04/17/98: Okay, I'll start. Remember when the new McKeown's Dry Goods store opened across from the Lewis Drug? I don't know the exact date. Late '50s? It was a very proud moment for our town--an elegant department store, patterned after stores in Dallas, sitting right here in the middle of our little pile of caliche. In the years ahead, people would come from all over the area to shop
in Jal--amazing! The McKeown's and all their family did a lot for Jal.
Remember Pearl and Jack, Nell, Faye, Francis, Norma, and Kate?
Have I forgotten anyone?

------Jerry Phillips

04/18/98: Subject: The Day the Show Burned
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 18:53:45 -0500
From megchilders<mchilder@TTACS.TTU.EDU>
To: GPhil@ix.netcom.com

Who remembers going to the show that Sunday afternoon, shortly before it burned down? I don't even remember what was showing. Does anyone out there remember all of that?

------Mary Goodner Childers  '65

i remember it burning down in a record time because the wood was old and very dry and how lucky we were not to have been in it. donnie dennis and i watched it burn down from the 2nd story of the first baptist church, where we went to church. i also remember all the browsers after the ashes had cooled. remember the old projector and all the butterfinger wrappers? ps. did anyone tell the lady taking money you were still eleven when you were twelve? i know i never did.

------Roger Martin  '67

I thought I was Eleven for the longest time. It is sorta like when you get to thirty-nine - you just get stuck there for the longest time. (Back to the Rex Theater) Does anyone remember all the little (they seemed big though) rodents running around on the floor so you had to keep you feet in the seat. I also remember how the "older kids" always got the balcony. Now what were they doing up there again?

----Mary Goodner Childers  '65

Subject: Remembering Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 01:59:15 EDT From: GMooreBrn <GMooreBrn@aol.com> To: GPhil@ix.netcom.com

My dad William B. Brown was firechief of Jal for twenty years. though the 40's and 50's and reorginizie the Jal volunteer fire department, I have old pictures of the firemen, in one it shows the Rex's behind them.. I remember when the Rex burned, daddy drove to the fire station and mother, Wilma and I (Glemda) went down there with him, and We watched it burn. I also remember when the gym had a fire in it too does anyone else, it was early in the morning, Daddy drove to the gym, some of the firemen already had the truck there and smoke was rolling out of the gym.Don;t think anyone ever knew what caused it to burn.

------Glenda Brown Moore  '55

O.k., i know everbody has a memory of the rex, but i wonder if anybody knows why it burned? well, my mamma knew! she said it was because we weren't keeping the sabath holy! i remember how she hated for me to go to the "show" on sunday, so i would try really hard to go home with susan after church because rudelle and lester were a little more tolerant. seems to me most strange that today she tells ME i'm living in the dark ages! what a gal! she's 80 and going strong. i only hope i can be as young when i am that age!

------Nelda Wood McConnell  '65

I remember the fire well. I had just been purged of my wickedness during the evening service at the Church of Christ that day.Somehow, as a result of my Church of Christ upbring, I figured that I must have been responsible for that fire. It must have been someone else though because I unfortunately did very few nasty things in the shadows of the moviehouse. Okay, I confess, I did hold Annette Requa's hand once.It scared me to death and made me sweat! It did burn on a Sunday, didn't it?

------Gary Loudermilk  '64

I remember going to the "picture show" on Sunday afternoons with my big sister (Rayla Ann) and big brother (Cloyd Ray). This was before I started first grade. We walked up the "big hill" from 1st Street... down Mainstreet...which led us by Ms. Curtis' bookstand (there were always interesting things to look at in the window, too!) but my sister never let me linger long, much less go in. I remember Mr. Combest was always on the steps as we walked into the big picture show building. I remember one Mother's Day, instead of using our money for the picture show, (and going to the show) walking up the "hill" to Ms. Curtis' bookstand and purchasing salt-n-pepper shakers for mom's gift.
I finally got to go in that store!

