In the good ol' days of my youth, we went to watch the movies a lot - me and my friends. The movie theatres are usually located in the malls. Back then there was no internet yet and there was no ticket machine (only VHS movies where one can rent from VHS movie rentals), so the only possible way to buy movie tickets was to queue in front of the ticket booths. For some weird reason, though, the ticket booths would only start opening up about an hour prior to screening time (if I remember correctly) and if you want to buy a ticket for the later showtime, then you had to queue later (not possible to buy a ticket for a later showtime earlier). The problem was that for popular movies, people would start queuing at least two hours prior to screening time. For popular movies, usually there would be such a LOOOOONNNNGGGG line of people zig-zagging like a snake and because we couldn't possibly reserve any seats beforehand, that meant that if one wanted to get the best seats, one had to queue in the front.
I remember going to some popular movies with my friends and to make sure we got to choose any seats we wanted (usually the back middle seats), we had to be there already 3-4 hours prior to screening time. And to make sure we didn't get leg cramps, we'd just sit on the floor right in front of the ticket booth and usually once we sat there, other people would start doing the same thing behind us LOL LOL!!!
One possible way to "skip through" the line was to find someone you know who was queuing already and then pay him/her for your ticket(s), but after some time the officials found out about this practice and so they limited the amount of tickets that each person in the line could buy (for example max. 5 tickets/person). We never really did this a lot, though. I only remember one occasion when we had to do this 'coz my friends had some classes at that time that they couldn't really skip, so we were there rather late and the line was already WAY too long. Fortunately one friend's boyfriend found a friend in line and he could get us the tickets he he he he...But all in all it was actually a FUN thing to do because my friends and I could chit-chat to our heart's delight for hours. Yeah, I know, women!!! LOL LOL LOL!!! And I suppose we talked even more when we were teenagers 'coz there were less distractions (no kids, no spouses, no jobs, etc.).
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Ahhhh...the good ol' days...I also remember one time I was there with two other friends and not long after the movie started, one of them kept on leaning to my side of the seat, whispering that the guy sitting next to her smelled so bad that she just had to try to get as far away from him as possible. Apparently it seemed as though the guy had stepped on cat's dung or something 'coz she claimed that it smelled just like that. Fortunately for me, I didn't even smell anything throughout the movie LOL!!! My nose is notorious for not being sensitive at all he he he he he...
The same friend was also once laughing too much during a movie (even after other people had stopped laughing) that somebody from the back threw some popcorn at her he he he he he...
Another time I managed to spill my Coke on the seat in the middle of the movie, so I had wet my jeans and I had to sit in the most unnatural way for the rest of the movie. Definitely not nice! I tried to dry up the wet part with some tissue, but it was too hard...so I just resorted to covering it up with the plastic bag that I had with me to make sure that the person who was coming after me wouldn't get his/her pants wet. I sure hope the person who came after me realized that it was wet, though!
Back then nobody had a mobile phone, so it was nice to watch movies without the distractions of having bright small screens in the middle of a dark theatre. However, I must admit that it's nicer to buy movie tickets these days 'coz one can do it online or through a ticket machine and the ticket booths are open non-stop, so one can buy the tickets for whichever showtime one wants. BUT there's another big issue I don't like about "modern" movie theatres. Back then we could bring any food we wanted (that we bought from a supermarket for example), but these days they wouldn't only let us bring the food and drinks sold inside the theatre complex. It wouldn't be such a big issue if it hadn't been for the outrageous price, you know? The prices for food and drinks sold inside the theatre complexes are just horrendous!
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Back in my parents' younger days, they said that there wasn't much entertainment other than music and cinemas. They were both naturally movie buffs. Elvis Presley was SO HUGE back then. My Mom said that she watched EVERY Elvis movie at the cinema. Funny thing was that back then they didn't allow youngsters to watch movies at the cinema. I don't know if there were cartoons shown at the cinema or not, but all my Mom talked about was Elvis movies, so I guess they mostly showed adult movies. Since my Mom is a short as I am, sometimes she had trouble being let into the cinema. She said that sometimes she bribed the cinema attendant so that she'd be let in and other times she wore high heels so that the cinema attendant would let her in (and many times it worked!!!!)
My Mom also told me that back then wigs were VERY fashionable and she herself owned at least one wig. I wouldn't have known that if she hadn't told me, since I had never seen her with a wig before ha ha ha ha ha...
Have I told you that my Dad ABSOLUTELY loves singing? He loves singing Elvis songs and other songs. He sings in the shower and everywhere (well, not in the streets while walking, of course, but in the other rooms in the house). He sings with gusto, with all his heart and soul, even in church. One time I couldn't help giggling when I heard him trying to sing along with, EMF's "You're unbelievable..." in the radio. You must know the song, right? It's quite a fast song....and he was only trying to sing along with the refrain "You're unbelievable..." HI HI HI HI HI HI...It was SO funny!!!
One time when I was still in Elementary School (or was it Junior High School?), I was tinkering with our old tape player and I recorded my Dad singing a song. I don't remember anymore what he sang, but it must've been as old as Moon River he he he...
When I looked at old pictures of Bandung back then, everything looked quiet, unlike these days when the traffic was so crazy. There were few cars and few motorcycles and many bicycles and rickshaws. My Mom used to go everywhere on bike. These days it's VERY unsafe to ride a bike in the streets, since Indonesia has no clear bike trail on the sidewalks. Hell, there are SO many street peddlers in the sidewalks that even pedestrians have trouble walking there in some areas!!! But still, I love Bandung 'coz it's my hometown he he he he...
Hmmm...this post is another rambling one he he he...and now I'm STARVING, so better post this one and eat!!!
