I went to see a movie with my wife tonight, a movie my wife says will be our last to see at a theater. The film was good; Denzel Washington and the entire cast of The Great Debaters were outstanding. The movie was an inspiring story of an underdog coming out on top and demonstrated the importance of family, the need to focus on goals, and included several lessons that we all should heed. One of my favorite quotes is from an exchange between Forest Whitaker and Denzel Whitaker who played the father-son team of James Farmer, Sr. and James Farmer, Jr.: “[W]e do what we have to do so that we can do what we want to do.” Ah, if only people would learn that lesson.

So, what made the movie so bad? Well, first there were only a total of six people in the theater, four others besides us. Two were apparently a mother-daughter team, the other and young, and I mean high school (maybe) couple. The apparent daughter of mother-daughter couldn’t sit still. She made at least six trips from her seat out of the theater. And when she was in the theater she was talking most of the time—talking, not whispering.

As for the teenage romance crew? They are a little tougher to gauge. I still can’t decide which is worse, to be the guy who passed gas LOUDLY several times during the movie, or to be the girl who laughed at him and stayed with him. I’m sure both mothers would have been proud!

I really don’t know why things are this way here. I go to other towns and other movie theaters where people are well-behaved and well-mannered. I went to one in Newport News, Virginia and they actually put a message up on the screen before the movie began asking the patrons to please use the trash cans on their way out of the theater. Guess what? They did. The people actually picked up their trash and dropped in the trash can!