Jupiter et Thétis, 1811
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 
Zeus, the king of the gods, yawned,
“Today the lesser god Boredom rules.”
The offspring of Kronos bellowed,
“Summon the goddess Nostalgia to Olympus!”
Down the glorious arch of her rainbow
swiftly flew the messenger Iris
to Indiana to the James Dean festival
where the goddess Nostalgia was visiting.
Iris fought through the crowd of mortals
to the stage where sweet Nostalgia,
having assumed a mortal disguise,
reigned as Marilynn Monroe look-alike.
“Quickly fly, the King of Olympus summons!”
In an instant the platinum coifed goddess
Bowed before the god of lightning.
And received her command:
“Go stir up some trouble in Knox!”
“Today the lesser god Boredom rules.”
The offspring of Kronos bellowed,
“Summon the goddess Nostalgia to Olympus!”
Down the glorious arch of her rainbow
swiftly flew the messenger Iris
to Indiana to the James Dean festival
where the goddess Nostalgia was visiting.
Iris fought through the crowd of mortals
to the stage where sweet Nostalgia,
having assumed a mortal disguise,
reigned as Marilynn Monroe look-alike.
“Quickly fly, the King of Olympus summons!”
In an instant the platinum coifed goddess
Bowed before the god of lightning.
And received her command:
“Go stir up some trouble in Knox!”
A few years ago Mayor Dembowski of Knox was keen on fixing up downtown Knox. There was, no doubt, some committee called something like “The Knox Downtown Re-Development Committee”. Some fixing up took place: new sidewalks, old fashioned street lamps, planters, benches, etc. And then suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, appeared a man with the not-so-bright idea of a movie theater for downtown.
“What a marvelous idea! If only there was money to give this man!” thought the Mayor. “It’s a shame that the wonderful people that gave us the grant to fix the sidewalks won’t give this nice movie theater man some money also.” But the Goddess Nostalgia was not discouraged. Nostalgia sifted through the bank records looking for “loose” money. Ah! Ha! There it was! Some other now-forgotten “Fix Up The Downtown Committee” once existed, long ago. And, wonder of wonders, they had $20,000 or $30,000 just wasting away in the bank.
Soon Nostalgia had the money working away on an old decrepit corner drug store, changing it to a downtown movie theater. Just like the good-old-days of the Saturday cliffhanger matinee! The 30Gs was soon exhausted but Nostalgia showed 2 or 3 flicks. But there was no parking and the trains shook the building so that the mortals thought the balcony would fall. Soon the movie theater fell into disrepair and Nostalgia went on eBay
“What a marvelous idea! If only there was money to give this man!” thought the Mayor. “It’s a shame that the wonderful people that gave us the grant to fix the sidewalks won’t give this nice movie theater man some money also.” But the Goddess Nostalgia was not discouraged. Nostalgia sifted through the bank records looking for “loose” money. Ah! Ha! There it was! Some other now-forgotten “Fix Up The Downtown Committee” once existed, long ago. And, wonder of wonders, they had $20,000 or $30,000 just wasting away in the bank.
Soon Nostalgia had the money working away on an old decrepit corner drug store, changing it to a downtown movie theater. Just like the good-old-days of the Saturday cliffhanger matinee! The 30Gs was soon exhausted but Nostalgia showed 2 or 3 flicks. But there was no parking and the trains shook the building so that the mortals thought the balcony would fall. Soon the movie theater fell into disrepair and Nostalgia went on eBay
Zeus roared with laughter.
3 comments:
So...where was your famed Jim Shilling when all this was taking place? Hmmmmmmmm?????
The theatre was actually a good idea, unfortunately it debuted at the wrong time of year. School was in session and the kids were more interested in attending football and basketball games than going to see a movie. I rather liked the theatre. We attended three times during its tenure. It was certainly better than going to the drive-in and fighting off the mosquitoes!!
Did you see the movie or read the book "The Last Picture Show"? Did you get it? There were reasons that the 2 theaters in downtown Knox closed 2 generations ago. There are reasons that there isn’t 2 hardware stores, a men's haberdashery, 2 ladies apparel shops, 3 barbershops, 2 dime stores, 2 jewelers, an A&P, 3 cafes, a railroad station, hotel, bowling alley, opera house, 2 druggists, a news agency, Sears Store, etc. Was all that activity a good thing? Well damn right it was! Is it coming back? I don’t think so. Is our government throwing money after a nostalgic but dead dream a good idea? No. If every day was the 4th of July that theater wouldn't have made it.
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