Looking back — and there’s a whole lot more backward than forward to look at now, a whole lot — I recall how as a lad, and then into my first couple of adult decades, I enjoyed going to the movies.

When my generation was growing up we called it going to the picture show. And how I loved the cowboy movies. They came to be called B movies.

Here in our little town one went to the Reita Theater to see those shoot ’em ups.

Nowadays, some — actors, critics, et al — call them films.  How sophisticated.

La dee da. Among my earliest favorite movies were “Lassie Come Home,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Song of the South.” You know, Uncle Remus. And what child could forget “Bambi”?

Some of my all-time favorites are “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “Judgment at Nuremberg,” “The Sound of Music,” “Dr. Zhivago,” “A Man for All Seasons,” “Mary Poppins,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” and, well, a few lesser-known movies with splendid acting. Such as “Tunes of Glory,” “Gallipoli” and more than a few others.

“To Kill a Mockingbird,” both book and movie, was a gold standard, for sure. As was “Elmer Gantry.”

I liked almost anything with William Holden, Alec Guinness, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Barry Fitzgerald, Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten (who had relatives here), Burt Lancaster, Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Spencer Tracy, Karl

Malden.

And James Dean, Marlon Brando, Jack Lemmon, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Omar Shariff, Jack Nicholson, Robert Duval, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino.

And Dana Andrews, Montgomery Clift, Van Johnson, Dan Dailey, Morgan Freeman, Fredric March, Ralph Bellamy, Cary Grant, Burl Ives, Clark Gable, Anthony Quinn, Michael Caine, Paul Scofield, James Cagney, WoodyAllen, Tom Hanks, James Stewart. To name some, but not all.

On the women’s side? Let’s start with Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman, Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron, Diane Lane, Shirley MacLaine, Margaret O’Brien, (the greatest child star ever), Jennifer Jones, Julie Christie,

Jessica Tandy, Greer Garson, Jean Simmons, Julia Roberts, plus several character actresses whose names have left me.

Have I left some out, both men and women? Of course. Plus, I have been fond of many British actors through the years.

Some of the best acting has been done by what are called “character actors.” Among my favorites are/were Charles Durning, Pat Hingle, Murray Hamilton (one of our very own), and so many more.

We all have our movie memories, don’t we? Nowadays, I rarely ever see a movie in a theater, and watch very few on television.My main enjoyment comes from reading. I am truly blessed that I love to read, but I do have good memories of movies I have enjoyed in an earlier part of my journey.

For this I am grateful.