My Memoirs - Citizen of the World

Jardim António Borges
I have great memories of playing with my friends in a park named,
Jardim António Borges, a beautiful park that was just a short walk
away from my house, where everyone went to spend time during
the summer. The park was filled with lots of vegetation, beautiful
trees, small lakes and long underground caves, which we called,
Furnas. The caves were built by the monks who lived in Sāo
Miguel centuries ago. It was a lot of fun for my friends and I to
play in the caves because they were very dark and deep, and made
for a good adventure. The caves were long and extended up to a
church named Igreja do Colégio about a kilometer away.
In the park, there was an outside Theater/Cinema, where they
showed movies and held theater performances. I remember seeing
a very popular Portuguese movie entitled, Fado which in English
means destiny or predestination, with the famous Amália
Rodrigues, the Dean of the Portuguese Blues, at least 10 times. She
was the most famous Portuguese singer, known around the world.
There were also theater groups featuring local performers, with
talents for acting and singing. I remember one performance in
particular called, Os Papagaios, which means The Parrots. It was
wonderful. During intermission, the audience could visit booths
that sold fish cakes, French fries and boiled potatoes with lots of
pepper. Back then, there were no potato chips. I usually could
only afford a small bag of French fries, which cost 50 centavos,
equivalent to one penny today.
The Coliseum
In addition to the outdoor theater in the park, there was also a large
theater, the Coliseum, where we would go to watch American
movies with sub tittles, featuring Gary Cooper, John Wayne,
Harold Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, Marylyn
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