Have you watched Cinema Paradiso yet? Or John Goodman’s “Matinee? You gotta go get ‘em!!
Here’s a good reminder. Before we continue our story, here’s one last look at the Paradise Theater today in it’s sad state, although still loved by the guys:

You can see why Tom couldn’t find it his last trip to Cotter. He’d remembered it being large and majestic. A proud Paradise Theater most grand. But, let’s move on.
The “boys,” including cousin Oliver, lived in Cotter for over eight years. “Tommy” was the youngest, at 2, when they moved there. Cousin Oliver was 5, Jimmy was 7 and Dickie was 17, going on 18.
Times were good when they moved there in 1946. WWII was just ove, it was a big railroad town, and business was booming. (See here. You’ll be glad you did.) There was even a big railroad roundhouse at the edge of town. Anyone remember those?
The U. S. government was also employing masses of workers to build the Bull Shoals Dam on the White River just north of Cotter. It was an impressive project, employing hundreds and hundreds of people, taking several years to complete. It was started in 1947 and completed in 1951. President Truman came to Cotter on the train to dedicate the dam and Tom remembers seeing him.
But, then, times got tough. Workers left in droves and the railroad roundhouse shut down. Tom’s dad fell on hard times, as well, and lost both the Paradise Theater and one he owned in a nearby town. He kept running and managing theaters, though, driving around to several different little towns in the area, having four or five he ran over the years.
Mr. Andrews also had to make trips to Memphis and other places in managing the theaters he did and was gone a lot. Tom’s parents divorced when Tom was eight, but they stayed in Cotter for a couple of years longer.
As the tides of fortune came and went, the Andrews family moved around within the town a lot. So, when we were there we had to tour all around town to try to find them all. There were so many and of such diverse nature that the boys had trouble recalling them all, needing cousin Oliver’s input, as well.
The main one they remembered was their first. Here it is with Oliver (l.) & the “boys” standing in front.

Here are a couple more views.


As you can see, it was a typical frame house of the times. The elderly man who lives there now welcomed us all in when the boys knocked on his door to explain the commotion out front. Although the man is very proud of him home and how well he’s taken care of it, the boys were most disappointed that all of the rooms and walls had been moved around and changed for other uses. Nothing was in the same place, although they had fun remembering exactly how it was and what was where.
I thought two of the most delightful remembrances were of the neighborhood. (Besides where all of the girls lived, as all four of them seemed to have plenty of girlfriends! I was not surprised, since they were all very good looking as boys and quite charming, even then, I hear.)
The first was the culvert down the hill, under which Oliver and Tom remembered playing, using it as their tunnel.

The second I mentioned before. The scary church high on a corner just like the one picture below up from the house . . .

except that the “scary” one has a big tower rising over the vestibule with high dark green/blue/red very Gothic stained glass windows, as well large Gothic windows all around.
According to Tom, when he was little, he & his mother walked several blocks to the First Baptist (Southern Baptist, it declares proudly on the front) Church . . .

and had to pass the scary church. Tommy, being curious, asked his mom why they didn’t go there. The Methodists worshiped there, she told him, but the way she said the word “Methodists” as they passed, along with the looks of the building, little Tommy was most uncertain about and suspicious of Methodists for many years to come.
There are a lot more houses and stories in Cotter, but I’ll save some of those for next time. As you think back on your young childhood, do you have memories like Tom’s and his brothers and cousin? Places you played, things you mistakenly thought, the size of things around you?
Share some of your childhood memories with me (& Tom) today. Please!!
Stay tuned. Lots more to come. (Can you believe we did all of our tour in four days and it’s taking me three months + to tell it?)
To be continued . . .