Life Finds A Way

When I was a kid, on the edge of being a teenager and you told me we were going to the movies, I would take it to mean that we were going to the DeWitt Theater in Auburn, California.  The first time I it up DeWitt was when I was eight or nine years old and my parents took us to catch a double feature--which was a common occurrence at that particular theater.  I remember we saw The Gods Must Be Crazy II, and, the main showpiece, Back To The Future III.

I saw a lot of movies at that old place before the powers and economies that be decided it was no longer a rational business decision to keep it open (to my knowledge, the standard price of admission for a showing, be it single or double feature was a whopping $2.50, with free refills on pop-corn that was priced at $1.75 for a large).

Probably the greatest moment for me at that theater, however, was catching Jurassic Park on the big screen at age 12.  I was at that age where scary stuff wasn't so scary anymore, and I could appreciate on some level the sort of artistry that went into creating the kind of special effects that could take a load off of my imagination in my suspension of disbelief.  I remember I saw Jurassic Park there twice during its theatrical run, my toy t-rex with removable battle damage clutched tight in my prepubescent little hands.

Flash forward twenty years.  I'm a long way from home, or at least where home used to be, and I'm getting ready to catch Jurassic Park on the big screen for the third time, this time in Temecula, California, this time in 3D Imax.  And I'm just as excited now as I was as that 12 year old kid who talked his grandparents into taking him not once but twice to go see some super realistic CG dinosaurs tear it up.

Good times will be had by all!

J. Schiek