Richard, the paperboy, from The Red Scarf, 1944, 18

Richard, the paperboy, from The Red Scarf, July 1944, #18
Some of y’all has asked me what’s the most fun I had during those long hot summers. Shoot, that’s an easy question cause going to the Ritz Theater to see a picture show with that water-cooled air blowing on you while you eat popcorn and watch Tom Mix or Lash LaRue is the most fun you can imagine. It don’t hardly get no better than that. Well, I know you don’t have the faintest idea in the world what the Ritz theater is so let me tell you a little about the Ritz. It sits right on Main Street in downtown El Dorado, you know El Dorado, the big county seat town. Heck, just going to El Dorado from Norphlet which ain’t but 650 folks is a bunch of fun, but on Saturday morning at 10:30 we all line up in front of the Ritz to buy tickets for the big double feature. Not only do we get to see a western double feature, but they have a serial like Lash LaRue and then there’s newreels about the war, and of course a cartoon. And would you believe it, only 8 cents for a ticket, that is if you are under 12, and of course, even kids that’s six feet tall will stand there and say they’s 11. But the Ritz ain’t your top of the notch theater in El Dorado. Heck, no. It’s kinda rundown and sometimes a rat will scurry across your feet and the film breaks a couple of times during the show, but all in all it’s pretty good. I just wish they would serve popcorn that’s hadn’t been popped last week. Hey, I forgot about old man Slater, the theater manager. He’s as mean as a sack of snakes, and if you dare put your feet on the seat in front of you, he’ll whack them feet with his flashlight. Shoot, I’ve seen him pull off his big wide belt and skatter some noisy kids like they were a bunch of hogs. Well, the next time I write, I’ll tell you about the time I sat in the balcony with some of my colored friends…ohooo did I get in trouble for throwing ice on them white kids down below…it was really something