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THE AWAKENING OF SUE AND STAN
The following is a true story, but the names are changed to
protect the participants, as they are shy and very private people.
They were totally surprised as I was with the circumstances of this
situation.
Let us first get to know who Sue and Stan are. They are
long time Las Vegas residents of the Sun City, Las Vegas area. Their
neighbors, fellow Church members and the people they deal with daily
have only nice things to say about them. I know that what I just
said will make them blush and turn away shyly.
Over the past 30 years, Sue and Stan’s main interest and
concern was in rearing their family and then helping with their
grandchildren. In order to make extra money, Sue worked as a
caregiver and was well received and in great demand. Stan, who has a
disability mostly staid home occupied by daily chores, loving to
cook and baby-sit when needed. Vacationing was very rarely on their
schedule. But not to long ago a slight monetary windfall had them
catching up on their bills and going on a cruise.
For those past 30 years, their main contact with movies had
been what they watched on television and perhaps an occasional movie
rental. A while back a friend mentioned to how impressed she was
when viewing the movie “FRIDA”. The friend felt that Sue, who is of
Mexican descent would enjoy the film.
Upon the friends recommendation Sue and Stan went to the
local theater complex to see “FRIDA”. Here’s where the awakening
came about. The last time Sue and Stan went to a movie theater was
more than 30 years in the past to see the 1970 original feature film
“Mash.” Now the real adventure started. They took their seats not
realizing that certain rows have seats that rock. They thought they
were sitting on broken seats. The smallness of the theater and the
largeness of the screen were overwhelming. They were amazed at the
sound system. Sue said, “I could hear the water dripping from the
faucet”. The coming attractions were so loud to them they had to
stuff cotton into their ears.
When the movie started and they got comfortable, except for
the “broken” seats, they enjoyed the film and the experience and
plan to go more often. This leads to my prediction. I believe that
with videotapes, DVD’s and who knows what else lies ahead, along
with the ever-expanding size of TV screens and technical growth,
sooner or later films will be going straight to TV viewing, probably
more pay-for viewing.
If an average city-dwelling couple like Sue and Stan can go
over 30 years before they seen a theater film, and only because a
close friend influenced them, how many people out there are just TV
viewers? Just think about that.
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