We begin here, in the spirit of the times, a Storytelling series about simple pleasures on the cheap:

Nowadays, domes are popular sports and entertainment venues. Some are huge, seating tens of thousands of people. The "Dome" of my days in Pittsburgh was an old-fashioned movie house in Lawrenceville.

It didn't remotely resemble a dome, but was my favorite place to go for a Saturday afternoon movie matinee in the 1940s. Every week, The Dome had a new feature film plus cartoons. Best part of all: it only cost a dime to get in.

The Dome was a narrow, shoebox of a building sandwiched between other businesses on busy Butler Street, four miles east of Downtown. Its stumpy marquee protruded only a foot or so. Beyond the tiny ticket window, there was no lobby or candy counter. Above the ticket window was an even tinier projection booth. The Dome's front doors opened into a single, narrow aisle, with rows of six seats on each side.

Old milk-bottle crates once were used for back row seats. A door next to the screen opened into an alleyway. Some kids let their non-paying friends sneak in that way, until the owner caught on.

There was a small, one-seater restroom at the bottom of a dark stairway, built into a partially dug-out cellar. The cramped space outside the rest room was full of cobwebs and rats. The Dome's reputation for rats persisted for years, according to the Carnegie Public Library. No one went down those cellar steps unless they had to go really bad.

The Dome was cold and clammy, except in summer when it was so hot and stuffy you could hardly breathe. There was no air conditioning. Rain and melting snow often dripped down the walls which abutted the adjoining buildings. The things we put up with to see a movie for a dime.

Some Saturdays, there was a Three Stooges or Laurel and Hardy special before the main attraction. For these specials, you had to get to The Dome early to get a seat. Sometimes, instead of a full-length movie, there was a double or even triple feature of shorter comedy films and a bonus of animated cartoons. Then, you got there really early.

Westerns were my favorite movies. The Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, Tom Mix, or most any movie with cowboys and Indians. For Westerns, I saved every penny earned from chores or errands in the neighborhood. We didn't get allowances. Saving up for the movies meant avoiding places like Jake's Candy Store or Frank's Bakery and splurging away part of that dime for The Dome.

Many Saturdays, the movie would suddenly stop in mid-scene. The kids went nuts when the film would slip off the reel at the peak of the cowboy and Indian chase. Everyone would stomp their feet until the movie started again. One time, the commotion chased the rats up from the cellar and through the theater. That excitement outdid the featured movie, especially with all the girls standing on their seats screaming.

We kids didn't mind when the projector stopped during Movietone News which was shown even during Saturday matinees because of the World War going on. But, if it stopped during the feature film, all hell broke loose. Double feature films put an even greater strain on the theater's projector, but we were thrilled to be there.

Can you imagine: two full-length movies for a dime?

The Dome had the cheapest seats in town, certainly cheaper than Lawrenceville's two larger movie theaters -- the Model and the Arsenal. The price of a ticket at The Dome later went up to 15 and then 20 cents. We were disappointed, but it was still a far cry from the bigger movie theaters around Pittsburgh and Downtown, which already were charging as much as 50 cents.

The only time The Dome was half empty for a Saturday matinee was when the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus came to Lawrenceville, setting up their tents and stuff just a block away off Butler Street.

Sometimes, after a good week of errands and chores plus abstinence at the candy store, I had saved enough extra to buy after-the-show treats or simply blow the whole wad on a to-die-for ice cream sundae at the Keystone Candy Shop. One couldn't munch away during the movie without sharing one's largesse with the kids around you. Especially if it was a long, drawn-out cowboy and Indian chase.

The Dome eventually was closed about 1958 and demolished along with the adjacent buildings. But for me, it lives on. Those were the days ... when we went to The Dome for a dime.