Once upon a time, there was a retired couple. He had been an editor and retired from
The Sun after 40 years. She had been a middle school teacher who earned a doctorate after retiring from teaching 7th graders.
This nice couple joined the
Maryland Film Festival and received free screening passes. They recognized a good deal when they saw one and they liked the Maryland Film Festival people.
On his blog, the man reviewed films they saw. Although he didn't listen to his wife's opinion on the films, that was okay. They still kissed at the end of each movie and at the end of each night.
The woman was a big water drinker. Waiters at their favorite Chinese restaurant, the
Szechuan Cafe in Pasadena (Maryland), did a good job of keeping her water glass full but they had to work hard to do it. She had asthma and her doctor said she should try to drink a gallon of water every day. Her gastroenterologist also said she needed to drink loads of water.
When this couple went to see movie screenings, sometimes she bought a fountain Coke at the theater but other times she carried a small bottle of water from home with her. People at the movie theaters were all understanding so the water was never a problem...
...until Bengies.
This nice couple drove 34 miles from Pasadena (Maryland) to Bengies Drive-In to see another screening. They did not take a bag full of snacks. They did not stop at McDonald's on the way. They weren't hungry because they had just had dinner (chicken, rice and asparagus). They had no alcohol in their car. They came to see the movie. However, they did have two fresh bottles of water with them.
"Wait! You have to get rid of your water." A Bengies man shouted at them as they drove in and began to look around for a pull-in spot. He told them they had to throw away their fresh bottles of water and buy new bottles of water from the drive-in's concession stand. Management wouldn't budge.
So, rather than throw away two $.50 a bottle waters and buy two $1.25 a bottle waters, this couple left without seeing the movie. They drove home another 34 miles, spending $5 in gas in the end.
It was the principle.
They also kissed that night.
In case you're interested in the theater's
House Rules, go here:
http://www.bengies.com/HouseRules.phpIt's enough to scare off a nice retired senior couple and their blog readers.
Comment from David.................................................................
The nice husband adds: An offer to buy two bottles of water from the concession stand, while keeping the two contraband bottles in the car unopened, was refused. The two perfectly good, unopened bottles of water, had to be thrown away, or we would EACH have to purchase a "food and beverage permit" for $7. So it was throw away 50 cents worth of water, pay $14 to keep and even drink that water, or leave the premises. We chose the latter. The great American drive-in movie theater has been vanishing from the landscape. Bengies may be the last in metro Baltimore. It has not had an easy time surviving. Inflexibility cost it all of $2.50 worth of water sales tonight, and the possibility of a hotdog sale or two during the screening.
...,after dinner, played in the kitchen.
I can't help but look beyond institutional, geographical and political borders and consider walls we build around ourselves. On the one hand, we protect our emotional selves. No one can intrude and change us. But at what price? We protect our feelings and security but we imprison our spirit that yearns to connect. The human spirit is all about connecting.
I was surprised to see a street named after me...or rather after a Schupp. Who knows ... could be an ancestor. David noticed the sign as we were with Silvia in Essen at Zollverein, an old coal factory.
can also be in/out. It is you/me but not "we." The Holocaust is an icon of binary policy. Through an extensive Nazi campaign, the Jewish population (along with gypsies, physically and mentally challenged people and political dissenters) was configured to be unlike everyone else. "You're either like us and fit in or you're out."
The Nazi binary system grew into an unimaginable extermination policy between 1933 and 1945. I sat in a darkened room at the Memorial where names of victims were projected onto four walls and a short biography was read both in German and English. The name of Yefim Mintz was projected on the walls surrounding me. He was just three-years-old when he was extinguished by the binary mentality carried to extreme. Four walls...three years...only two possibilities--live/die.
While we were looking at the art, a group of Chinese tourists insisted that we hold hands together in front of the Wall. The fact that the Wall can evolve from a divisive to a uniting force gives rise to hope. It also reminds us of the power of art.
I managed to get David to take one of us just before the show started. Below are some of these pictures.
This is the Pyronale, the 4th Pyronale World Fireworks Championship which takes place in the Olympic Stadium. Fridaz night included displays from Turkey, Singapore and Austria.
On the way up to our friends' apartment, one of their neighbors had this as a greeting to their apartment below.
Color of Change is making an impact on the hate mongering of Glenn Beck. Large companies are now thinking twice about the negative advertising that results when their names are connected with someone who seeks to destroy. Beck may be crazy like a Fox in his rhetoric that leads his flock to look for "otherness" through lies, but he is still crazy. Read more here.
I don't cook. Let me repeat that...I don't cook. That being said, last night I made pie crust from scratch.
