Thursday, July 31, 2008
I am in the midst of making a little compilation for you of our trip to Branson for my mother-in-law's 80th... of course I have no footage of the apparently *hilarious* trip I had sliding down the wet hill, and you have already sort of seen a sneak preview with the smiling badger.
But by popular demand! One thing I wanted to post completely separately is a conversation I witnessed and taped between my brother-in-law Larry, my sister-in-law Nancy (the one who's laughing her ass off) and my sister-in-law Linda (who in this film totally takes a swig out of a liter bottle of Dr. Pepper - I was too busy laughing at Larry to notice this but it made me laugh so hard when I watched the tape! I'm sure she will be very proud of this moment being on the Internet and also, not so much want to show her kids).
The topic was Larry's... errr... hobbies now that he is newly retired.
Before we get into this, let me just say that I have known for a very long time that the Dykshorns were people of deep and finely wrought rituals. I'm not just talking rituals in the broader sense (marriages, funerals, graduations - those things that are NORMALLY ritualistic behavior). But they are creatures of very meticulous habit in the everyday world. Like an infant having a bedtime routine, there is something very comforting about these rituals.
I once witnessed 4 Dykshorn men eating ears of corn at the same time. It was like they were all in some sort of trance. Stick in the corn holder stabbie things... forkfull of butter (not knife)... smear it left to right while rotating the corn with the other hand... salt left to right while rotating the corn with the other hand... eat left to right while rotating... and there is NO sound allowed during this ritual.
Maybe that is what made Larry's story so funny - it was new and yet, I recognized it immediately.
I will tell you the story of the ritual and then you will be allowed to watch a bit of the conversation. Because that is MY little idiosyncrasy (control freakism).
There is a movie theater where Larry lives where you can get various discounts. One of the discounts involves the wearing of a tshirt with the movie theater's logo on it. This gets you unlimited free popcorn. Further, if you buy a plastic cup with the movie theater's logo on it and you bring the cup to the theater, you can get $1 refills. Larry makes a point to buy his movie theater tshirt and cup on the very first day of the year if he can - because the deal lasts the whole calendar year and you don't want to be without these items if you can help it... and then, after the year's up, the shirt makes a mighty fine top for sleeping.
There of course are deals for seniors and for the matinee. Attending a film at a nondiscounted time throws off the ritual.
Here is a little bit of the movie attending experience. Just a bit of it. You can probably well imagine the rest. This bit is called: Preparing the Popcorn.
(how about that... it has to do with corn...)
