It is good to be Friday. Mr. 2026 said as he danced and sang. Fridays are full of high energy. There is so much that can be accomplished with a Friday Outlook. The weekend is just around the corner. Reflection and fun are in the near future. The problems of the work week melt in the bright sun of Friday.

The Old Man recalls the joy of Friday in Eldorado. No school for two days. The Orpheum Theatre often had a science fiction movie or a monster movie on Friday night. At this time of year, Pounds Hollow was calling for a spring and summer visit. Several visits per week. Before we arrived, we stopped for Moo and Cackle hamburgers. Or, we took provisions for a picnic, including Oscar Mayer Weiners… the ones kids love to eat. Neva J Chet and the Old Man enjoyed many carefree hours at the Hollow. I was never a strong swimmer, but I was buoyant. I could float like an inner tube. I took great crusader pleasure in floating way beyond the rope of safety to the other creek bank, where the swimmers looked like miniatures. When floating, I heard nothing. I was in my own world. Chet liked Oscar Mayer Weiners straight out of the package. Themlma, his mom, told me that she thought they were precooked. I ate many raw hot dogs with my buddy Chet.
Everyone went to Pounds Hollow. Teachers and principals…the powerful and the poor. It was a great equalizer.

Life seems more fun on Friday. Responsibilities lessen, and anticipation of the future heightens. Anxiety runs for cover under the hope of Friday. Before I became a Christian, the Orpheum was my sanctuary. I attended the movie screening early on Sunday and stayed late. Thirty-five cents purchased an all-day event. Neva J gave me a dollar, and I had money for popcorn, a candy bar, and a Coke. Sometimes I brought home a little change. I had a little pool table in my bedroom. Not regulation size, but it was big to me. I practiced my pool skills and dreamed of becoming the next Minnesota Fats.

Friday was a good time to ride my motorcycle, which was really a bicycle, to town. We lived in the country, and the gravel road did not complement my knobby bicycle tires. It was bump… bump… bump all the way to town. I was a little tall for the 20-inch bike, but it looked cool…like none I had seen. When I arrived, I watched the teenagers drive their cars around and around the town square. I still liked my motorcycle/bicycle.

A kid could buy Marlboro cigarettes at the Dairy Queen if they lied a little. Dennis and I bought a package and split them as we journeyed down the railroad tracks puffing as fast as we could between coughs.

We gathered at Grandma A’s house on Friday night to watch the flick on the big screen of the Starlight Drive-In and catch fireflies. Fireflies were a big deal when the Old Man was a kid. You could not hear the dialogue, but the picture was in full view, if a bit distant. Yoop would come over…she was from Holland. She brought chocolate wooden shoes in miniature. Aunt Guelda called her Yoopie.