by Blaire Daniels

Created on: June 07, 2009

I have quite a story to tell about my Saturday matinees.

I was about 8 years old and my sister was 6 and we lived just one and a half blocks from the theater.. Mom and Dad would give us a quarter for the movies for the Saturday matinee and a quarter for snacks. That is the first thing we did when we went into the theater, we bought our snacks.

The matinees were great. We saw 2 movies, cartoons and a newsreel. Then one Saturday they announced they were going to have a talent show and all the kids were excited and we would have to try out first. We went home and told Mom and Dad we would like to enter into the talent show. Dad had been teaching me the Ukulele so I thought I could play it for the talent show. Then Dad said my sister and I should sing a duet together. So he came up with an idea. I wasn't quite crazy about it, but oh well, I thought why not.

I was to dress up like a boy and my sister was going to do the Hula. We learned Little Grass Shack by Hilo Hattie. Then the day of the try outs came and we went, boy were we nervous. We were choosen to enter the talent show. They asked us what we would like to be called and I said the Torres Kids. We used our step dads name so no one would know who we were. The following Saturday came and we were anxious but we did our number (with no mistakes) and waited for all of the other kids to finish. Then we were all called onto the stage and the Theater Manager put his hand on top of our heads and listened to the applause and my sister and I won. We couldn't believe it. We were so excited to tell Mom and Dad. I might add that everyone thought I was a boy and we never told the kids any different; but the Manager new and said that would be our little secret. He said for me to keep up the boy routine since I started that way.

We went back and each week we won we were given some type of prize for winning. We won 9 weeks straight. I remember on the 9th week we won a Monkey that climbed up a coconut tree and came down with a coconut and would do that until all of the coconuts were down we all had fun with that gift. The Manager just couldn't believe how much the kids loved us. We would come up with a different song each week with Dad's help. On the 10th week it was the final week of the talent show and the prize was $25.00. Everyone was excited about the $25.00 prize.

Our last and final song for the Talent Show was Don't Fence Me In. My sister and I sang very well together because we harmonized. I was still dressed up like a boy and my sister was in a nice dress. We went on stage and sang our hearts out because we wanted to win and because we were enjoying the moment..Then we were all called out once again on the stage for the final judging. Every single one of us was nervous. But my sister and I took first place and we were very proud and excited.

Mom and Dad were proud of us and that we stayed with it and never gave up trying to be better than the week before.

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