Blue Monday...The Heaven Theater

It is Blue Monday over at Sally's house. Well maybe not blue times, but time for some great blue items...Please visit Smiling Sally by clicking here.....

Good morning friends, by the time most of you read this I'll be in Jackson having test run, please say a small prayer for me that I don't have to have surgery again.

Now onto Blue Monday...

Last week I blogged in several post about my little town, it is a small town, but a warm and friendly town. The history of Brookhaven goes back to the Civil War era.

Today I wanted to show you one of my favorite childhood places. THE HEAVEN THEATER.....After we moved back to Brookhaven at age 6, my every Sat was spent in this wonderful place. Granny would drop Dean and I off at the show when it opened at 9:00 am. She'd give us .10 cents for the show..and you didn't have to leave after each show or pay again like you do now. And another 20 cents for a candy bar and coke..can we say lunch?.... we would spend the whole day there along with most of the other kids in the area, until she returned from shopping and visiting friends around 4:00.. I loved the weekly serial. And fell in love with Roy Rogers and Lash LaRue...in that little Theater.

Back then the only way Brookhaven kids met some of the kids from the county schools, like Loyd Star, West Lincoln, East Lincoln, Enterprise or Wesson was at the movies or the Basket Ball games... most of us who where too young to go to the ballgames by ourselves, just met at the show. Now these kids mingle and mix just like it is one big school..boy how things changed.

The Haven was opened in the late 1930's and closed it's doors as a privately owned Theater in the late 70s when the new 4 screen Cinema opened out near the Interstate.

In 1985 it was saved by a Group of folks who decided to open a Little Theater there. It was scheduled to be remodeled and some wanted to tear the front off and put up a new marque and new front, but we older folks stood together and refused to let that happen, so a Historic Grant was given only if it was remodeled to looked just as it did when it was built. I tried to find an original picture of it but couldn't find one anywhere. But I will say they kept it just as it was, even used the original neon sign....

A look at down town Brookhaven..Standing on Post Office steps...you can see the Heaven in the middle of the screen...

The front of the building

Our beloved Neon Sign, so glad it is still there...

On the left of the show was a Jewelery store it, was in Business for over 60 yrs, I went to school with the owner's Son..if you bought Jewelery in Brookhaven, you bought it there. Mr. Gene was in a wheel chair and when he was unable to operate it any longer it closed it's door. I think in the 70s, it was a Merle Norman's Make up store for awhile. Then a Singer Sewing Machine Store, now it sits empty like so many stores in Small town USA. On the right side was TJ Maxwell's Shoe Store can't remember when it wasn't there, until the old man died and his Son wanted no part of it. It too closed in the 80s, I believe. Several businesses have been in and out of it..nothing there right now.

I really like that they used the same glass blocks that where there to start with. I have bought so many tickets from that window..

The same doors I walked in and out of, for years...Dean and I often stood at the little window on the left and watched Mr Gene work on Jewelery and daydream about owning the beautiful pieces..lol..she never out grow her love for Jewelry, but I did.

OK, now to be honest, I didn't take this last picture it was on a Brookhaven Website, but I loved the look of the sign at night.

I hope you have enjoyed my Blue Monday trip down Memory Lane and also enjoyed my few pictures of blue...