Conduct Unbecoming in a Movie Theater

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(My newspaper column from The Beach Reporter 4/15/93.)

I have an idea for theater owners that might make life more pleasant for the average moviegoer and bring more patrons in. I think theater owners should hang a poster in their lobbies that lists acceptable conduct for moviegoers, similar to rules of conduct at swimming pools.

These rules of conduct would be for those people who view the theater as an extension of their family room, doing everything in the theater that they would do at home. They bring babies,they get in and out of their seats every ten minutes, they talk through the movie, etc.

When I have paid a small fortune for tickets and a babysitter, I do not need this aggravation. I could stay in my own family room, and get aggravated for free. Continue reading →

TV-Free: One Week Was All We Could Stand

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(First published in The Beach Reporter on 5/21/92.)

The notice they sent home seemed benign enough. My children’s school was going to go “TV-free” for one week, and children and parents were invited to sign up. No pressure, though. If you didn’t do it, they would probably just post your family’s name in big scarlet letters on the playground fence, or assign your kid to be lunch monitor for the next year.

So, naturally, we signed up.

The first part of TV-free week was a questionnaire to be filed out by the student. (With the parent making sure the questions were answered “correctly.”)

The first questions were simple enough. How much TV do you watch each day? Do you do other things (like homework) while watching TV? Then the two clinchers: Would you rather spend time with your family or watch TV? And, would you rather give up TV for a week or your best friend? (What if your TV is your best friend, I ask you.) Continue reading →

Too Many Choices Can Boggle the Mind

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(Published in The Beach Reporter 9/8/1989).

George Moore, a popular European playwright in the early 1900s, must have foreseen the future when he wrote the words, “The difficulty in life is the choice.” I don’t know how it happened, but suddenly it seems that I am faced with a multitude of choices for even my smallest decisions.

A simple trip to the grocery store can become a stressful experience if you don’t have your wits about you. Let’s say you want a six-pack of cola. You need to decide the following things first: Do you want sugar-free/no caffeine, regular/no caffeine or do you live on the edge and go for the regular stuff with both sugar and caffeine? Classic or new? Cherry or plain?

I find myself standing there in a trance in the grocery aisle, pondering all these variables as though I am making a life-altering decision. Continue reading →

Talkin”Bout My Generation

Kathy StevensonLeave a comment

(My newspaper column from The Beach Reporter 8/17/89.)

It’s only natural. We’ve had our fill of ‘50s nostalgia, and now it’s time to move on to the ‘60s. Those of you who saved your peace-sign necklaces, fringed suede vests, platform shoes, Nehru jackets, tie-dyed granny gowns, and hip-hugging bell bottom jeans are in luck.

Of course the ‘60s and early ‘70s weren’t just about fashion and men having long hair and women not wearing bras. Our outward appearance merely reflected what was happening in the real world. It was a time of great political and social upheaval. In one decade, we had the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Beatles, President Johnson’s Great Society, Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique, Woodstock, the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Kent State, the Students for a Democratic Society, and the war in Vietnam.

This was a frightening time to be a parent. Either your child was experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs, protesting the war in Vietnam, in Vietnam, or all three. It was the time that the terms “generation gap” and “the establishment” came into usage. The youth of America took a serious look at the way things were and came together in a massive upheaval, the likes of which our country had never seen. Continue reading →