Families took samosas, pakora and aloo ke parathe for the intermission which they openly ate and offered each other.
Children ran up and down the aisles while their parents watched the film but no-one seemed to mind.
Memories with Mussy
We arrived in Leeds at the beginning of the 70’s after spending our first years in London. As a child I wasn’t impressed with the buildings that were blackened by the smoke caused by industry but, we were here to stay. Surprisingly we settled down quite quickly into the day to day life of home and school.
It was a time when you felt safe enough to leave your front door open while you nipped to the corner shop, a time when you knew your neighbours by their name, said please, thank you and replied “yes miss”.
As a family that had just moved from London, we were regarded with a little suspicion and received looks of disapproval for being ‘modern’ although our family never considered ourselves as such.
My father worked hard to support us but still found the time to help the constant flow of people from the community asking for his support to complete various documents or translate at appointments they had. Dad was firm but fair man but secretly had a heart that was as soft as putty and could never say no to anyone that came knocking on our door for help.
We all looked forward to the weekends when dad would insist that mum take a break and let him cook a big meal which we would all sit together to eat. TV was not allowed while we ate and the meal didn’t start till, we were all sat at the table.
For entertainment, families dressed in their best clothes and visited friends and families and if you weren’t doing that, there was always the Picture House on Sunday mornings. This was something that my elder sister particularly looked forward to. All week she would spend planning on the outfit she would wear with matching accessories and set off with mum or dad for the showing that started at 10am. There were always two of the latest Bollywood movies with stars such as Rajendar Kumar, Sadana, Waheeda Rehman and Rajesh Khanna. Men wore flamboyant tunic tops with trousers while the women wore saris and Churidar pyjama with a kameez that was so tight, it looked as though they had been stitched into the outfits.
Families took samosas, pakora and aloo ke parathe for the intermission which they openly ate and offered each other. Children ran up and down the aisles while their parents watched the film but no-one seemed to mind.
Finally, at 4pm the films would come to an end and the doors would open to the bright daylight. People often complained that they had headaches after watching films for 6 hours but that didn’t deter them from returning the following week to repeat it all again.
It wasn’t long after that the VCR arrived and put a rest to the weekly cinema visits and killing the industry. The Sundays at the Picture House was replaced with families hiring a VCR and picking up the special offer of 3 latest Bollywood movies to take home and watch.
This was marked by families gathering at home with their snacks and preparing a makeshift cinema in the lounge They would watch one film after the other and quite often fell asleep before the end but, it didn’t matter after all we were all together as a family and happy.