Twenty Eight years ago, a movie debuted with cutting edge computer graphics, unique filmmaking and centered around an alternative computer generated world. Long before The Matrix, TRON did it first! Now, after so many years, the invention of the internet, handheld digital music devices, e-readers and tiny mobile computers (ala iPhone), we get the TRON sequel. Like 1982, the toys are in stores, video games retell the story and everywhere you turn there’s some kind of TRON promotion. Now, I remember the original. I remember the day I sat in the theater watching the kick-ass special effects. I saw it at the Plains Park Twin Theater by the ALCO. It was within a bikes ride of our apartment. It was the new theater, being built in 1980 or so. I watched them build it. The babysitter’s son and I rode our bikes to the site and threw rocks into the wet cement of the sidewalk. When the contractor came around and caught us hovering over the pebble strewn section, we swore it was some kids on skate boards and we chased them off. He believed us and we talked and watched him fix it. We asked if we could put our initials in the soft concrete and he politely denied us the opportunity.
Actually, the first movie I ever saw at that theater was The Fox and the Hound. My mother and I went on a Sunday afternoon and found that it was sold out. We asked about the next showing and it was sold out. We returned the following weekend to find it also sold out. After weeks of trying, we finally got in and saw it.
If memory serves correct, I think a group of friends and I rode our bikes to the theater on a hot July day and watched TRON at a matinee screening. After the movie, we rode over to ALCO. It was that fateful day that we all got caught stealing TRON figures. The guys took several figures over to the garden center and began opening them and putting them down their pants. For the record, I personally never opened any nor physically put any of the figures down my pants. Yet, when a diligent employee spotted us, ran to our location and shouted for us to freeze, the guys ran. Except me. They hopped on their bikes and were gone. Except me. I stood there. Why? I don’t recall. I don’t know if I was a deer in headlights or figured I hadn’t actually done anything wrong. The only problem was my ten year old mind wasn’t aware of a little legal vernacular called “accessory” to said crime. They took me in the back and called my mother. She had to come down to the store and oversee me home. The few things I remember after that was her loading my bike into the back of the car, the silent car ride home and the lonely time spent in my room. I don’t think I got into any real trouble from the store as we really hadn’t stolen anything. Outside of opening merchandise, none of us made it out of the store with any toys. Because when the employee spotted us, everyone ditched the figures under bags of fertilizer and ran. I remember this as the manager had all the toys in the office when my mother arrived. It’s sad really that I have such a bad memory along with such good memories of TRON. (for karma, I bought several of those figures in the weeks following the event.)
For the good memories, that was riding our bikes over to Kathy’s
To think I was ten when the original debuted and now 38 when its sequel will premiere. Yet, I still feel like that ten year old and that’s the best part!
