“Run!”

My Mom and I watched a movie last week that I had not seen since I might’ve been six or seven and my parents, my brothers, Jimmy and David, and me walked down to the Camelot theater to see. It was super close to my house growing up and we walked there often:

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The theater is no longer there and it is now a fruit market. Pulling up this map on Google made me laugh because to show the distance from my house going up to the theater, they chose to use Miller Road as a way to get there.

I will never forget the debate we had as to the shortest way to get there. My brothers said that we should take Miller Road but I thought we should go down our street and turn once we got to Warren Ave. to the corner where the theater was.

It was decided that my Mom would accompany my brothers and walk down Miller Road as my Dad and me would walk down our street and turn on Warren Ave. and then get to the corner.

So, we all walked down one block on our street and then at the corner, my brothers and my Mom walked to Miller Road. And before they got to Miller Road, we all set the rules. There was NO RUNNING ALLOWED and whichever group got their first would be correct and have bragging rights.

My brothers and my Mom walk to the corner and my Dad and I stayed on our street. Once they had gone to the corner we yelled, “Go” and we all began walking.

I think my Dad and I must have walked six or eight steps before he turned his head to the right and looked down at me and told me to, “Run!” Now, I was only six or seven, so of course, I was going to do what my Dad told me to but I had NEVER seen my Dad run! I think we ran for a block and a half before we stopped and he told me that was good enough.

We all got to the theater at the same time and a few years ago, I told my Mom about seeing my Dad run and she laughed and told me that they also, ran. I found these pictures of the Camelot theater:

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The one on the left is how I remember it and the one on the right is how it ended up looking before it became a fruit market. My Mom and I watched, Quigley Down Under on Netflix and we reminisced about this exact day because this is the movie we saw at the Camelot.