After reading Maggie Wolff Peterson’s article in the November 26th issue, it occurred to us that we had not read yet of anyone sufficiently thanking Rusty and Pam Berry for 20 years of making all of our lives richer and infinitely more interesting.

We moved to the area about the time Rusty and Pam opened the Opera House and what a welcome event that was. Leaving Washington, D.C. meant also leaving the Biograph Theatre, the Circle Theatre and the Uptown.

Rusty’s sometimes edgy choices in movies were not only stimulating but also gave us insight into the level of tolerance we were to find in Shepherdstown. Plus, when a theatre operator voluntarily offers to warn patrons when to hide their eyes for excessively violent scenes, you know the guy has a good handle on his audience. (Though I do not know that we will ever recover from the pruning sheers scene in “Bound”).

And when The Opera House began to suffer attendance because of the availability of other media choices, Rusty and Pam persisted and helped find a way to keep the theatre one of our cultural options.

For that, their good humor and putting the thrill back into going to the movies again, our appreciation seems hardly enough.