The Unspoken Rules of Going to Showplace 6 With Your Grandma

If you grew up in Lubbock, there's a decent chance some of your happiest memories were made inside the slightly sticky walls of Showplace 6.

And, if your grandma took you? Forget Disney World. You won the lotto.

There were a few unspoken rules to the experience.

First of all, Grandma was absolutely sneaking snacks in.

Mine always crammed 2 cans of off-brand cola and a couple of Snickers bars in her purse, between used tissues, receipts from 1987, peppermints, and other mysterious old-lady items no child was permitted to touch. I remember hearing the cans clanking together as we walked through the lobby. She would always give me a mischievous grin and a wink. I'd be extra careful not to blow our cover, but she did most of the heavy lifting, being an adorable, innocent granny...with a bag full of secrets.

The second rule was that you never complained about the movie selection.

Showplace 6 wasn't about seeing the newest blockbuster films. It was about seeing a movie for cheap, and maybe even another one afterward, if Granny had enough in her coin purse (or was feeling rebellious enough to sneak in). Mine drew the line with sneaky snacks, but yours could have been a wild woman.

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The third unspoken rule of visiting the dollar theater was that you understood the building itself was hanging together by pure determination.

The seats were falling apart, the floors were permanently sticky no matter what season, and the carpet looked like it had survived not one, but many wars. Did you ever think about that when you were a kid? Absolutely not. Not a single complaint was uttered. If anything, you cried when it was time to go home.

"One more movie, Grandma! Please?"

You could spend an entire day there with a 10-dollar bill and leave feeling like you just had the best day of your life, every single time, because you did. You were probably like me, too young to realize it, but those really were the absolute best days of our lives.

The last movie I ever saw there was The Lovely Bones. It wasn't great. I'd read the book and opted to watch it solo so I could really get into it. Sucked.

Looking back, if I had known it would be my final Showplace 6 experience, I would have taken my grandmother with me.

I would have put two cans of off-brand cola and a few Snickers bars in my bag, picked her up from the nursing home, and treated her to a movie.

In fact, I would have even splurged and bought her popcorn.

The cruddy movie wouldn't have mattered to her.

The cruddy movies didn't matter to any of us.

The memories we have today are of the person we watched the films with.

I'd give anything to giggle and quietly, slooowwwly, open our cans together while the credits rolled in.