to show the Whipple (Whittle?) Family do their whip-cracking and magic shows. We had to go to the Westgarth Theatre if we wanted to see a film, after then. And TV killed that off in about 1958; The Long Long Trailer was the last film I saw there and put me off caravans for life.

Where would we be without nostalgia?

Cheers, Rowan