Just putting out a few caches in my hometown. I was born in Westmont and lived here for the first twenty two years of my life, and for the past twenty four years now I have worked in my hometown. As that time draws to a close, I am sharing a few of my hometown memories in the form of geocaches.
This memory is of a long ago vanished movie theater, just simply called the Westmont Theater. As you gather information from the object at the posted coordinates that you will need to find the cache itself, you are standing just to the left of the marquee shown in the photo above. I found two good photos of this memory.
I found an article about the Westmont Theater:
The Westmont Theater started as a business for the Zulas family, who bought the empty theater just after the Depression. In the beginning, an adult movie ticket — 15 cents before 6:30 p.m. — bought you two features, a cartoon, coming attractions and the newsreel, said Helen Zulas, whose late husband, Jim, wore the red blazer and black slacks usher uniform at the Westmont for years. Young people and families came to the theater, and the Sweet Shop next door, to be in the center of the action in Westmont. When students graduated from nearby Central School, the theater would shut down for a day so the ceremony could be held there, Zulas said. After nearly two decades, the Zulas family sold the business to the man running the movie projectors, Charles Avgeris. The theater then became that family’s business, said George Avgeris, who took tickets from customers as a 4th grader and worked as an usher when he got older.
During World War II, moviegoers took special interest in the newsreels, which offered them a connection to current events around the world. “In those days, it was really busy. … For certain movies, we had to get out these velvet colored chains and block off people and everything,” Avgeris said. “Those were the great days of theater. Motion pictures. Before television. There really was no other entertainment.” But Avgeris' father and his business partner had a falling out, and Charles Avgeris left the Westmont Theater. A few years later, the theater closed.
The building stayed empty until it became the temporary location of the Bank of Westmont, which was building a new location down the street. The bank left the theater marquee up as it occupied the space. After the bank, the theater building became Raikes, a dime store. And after that, it turned into a Custom One Hour Photo and Framing shop, which it remains today.
The only memory that I have of seeing an actual movie in this theater was Tom Thumb. This movie came out in 1958, but I am fairly certain it was a showing that I went to sometime in the 1960s.
In addition to the dime store, I also remember this building housing a slot car racing track, a very cool place where everyone could come and race their slot cars.
THE CACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES
To locate this cache, look at the particular object that is located at the posted coordinates and determine the manufacturer's full name and location.
The coordinates for the final location can be found at:
N41 47.ABC, W087 58.DEF
Where ABC and DEF can be derived from the combined name and location of the manufacturer of this device as follows:
A = The number of times the letter A appears plus the number of times the letter F appears plus the number of times the letter D appears
B = The number of times the letter U appears
C = The number of times the letter E appears times the number of times the letter K appears times the number of times the letter L appears
D = The number of times the letter R appears plus the number of times the letter W appears
E = The number of times the letter F appears plus the number of times the letter N appears plus the number of times the letter P appears
F = The number of times the letter J appears plus the number of times the letter D appears