Coyle Theater’s closed doors open to memories

By RON PAGLIA

For the Mon Valley Independent

There are many things wrong with growing older.

You age in ways that have nothing to do with numbers or the aches and pains in parts of your body that you didn’t know existed. You forget as you quietly slip to the near side of 80 what it’s like to enjoy the sweet innocence of childhood.

You forget the joys of a Saturday afternoon matinee at the neighborhood theater that only a child can  realize and appreciate.

Cowboys and Indians shed their magic and become only a symbol of years gone by. The movie industry is pricing itself out of business, you say to yourself. A trip to a mall 25 miles away becomes a rip-off rather than a valuable treasure in the mind of a child.

And then comes something like a drive along McKean Avenue in downtown Charleroi. You quietly pass the Coyle Theatre building, closed now for several years and  being removed from its place of prominence in the community, and nostalgia that really has nothing to do with movies floods your mind. The brief experience reminds me of my Nona.

Everyone has a Nona. We call them by different names — Grandma, Granny, Nanny — but they are one in the same. They are grandmothers.

My Nona was Rivina Paglia, and for most of her adult life she was very much a part of the Coyle. She was the cleaning woman there. The official title was “charwoman” but my grandmother preferred to be called the cleaning lady/woman.

It was nearly 43 years ago that Rivina died, but each time I have passed the Coyle over the years, the same thoughts I had of her the day she passed away return. They are thoughts of good times that once prevailed.

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