Going to the theatre has always been special and you cannot recreate the total experience of being at a live concert or play or musical at home. The same goes for movies. With new technology and streaming services and the internet, you can now watch movies at home, on your computer or even on your phone. You can’t beat the convenience of watching from home, but it’s just not the same.

Recently, I’ve been back to the movie theatre several times. We all got out of the habit with the Pandemic and some people think it’s just fine. I’m remembering my lifetime of theatre going and hoping those days aren’t going away.

The first movie I remember seeing was a Disney film, “So Dear to My Heart,” an adorable combination of live people mixed with animation. I still have a warm spot in my heart for that one.

It was all so magical in those days. We saw a lot of movies without our parents as they could drop up off on Saturday morning and we could watch cartoons, serial dramas, and a feature. Sometimes there would be a live show with someone like a yo-yo man showing us how to do all the tricks.

Movies for many years started with a newsreel, a cartoon, coming attractions and then the feature. We didn’t get our news as instantly as we do today, so I learned a lot about what was going on in the world from the wonderful voice of Lowell Thomas.

We went to local theaters, beautiful downtown movie palaces, and the drive-in movies. I don’t remember my father going to the movies very often, but I have a vivid memory of going to the drive-in to see a golf movie with my whole family (Daddy was a championship level golfer). It was the story of Ben Hogan.

I’ve never been one to go to scary movies, although I’ve seen my share. The first one I remember seeing was “The House of Wax,” which we saw in 3D and I had to watch from the back of the theatre so I could duck at the very scary parts. I’m still scared thinking about it.

Another scary one was “The Tingler,” which I saw at a theatre that had buzzers on some of the seats to give a jolt to some in the audience at scary parts. When I saw “The Birds,” they released parakeets into the balcony where I was sitting. I still think that movie was scary even when I rewatch it and see how hokey some of the effects were. It did its job on me when I’ve had birds get into my house through the years.

As we got older, going to the movies was a fun thing to do with your friends. For my 11th birthday, we took all my friends to see “Giant,” still one of my favorites. That’s one I can watch every time I see it, which is a good thing about having it so readily available (a tip to modern times).

For one of my birthdays, my little brother took me to see “Ben Hur,” which I still think was so cute of him.

In Junior High and High School in the 1950s and 1960s, the movies were one of the places we could go on a date, either meeting a guy there or being dropped off by parents or, finally, driving ourselves. We went to everything from comedies to heavy dramas like “On the Beach,” a frightening look at the future that still lingers with me. As with many movies, I also read the book it was based on.

I grew up in an era of wonderful musicals and saw them all. I think my favorite is “South Pacific,” although there are so many great ones. My husband loved the movies and we saw everything we could. It was our night out and we saw westerns, war movies, comedies, dramas. Our children grew up with movies like “Grease” and the Star Wars movies and all the teen movies of their time.

A couple of months ago, my youngest granddaughter had just read “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and the local art theatre happened to be showing the movie in conjunction with the play being in town. I took her to the movie, which I hadn’t seen on a big screen since it came out. Wow! I couldn’t help but think that the experience was so much better for her than if we had just found it on one of our many screening services. I felt the same after seeing “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which showed the horrors of events that took place less than an hour away from us. Then I saw a comedy with some friends and we laughed and enjoyed it together.

It began to dawn on me that I was missing the experience of going to the theatre to see movies. There are some that just need to be seen on a big screen with a group of people and the sounds and excitement and a box of popcorn and a drink. When I watch at home, I get up and move around and pause the action and tend to do other things while I’m watching (puzzles, looking at my phone, flipping through magazines). My concentration is not the same, no matter how hard I try to get absorbed. My dogs need out or I need to answer the phone or take the laundry out of the dryer or fix a snack. There are so many distractions.

I applaud movie makers for trying to adapt to the audience’s new viewing styles and I do think some things are very good. When I drive by the theaters, and there are just a few left, I check the parking lots to make sure people are going in person and I do seem to see more cars, although it’s not as packed as it used to be. Time changes so many things, but I hope that going to the movies doesn’t go away. There are just so many fun memories to be made, so many great stories to be thrilled by, and so many times that being with other people to experience something is still the best.

As they used to say, “Let’s go to the movies.”