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Now, I’m not intimating here, friends, that there should be a collective tsunami of weeping and wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of loincloths.

No, for the evanescence of motion pictures here in Little Washington, the first town so named for General George Washington, isn’t the stuff of great tragedies.

By way of explication, should it be needed by anyone, the Golden Ticket Cinema 7 closed its doors March 26, leaving our little town, nestled so appealingly along the banks of the Pamlico, movie-less.

For those souls for whom an occasional treat of a moving picture, perhaps buttressed by overpriced popcorn, candy, and a soft drink, was a financially painful yet enjoyable experience. Was. (
So where would one now go to attempt to replicate such pleasure? Why, to the nearest place where cinema still exists, survives, if tenuously: Greenville. That’s right, the Emerald City.

Now, my personal history, as regards movie attendance is not the stuff of excess.
You see, I have been to a theater to take in a big screen offering three times -that’s right, thrice – in, oh, the past 20, maybe 25 years.
Heck, I even remember the films I saw: Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and The Help. Good fare, all.
The presence of movies didn’t steal away easily. In 2016, the Carmike Cinemas here ceased to operate. Then, help was on the way, as Golden Ticket Cinema bravely elected to give it a try. This they did until March 26, when the curtain(s) fell, and the inevitable became a reality.

So rather than leave you, friends, bereft of leisure time pleasure, please allow me to offer an alternative.

You just might consider those easy-to-manipulate, can be hand-held, available for borrowing free of charge for those who do not wish to pay for their exclusive ownership, objects that have been a part of humankind’s existence, for eons: Books. There are even stores that sell them. Really.

Yes, that’s right. Books. You know, for reading.

Try it. You just might like it.

CORRECTION -The date 1507 inadvertently became 1907 in last week’s column.