The Castle Movie Theatre in New Castle, Indiana closed its doors this weekend. The only movie theatre in a town of 20,000 people. I saw my first movie (Sleeping Beauty), Godzilla, Star Wars and a thousand others here.
I grew up in New Castle – and it was a great place to grow up in the 60′s and 70′s. Since then, the town lost its main employer (a Chrysler auto plant) and with it most of the reason for its existence. There seems to be little in the town to hold people there now. It’s not as bad as Anderson, Indiana; but still not healthy at all.
Where does New Castle belong in a globalized, digital economy? I don’t know either.
Most recently as a parking lot for idle cargo trains. We saw Star Wars in Muncie the first time, but I do remember seeing Rocky there and a live “Cowboy Bob”. I remember sneaking in the back door even though I didn’t need to. I still never thought NC was much of a place to grow up – let alone be. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.
No, the first time we saw Star Wars was at Glendale Cinemas in Indy (you saw it with Nic, Phil Harding and me, right?). Star Wars at the Castle was for viewings 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. I’d forgotten about the Cowboy Bob – how embarrassing (in so many ways)!