Because of COVID-19, I hadn’t taken my grand-kids to a movie in over a year, and it’s something I love to do. I have thought about taking them to the Drive-In down in Palmer between Ennis and Corsicana, but that’s a long way to go and I’m old enough to remember what Drive-Ins are like in the winter time. The windows of the car fog up constantly and you have to keep wiping the windshield just to see.
Summers are different. When the kids were little, we would park our SUV backwards put the back hatch up so the rear speakers were above us and put lawn chairs behind our vehicle. That made for a pretty cool way to watch a movie.
A few years ago, Forney finally got a beautiful, modern movie theater. Going there has become a part of life for us, our kids and grandkids. Since it opened, it has gone through some changes. It is no longer a Starplex Theater. It has been bought by the AMC chain. It used to be that people would come from all over Kaufman County to the movies in Forney. However, the AMC 30 in Mesquite has put in recliners and offered a full-service food menu. The new Film Alley not only offers similar fare to the AMC 30 in Mesquite, it has bowling, video games, pinball, laser-tag and other entertainment.
Then COVID-19 hit the entertainment business hard. Last fall I started getting ads in my email from Studio Movie Grill with some great deals for classic movies and promoting their food for take-out.
I wanted to be supportive, especially for our theater here in Forney but I just felt like sitting in a theater for two hours and possibly being exposed to COVID just wasn’t worth the risk. That was until last week.
I got an email from AMC in Forney with a tempting offer. The ad said that I could rent an entire theater an bring from 1 to 20 people for a private movie showing. First run movies like Wonder Woman 1984 were only $149 and older movies were a mere $99. There were several movies that weren’t really that old for the lower price and there were also classics like Back to The Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark being offered. I left the choice up to my grandkids, Silas 9, Isaac 8 and Harper 8. They decided on a 2019 animated release from Dream-Works that they hadn’t seen called Abominable.
I followed the link in the email but really all you have to do is google AMC Forney and you can do the same thing. Just chose the link to reserve a theater. It will ask for a time you want to do it. (I chose 4:00 on Saturday Afternoon) Then it will give you the choice of dozens of movies to see. Once you choose a movie you will get the option to pay for Popcorn, drinks, candy etc. in advance and finally you put in your credit card information. Once you are finished you get a bar code that you share with everyone who is going. Once they get to the movies, they just show the bar code and you’re all set. They suggest meeting early (15 to 20 minutes). There are still 20 minutes of previews and the movie will start. We told our grandkids that for this one time only they could talk during the movie, cheer, wave their arms, whatever they wanted to do short of running around the theater.
My original plan was to buy glow-in-the-dark necklaces and toys but the best place to get those was Dollar Tree in Terrell or Mesquite and we didn’t venture the roads to go. Still, we had a terrific time and created a memory our grandkids will never forget. My hope is that whenever the subject of COVID-19 and the 2021 Ice Storm come up, they will remember when their Grandparents rented an entire movie theater, just for them. What a great way to let our grandkids know how very special they are and support a struggling local business at the same time.
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