Happenings in Town

I have not been to the movie theater in town since the fire 11 months ago.  The fire was contained to the sign…no one was hurt.

Late July in 2017

A repair is finally happening.  I wonder who they were insured with?   It sure took long enough. I heard that you can rent the old crying room for private parties…the bathrooms in the movie theater were something else…you enter the bathroom and then had to go up two or three steps to go potty…Far Guy says that the basement of the movie theater was actually deeper than the sewer pipes so the stools had to be raised so you know what would flow down….flowing up wouldn’t work. (Insert smily face. )

Main Street has been fairly busy with tourists…we hardly ever go downtown…I heard that one of the cafes bought out the paint and glass place and they will expand.  I also heard that there is a new venue for large gatherings happening at the old John Deere place…and a old cafe on Main Street has some good Walleye Gumbo.  I have never tasted Walleye Gumbo.  It is rumored to be $9 a cup…tourist pricing. The Ben Franklin Dime Store is still for sale.  There are brand new public bathrooms on Main Street…whatever will the businesses do with their signs that said bathrooms for customers only or “No public restrooms” the new bathrooms are only open until 10 pm after that you will have to find some place else to potty. The Burger King got a whole new facelift..we don’t go there either. There is yet another auto parts store going up in town…that makes three auto parts places on the same block…there is a rumor that there was a really ugly divorce and everytime the former husband puts up a new store his wife puts one across the street…There is also a new dog park in town…just on the outskirts…so much for the big city update.

Wistful Wednesday: Movie Theater

Park Rapids has always been a small town (3,709 population in 2016.)  When I was little they had two movie theaters.

I know I saw Bambi and Old Yeller at The Royal.  The Royal is now a bar that supposively serves the best hamburgers in Minnesota.

This is the Royal.

The other theater is called Park Theater.

July of 2010 they sandblasted and repainted the sign.

Here it is during the construction of September 2010 all repainted.

Monday night we learned that there was a fire at the theater.

No one was injured.  From what we heard the damage was confined to the sign.

This marquee is iconic and Main Street would not be Main Street without it.

Main Street was busy, yes people park in the center of the street…the town was built in the late 1890’s and the Logging Companies would come in with their loads of logs on sleds or wagons depending on the time of year.  The Main Street was wide enough to drop a load of logs at the lumber company and turn a team around in the street.

Nowadays there is diagonal parking on both side of the street and two lanes in the center for center parking.

There were a number of people taking photos of the damage. 

This used to be one huge theater.  A movie would stay about two weeks, so every two weeks you could “go to the show.”   Nowadays it is three small theaters.  Adam and I have been in all three…he is my movie going grand.