Much like Sweetspot’s Montreal editor Vanessa Muri, I too am reminiscing about my first date with my husband this week—we celebrate the momentous anniversary every January 21st, and much like Ms. Muri and her husband, it is our 16th one this year.
I was 17, he was 16, and our date consisted of a movie at Southland Theatre, to which our parents separately dropped us off at. Over-perfumed and nervous, I can’t help but smile thinking back at my future husband's obvious inexperience with the romantic protocol associated with asking someone out—I wound up coughing up the $7 (yes, movies were that cheap back then!) to pay for the movie when he didn’t.
The theatre was small by today’s standards, just 4 screens—1 main and 3 other smaller ones behind it, but the excitement of sitting in the dark, hands touching every time we both reached for the Sour Patch Kids, well, that’s a memory worth the $7.
We saw many a blockbuster on those screens in the years since, recreating our special day (complete with Sour Patch Kids) without fail every January. (He’s even paid a few times since.)
Sadly, Southland Theatre no longer stands, instead, a corporate tower sits in it’s place, and has for several years now.
So we’ve had to look elsewhere for that touch of movie magic, and Calgary is not without its share of accommodating theatres that fit the ticket. Both the Globe and Uptown, on opposite sides of 8th Ave. channel that pre-multiplex feel, as does the spectacularly independent Plaza in Kensington. All three show the kind of movies that don't require adopting a barely audible whisper when confessing what you saw (i.e. NOT Alvin and the Chipmunks 2), and don't usually require the pre-requisite 1 hour before arrival time. (Chinook I'm talking to you.)
So as I try to silence my husband’s Avatar pleas and try to convince him Young Victoria at the Uptown is just as, if not better for tomorrow night, I think back to the fresh-faced teenagers that had no idea the cinematic tradition a simple first date would become.
Pass the popcorn. (And the red Sour Patch Kids.)