This being the 30th anniversary of Star Wars made me do a lot of thinking about my childhood and when I first saw Star Wars. Where I lived, where I was and who I was.

I lived on the same block as a movie theater because back in the day a lot of movie theaters were in people's neighborhoods rather than at the Mall. In fact our first Mall was built the year after Star Wars was released.

This one was not very cleverly named THE RITZ.

Anyway this theater on my block brings back many memories of my childhood. it brings back memories of the local Tot Lot which was a playground next to the theater where we would go every summer morning for a free breakfast program the city did for kids then. You would get a little cardboard container of cereal and some juice and some milk.

The theater was an old movie house that my mother actually worked in as a teenage usher in the late 1940s.

I was thinking about all of this stuff and when I was a mere 9 year old going to see Star Wars for the first time. Good days, the good old days when you were young and still in school and there really wasn't anything to worry about like when you are an adult and "life" happens.

The theater is still there and has been renovated and is now a live public theater with the same stage that was there before but now there is no movie screen in it. It still has the red curtains and i am sure not the same ones that were there when I was a kid but they are there now as before. The curtains open and the show begins.

In the old days I had an allowance and usually spent it at the theater on Star Wars among other movies too of course. Saturday and Sunday were $1 matinee showings for kids and I saw Star Wars in the theater for 2 years every weekend. They had 2 showings a day, one at 1pm and then another at 4 pm so for the weekend I saw the film 4 times.

Recently while feeling all nostalgic and remembering being a youngster I decided to pay a visit to this theater I had so much fun in and got lost in every weekend.

I took a few photos, gone are the lighting atop the marquee and of course the old style movie theater marquee texting. This next picture is NOT this theater marquee but resembles it as it looked back then and

SEEN HERE I wish I could find an actual photo, I searched around tons of websites having to do with Maine where I live and seemed to find every other theater but this one.

The photos I took came out great and give a basic idea of what the theater looked like then. Today it is red but back then it was a brown and tan color with red brick also. it doesn't look like much these days but to me this was my heaven back in the day and a glorious place to live right next to.

Behold my childhood heaven!

THE RITZ 1
THE RITZ 2
THE RITZ 3
THE RITZ 4

Now please tell me where YOU saw Star Wars first!!