The multiplex screens are filled with cartoon features for kiddies, comic book characters for teenagers, and R rated comedies for young adults.

And what about seniors! Thank Richard Dulgarian for the Avon, where older adults can see movies for adults.

We’ve been fans of the popular East Side movie house for over 50 years, beginning in the mid-sixties when double features were in style, and at least twice a year you could watch “Singing in the Rain” and “The Wizard of Oz”, or “The Maltese Falcon” and “Citizen Kane” back-to-back.

Today, the Avon shows Academy Award foreign film nominees, film festival favorites, British classics, top documentaries, and quality movies.

While most Brown students are home for the summer and East Side residents are at their beach houses, traffic and parking are lighter and the multitude of good restaurants on Thayer and Hope Streets are not as crowded.

I have a friend who won’t go to the Avon because he has to walk a block or two, yet he’ll park in a mile-long parking lot or garage and walk past eight screens to get to his multiplex movie.

You can usually find street parking a short distance from the Avon, and when you enter the small lobby, your seat is but a few short steps away.

The experience is enhanced by the showing of their fifties pop-corn and candy enticement, “Let’s all go to the lobby”, a jingle that Joyce loves to sing along to. “Their pop corn can’t be beat.”

The sophisticated, older crowd gathers outside after the movie in informal discussion groups, or heads to one of the restaurants nearby to continue their conversation.

From pizza next door or across the street to Chinese, Indian, Greek, American, Burgers and fries, Korean, Mexican and more, you can eat quick and cheap or in luxury at well over a dozen establishments within walking distance .

While most entertainment in Rhode Island is limited to evenings and weekends, retired folks can avoid crowds by taking in a weekday matinee.

So keep cool this summer, and see a movie at the Avon.