[Editor’s Note: With The Historic Strand Theater in downtown Jena reopening next month after a decade-long restoration, we thought it might interest readers for a trip down memory lane to a story about the theater and life in Jena in the 1940s. The following article was written by Jack Morgan Willis as part of his Grass Roots & Cockleburs weekly column and published in the April 23, 2003 edition of The Jena Times newspaper.]