THE CLOSING of the Manor Theatre crushes. A business that’s been in the same spot for 73 years, a millennium in Charlotte time, is gone. An art-house theater that supported local filmmakers, that took a chance on quirky movies that usually don’t escape bigger cities, has closed for good.
Could this be our first last goodbye? Is this the first in a series of COVID-related closings of places we can’t imagine Charlotte without? We read foreboding predictions about the fate of small businesses, and it’s impossible not to think about our favorite Charlotte shops, restaurants, theaters. At a time when we want nothing more than to be together again, how many of these places will we have to return to? How many will survive partial re-openings and lower demand? We’re still in a disorienting limbo: We don’t know whether reopenings will initiate a gradual welcome back to our old lives or reveal themselves as the opening days of a dreaded, dreadful alternate reality. What if, as Conan O’Brien posited in a recent tweet, these are the good old days?
Of course, a pandemic causes far greater grief and fear and losing a movie theater hardly registers on the scale of loss these days. But we can’t deny our hundred little griefs and sadnesses; they’ll show up, somehow, whether we invite them or fight them off. We miss our friends and family. We miss our places. We miss our old normal.
This story is from the August 2020 edition of Charlotte Magazine.
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This story is from the August 2020 edition of Charlotte Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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