Saturday at the Rhokana Cinema

From Great North Road

By Philip Pain.

More growing up in Nkana-Kitwe: The Rhokana Cinema

Saturday afternoon was the time for Flicks', and one had to decide on one of the two cinemas, the Astra or the Rhokana. This depended on which was showing the best movie. One’s decision would be based on the photos in the glass cabinets in the foyer or from a trailer you saw, and then letting your imagination run away.

The other deciding factor was of course which serial you were following. Some of which I can still remember, Roy Rodgers, Superman, with "Up up and away", Tarzan and my favourite, which I think was called "Copperhead". He was the guy with the dustbin shaped helmet, a jet pack on his back and with stove knobs on his chest, to control his flight! (I think this serial had some influence on some of my early experiments)!

If you remember these serials, they used to get you right on the edge of your seat and then suddenly end. (The dynamite fuse burning with the hero trapped.) The following week at the start of the serial, they would announce "last week on Superman", and then show you the end bit again before showing you the new week's episode. This was great as you got to see the exciting bit twice.

Now as you will remember the first few rows closest to the screen were occupied by all the youngsters, and as you got older and got "hitched", you moved back so that you could hold hands after the lights went out. (Don't try putting your arm around your girlfriends shoulder or some usher would shine his torch on you and embarrass you). And eventually when you got to be one of the guys you would sit in the last row of seats, so you could "smooch", without anyone being behind you to see. The big guys were all friends with the ushers and never had a torch shone on them (I think that the ushers were scared of getting beaten up!).

On this particular Saturday afternoon after flick, (I think the movie was "Davie Crocket and the River Pirates") a bunch of us boys went over to the Rhokana Mine Club for cold drinks and ice cream. There was no soft serve at the club, only scooped ice cream that sometimes crunched with ice crystals if you tried to bite it. The way to eat the ice cream was to bite a hole in the bottom of the cone and suck the contents out through the hole, and by the time you were finished the cone would be a soggy mess.

My favourite trick was when my brother, Arnold, was at the club with all his friends (his was six years older than me) I would go and hang around him and his mates until he would bribe me to push off. It was fantastic when I think back, that neither my brother nor any of his friends ever used foul language in front of me, I was told to push off, get lost or go play. (At times when in town, I am glad that I grew up where and when I did. For when I hear the language that grown ups use in front of kids and worse still the language, which goes unchecked, that kids of today use in front of grown ups.) Sorry back to the story.

After the flick and the club we boys went to play in the rugby grounds. Re-enacting the movie with the usual, "I'm going to be ....., and you can be.....".

Acting the different characters in the movie which we just seen. Our favourite place for all this action was on the grandstand, on the west side of the rugby field, climbing all over the place, with sticks for swords, dustbin lids for shields etc.

On this particular Saturday afternoon our battle took us around the back of the grandstand to the stairs which led up to the commentary box, which was situated on the roof covering the stands. Us as kids had been up there many times before, but the entrance door had always been locked. Well on this day someone had broken the lock and the door was open. What an invitation! All of a sudden the battles were forgotten due to this change of events. We all crowded into the commentary box and started to explore, when suddenly someone shouted "check this", (or words to that effect) and there in a corner was a F.E. (condom). Why we kids called it a F.E. I don't know.

Up until that time I don't think any one of us boys there had ever seen one before, but somehow we knew what it was. With this discovery, all the speculation started, "Who do you think used it?" How do you know it was used? Maybe we can hide away and watch for the next time when whoever it was comes back. No! Maybe it is a big guy and he will "donner" us if he finds us. This carried on for quite some time until it was getting late and we had to leave. Before leaving, we all made a pact that this was our secret, and you could only tell your best friend.

At school on Monday,( Fredrick Knapp), there was an air of conspiracy amongst the boys. Quite a few of the boys now knew of our secret, with themselves having been sworn into secrecy. The girls at school started to get the feeling that something was up and started to pester the boys, to find out what we were up to. But like good gang members, as far as I know, not one of the boys split on our secret.

It was arranged at break that after school we would all meet at the club rugby grounds, for the other guys to see this "thing". In the afternoon there was quite a large crowd gathered and we all sneaked up the stairs only to find that the lock had been replaced and we could not get inside. This was a great disappointment to those who were not witnesses there on Saturday, but made the other guys and myself well talked about Hero's for about a week, leaving the others with only their imagination of what we saw.

I should think that whoever left their evidence behind there at that time must be pushing towards 70 now. Let’s have a confession, get it off your chest before it's too late. This mystery has been bugging me for nearly fifty years now and I need closure.

Cheers.