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Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

luxuriously comfortable. But toward the end, the theater, sad to say, became run down and filthy.
This prompted a joke among the school kids. First kid, “Hey, let’s go see a movie at the Lake

Theater after school.” Second kid, “Great idea! I’ll run home and put on my old clothes!”

The Lake Theater played a big part in my younger life. I was at the grand opening to see the
very first movie shown there and couldn’t believe Lake City was getting such a beautiful theater.
As a sixth grader I got up my nerve and sat with a girl I liked - my first “movie date.” I was in the

audience the night the theater manager walked on stage and held up a hand-lettered sign that said,
“Japan Surrenders Unconditionally,” marking the end of World War II. I went there one afternoon

to see “To Kill A Mockingbird” to try to get my mind off the suicide of a close friend. I was there
to see the last movie shown there, to see that huge, high-ceilinged building razed, to see the

Community National parking lot built there. Now, all that remains are the memories.
Another one of those memories is the unintentionally humorous wording that once appeared

on the large marquee outside the theater: “Now Showing, Betty Grable in “Mother Wore Tights.”
Also: “Selected Shorts.”

60-Year Reunion

May 17,1994

The CHS class of 1934 will have their 60-year reunion Saturday, May 21. They will begin
their reunion at 4:00 p.m. with a tour of their old high school building, now the Administrative

Complex. Television’s Channel 12 may be there to cover it. Then the class will go to Holiday Inn
at 6:00 p.m. for their banquet. These folks will have a great time. They know how to have fun.

Here are some of the stories they will probably tell.

Wallace Jopling will probably tell of the mischief he and J. Y. Wilson got into back in the

fourth grade that prompted their teacher to predict, “You two rascals will wind up in Raiford Prison
for sure!”

The teacher was slightly wrong. Wallace never served any prison time himself but he did

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