I live in a small historic town where the James and Appomattox Rivers meet.  On the corner of Route 10 and N. Main St. stands a building which used to be the town theater.  It had plush, burgundy fold down chairs and huge swaths of matching draperies.  Ushers wore uniforms and carried unobtrusive flashlights for late comers.  I used to sit in awe of the sight of this house of history, built in 1928 and named the Beacon Theatre.

My father took me to see my first movie there, the original "101 Dalmations," and as I grew older, "The Sound of Music," "The Ugly Daschund," "True Grit," and "Tora, Tora, Tora" stand out as movies I saw there.

Along came urban renewal in the 1960's, but somehow the theatre was spared, although its fare had turned to "Midnight Cowboy" and "Deep Throat."

The Beacon Theatre has since turned into a mucky muck environment for receptions and banquets.  Its employees even put up signs telling all that they are not even allowed to park there if our library (which is next door to it) lot runneth over.  One day I'll park there just to throw their world into a tizzy, with their "stay within the LINES" mentality.

This all came to a head this past weekend when parents rented out the theatre for their daughter's sixteenth birthday party.  For those of you unfamiliar with this phenomenon, an MTV television show "Sweet Sixteen" shows very rich children convincing their parents to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars as they turn 16.

The resulting parties make proms look like dances in a beer joint.  With each sixteenth party, pressure builds on families to spend even more to make their little darlings happy, usually topped off by a BMW or Mercedes Benz as the official birthday gift.

This past weekend, Hopewell experienced its version of a sweet 16 party at the Beacon Theatre and the result was not pretty.  The afternoon of the party, teens began texting and calling each other, inviting themselves and crashing a party at this high class venue.  Not cool.

Not only were city police called, but Virginia State Troopers, and surrounding county police officers had to be brought in to stop a disturbance of approximately 300 people. 

There are a few obvious lessons to be learned here.  Children of Hopewell, VA do not need to compete with kids on an MTV self indulgent, selfish party program that foolish parents are willing to give and have taped.  Secondly, if the parents have enough money for this type of celebration, surely they have enough to reimburse the law enforcement officers required to quell the nonsense.  Third, parents should stop trying to buy your children's love and not try to be their best friends. 

I still cannot believe MTV had that much influence on my hometown.  But there it was in black and white and read all over.

This is not exactly what I would like poeple to remember about a historic 82 year old building.  

Let those who enter learn of crushed velvet seats and uniformed ushers and draperies to match.  While they're at it, have them leave their cell phones at home.