A couple weeks ago we we, Mackenzie (my wife), Ron and I, ventured out on another point trip exploration. After last months experience of pushing a broke down car a few hundred feet into the Quail Springs Mall parking lot we decided if we were to have another car failure we would do it a little closer to home, Bricktown. This particular trip we decided to take the group to Earls BBQ and then head to Harkins Theatre for a movie.
We left Rock Island around 4:30 and headed to Earls. By the time we finished eating it was only 6:00 and our movie didn't start til 6:45. After a five minute walk from Earls to the theatre the youth quickly searched out the video game arcade. Generally while in the video game arcade you...play video games. I can recollect countless times when my family would go to movies together and have to waste 15-20 minutes in the lobby or arcade. My brother and I would relentlessly question our parents for quarters, quarters and more quarters and, generally, we always got enough quarters to keep us occupied until it was about time to head to our theatre. So, because of my history with the arcade room, I was expecting the kids to be rocking our world for money to help them pass the next 30-45 minutes. Nothing. Not once did any of the kids ask for money. As far as I could tell, two of the boys played a racing game and one of them spotted the other so they could race. On the other side of the arcade 3 or 4 of them were having a dance off on the DDR (dance dance revolution) dancing pad. The only time any of them really got upset or frustrated was when the preview for the game would go off or change. They even packed themselves into the little cutsie photo booth picture thing. You know, the ones that all the couples take pictures in and it takes like 8 different pictures of them doing different poses? Except, we used camera phones. Again, free.
My point is, these kids may be without alot of things...extra clothes, extra video game money, extra food at their houses, proper parenting (two parents for that matter) or alot of other excessive things that many people/kids consider normal, but at least these kids aren't brats. Big time point, huh? Nothing against kids that get quarters whenever they want from their parents, but because these kids don't get whatever they want, whenever they want it (and sometimes don't get what they need) they don't expect to be constantly entertained or always get what they want. They are a breath of fresh air for me and constantly remind me of how big of a brat I still am in my adult life.
After our video game arcade wait, our movie finally started and it was awesome. For some reason after being in the theatre for five minutes an older couple in front of us relocated towards the front of the theatre once we sat behind them....weird.
