ABOUT SAVING THE AIRLINE This picture is from the Tulsa World and is of two of my very special friends, Charles Hall and Geneva Alston. Charles is the son of the longtime managers of many theaters in Ponca including the Airline. Geneva is the lady who ran the Airline concession stand and kept us kids in order! These people are heroes of preservation and dedication to the theaters they loved. Do they like preservation? The car in the background is Genevas. She bought it new and drove it to work at the theater for years. She has kept it and cherished it and Charles has helped her. Amazing people! The picture is of them at the Airline recently for a showing of God is Not Dead. Now to clear up some things. For anyone who thinks I am against saving the Airline. I loved the Airline. When it was open I was a regular customer and very supportive. I even arranged an event there with the classic car club and Northern Oklahoma Youth Services. We had classic cars, and the film Grease along with a Sock Hop oldies dance on the patio after the movie. It was widely advertised and open to the public. It was NOT well attended. Those of us who were there had a GREAT time. There is a scene in Grease where they are at a drive in and it was surreal because from where I was setting on the patio, all you could see was classic cars and people in the proper clothes both on the screen AND at the Airline. Great memory. After the Airline closed and the drive in theater opened in Derby, Kansas we supported it. Not just by attending films there ourselves, but also by taking youth groups there so they too could experience a drive in theater and to help support the theater. I would be in favor of seeing the Airline saved or as some have suggested if need be moved. However people should understand that the closing of the Airline and its impending destruction are NOT the result of some evil they. It did not happen because some powerful person or group within the community forced it. We have no one to blame but ourselves. It was the public NOT attending the drive in despite the valiant efforts of those who ran it who caused it to close. It was us, the public who sat by doing NOTHING while it deteriorated for YEARS. Not one of us ever tried to save it after it closed. We may have thought I wish it were open, but no one, myself included put any real effort or money into trying to save it. That is until Doyle Brewer and his radio stations came up with an idea for one final glorious end for the Airline. I think it is important to note that all of their hard work and investment of time and money was NEVER about saving the Airline. It was about saving people. What they have done at the Airline is nothing short of a miracle to me. I hope and pray they reached lost and hurting people with a message that God loves them. Anyway I just wanted to clear up the MISUNDERSTANDING that anything I posted was AGAINST the Airline. I suppose I supported the Airline as much as any of their loyal customers, and heck I figure I even went above that by arranging the Grease event. However, I take my part in the blame of it setting neglected for all the years it was closed, a blame we ALL share. Do I wish the Airline could survive? Yes. One last thing to clear up. I am NOT the spokesperson for the Poncan Theatre. I have not been employed there for several years. In fact I dont even live in Ponca City, or Oklahoma for that matter. If the Airline is saved, or if the Poncan is helped, will have nothing to do with me. My time with both has passed. It will be the people of Ponca City who will determine the fate of both. THAT was really my only point in posting here at all. I was only hoping to encourage people to wake up and accept their part in the destruction OR preservation of their community. What ever happens, just dont look back and say THEY did it. There is NO they. They is us. If we were ALL a little more like Charles and Geneva we would have the things we cherished with us much longer.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 13:20:54 +0000
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