------Carol Elliott Shanks  '72

Who in Jal up through the 60's could ever forget the Rex. I remember an early story that the Rex started life as an early age High School auditorium but I don't know if that was true. It was rumored that the fire started in the projection room. Many early films were printed on cellulose which was very fire prone and this was a possibility. I sorta remember the guy who was a projectionist at the time for the Rex and the Panther drive-in. I think, and this is weak memory, his name might have been Jimmy Clanton? I remember he drove a motorcycle, tho. During my era, the movies cost 20 cents under 12 and 50 cents over twelve. I was under twelve until I took my first date there. Popcorn was a dime and was served in a white paper bag with twisted corners (maybe that was at the drive-in) and a coke was a dime. I remember the Movies "The Greatest show on Earth", "Brain from Planet Xaures", "Attack of the Crab Monsters" and some weird sci-fi about a guy exposed to radiation that grew 100' tall.

------Gene Cash  '70

Subject: Rex Theater--Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 19:38:22 -0500
From: Beverlie Butler, class of '65 <aigc@brooksdata.net>
To: <GPhil@ix.netcom.com>

The "Rex" yes it does bring back some fond memories, they had 2 shows a day on the week end, @ 2:00 pm, & @ 6:00 pm, thats where most Jal kids won't admit it, but they sat on the back row, drank Panther Juice, ate popcorn, and had their first kiss! The movies were a far cry from the movies of today, we saw Billy the Kid, Davey Crockett, Hop Along Cassidy, 3 Coins in a Fountain, The Greatest SHow on Earth, The Blob, The Fly, and great cartoons The Coyote & the Roadrunner, Casper, Mr. McGoo, Little Lulu, Iodine, Popeye, Tweety & Sylvister, Tazmanian Devil, Woody woodpecker, Porky Pig & so on. I remember that Sunday well! The show was over @ 4:00 pm and about 5:00 it began to blaze. The fire department was just across the street, but the Rex burned to the ground before they got the first fire truck out. It was just like a match box, had it caught on fire an hour and a half earlier it would have burned most of the kids in town. Everyone one in town ended up there and everyone was sad, What would we do on Saturday & Sunday? The Rex Theater was built by the C.C.Caldwells from Lubbock, Texas in 1935, Mrs.Caldwells sister was Emma Lou Betty. Emma Lou & Charlie Betty were the parents of Mary Lou & Hal Betty, they moved from O'Donnell, Texas in December 1935, opened & operated the theater. They lived in the back of the theater and ran the show until they sold it & the Panther Drive Inn to Bruce & Cito Wilkerson (Jimmy Sue (Woods) Addison's aunt & uncle) sometime in 1957. Norman Pender ran the projector for the Wilkerson's. My mother Kate (McKeown) Butler worked in the ticket booth for $.50 a hour for Emma Lou while she was in high school, she said it was one of the best jobs in town! When I started going to the Rex it was a dime to get in a nickle for coke, popcorn, & candy. Yes Mary there were lots of mice @ the Rex, but no balcony! I guess every one was 11 until they got in high school, by this time some of us had cars & started going to the Pather Drive Inn. You could get in for fifty cents, sometimes that was a car load depending how many you could get in the trunk!) Those who were really bad would crawl over the fence and walk in the backway. On weekend they had a double feature, most parked on the back two rows, drank Coors beer in quart bottles, and did more visiting & ect. than movie watching!

Beverlie Butler Franco 65

 Subject: Hot Times Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 23:24:48 EDT From: Sandra Fulfer Peugh <SPEUGH@aol.com> To: GPhil@ix.netcom.com

I remember summers and the Rex very vividly. My grandmother always "went to town" in the evenings to visit with Mrs. Curtis and others who seemed to gather at her store, and grandpa would go to the pool hall. My brother and I ran up and down the sidewalk or we went to the show. The Rex was my refuge, my place to let my imagination run wild with all those magical movies. I don't remember any rodents and certainly no balcony, but I do remember sitting as close to the screen as I could get with a sack of popcorn and a Coke and tuning out the world until the lights came on and I had to leave. We always walked back to the newsstand and grandma would send me or my brother into the pool hall to retrieve grandpa and then we would go home. This same thing happened at least three times a week and sometimes more. Seems as though I never missed the Sunday show as I got older. By then there were different reasons for going and all the girls wore their pretty church dresses and high heels and we all thought we were so grown up. Those were the simple times, and when the show burned it really seemed to take a part of all of us with it. I bet everyone remembers at least one time at the old Rex.

Sandra Fulfer Peugh '65