SERIALS
When I was a child, around 10 or so, I became fascinated by movies and would usually attend the Saturday matinee at the Ritz Theater in the neighboring town of Caldwell while my mother did her shopping and my dad shot billiards at the Pool Hall. Saturday movies were almost always a double-feature (films were shorter then), a news reel, cartoon and a serial. I recall several serials but my favorite was Nyoka, the "Jungle Girl." 15 Chapters! But wait!......
Midway through this epic adventure, my parents informed me we were moving to South Dakota. South Dakota? We may as well have been moving to the moon. How would I ever find out what befell my heroine in darkest Africa?
Luckily, I had a cousin, Jerome, who was a serial aficionado as well. We grew up in the same small town in Kansas, practically across the street from each other..He was a year older and infinitely wiser than I so he solved my serial dilemma in a heartbeat. Forget about Nyoka or?
For the next 7 or 8 chapters he would write to me at length, telling me what had happened to my jungle love. He would go into great detail...." and as Nyoka runs through the brush, she stumbles over the trip wire and falls, releasing the bamboo spikes in the treetops above that come hurtling toward her.....End of the chapter."
And I would wait patiently for the next letter containing the next installment. And it always came. I knew Nyoka was saved. (In that particular episode, Nyoka rolled out of the way.) That is a memory from my childhood that I still cherish to this day. As he said in one of his letters, "The eyes of Kansas are upon you." And they were probably winking!
That Thanksgiving it was 5 below zero in South Dakota and Mom announced we were moving back to Kansas
Midway through this epic adventure, my parents informed me we were moving to South Dakota. South Dakota? We may as well have been moving to the moon. How would I ever find out what befell my heroine in darkest Africa?
Luckily, I had a cousin, Jerome, who was a serial aficionado as well. We grew up in the same small town in Kansas, practically across the street from each other..He was a year older and infinitely wiser than I so he solved my serial dilemma in a heartbeat. Forget about Nyoka or?
For the next 7 or 8 chapters he would write to me at length, telling me what had happened to my jungle love. He would go into great detail...." and as Nyoka runs through the brush, she stumbles over the trip wire and falls, releasing the bamboo spikes in the treetops above that come hurtling toward her.....End of the chapter."
And I would wait patiently for the next letter containing the next installment. And it always came. I knew Nyoka was saved. (In that particular episode, Nyoka rolled out of the way.) That is a memory from my childhood that I still cherish to this day. As he said in one of his letters, "The eyes of Kansas are upon you." And they were probably winking!
That Thanksgiving it was 5 below zero in South Dakota and Mom announced we were moving back to Kansas
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