"The screen was boring"

Young Son called me yesterday from Grandma's house in the booming metropolis of Sandpoint, Idaho. With breathless excitement, he reported to me that he had gone to see Transformers at the local cinema. He related every detail of the movie to me. He then ended with this comment-

"The screen was boring."

Confused, I responded, "What was boring about it?"

(I mean really, what else would you expect from the screen itself? Movie screens aren't all that exciting. It's what is projected on it that creates the excitement. But I digress...)

"It was small"

"Yeah, that's what movies are like in small towns."

After all not everyone gets to see all their movies in a brand new AMC multiplex with rocking seats and 16 larger than life wrap around screens with state of the art sound systems. For my kids- seeing a movie in a small town cinema is a novelty.

For me- it's just how I grew up. It was a big deal when a new cinema with four screens opened in Sandpoint. Just imagine, you could choose which of four movies you wanted to see! I was in 4th grade when it opened and we saw ET there. I have fond memories of seeing movies at Cinema Four West up through high school. The essential part of the experience was when the film would break. Of course it always happened at the climax of the plot. They would fix the filmstrip and the movie would continue.

Really- it was just like a little intermission... Except you couldn't really get up to use the restroom or get more popcorn because you didn't know how long it would take them to fix it. And you didn't want to miss anything...

Maybe it wasn't a state of the art multiplex, but really- you don't make memories like those at AMC...