Coca-Cola Coated Concrete
Part one of things I've missed, like congregating strangers.
Hi! I’m Sasha, and I spent two and a half years living and traveling in an RV around the United States and Mexico. Usually, I send one memoir-style short story out each Monday.
This week though, I’m switching up my newsletter this week with three mini memories of travel life to be sent out today, as well as on Wednesday and Saturday. If you like this and would prefer this style of narrative, rather than one slightly longer story, let me know!
This week’s theme? Things I miss... which heralds back to my first newsletters of things I took for granted before traveling.
Without further ado…
One day, a while ago, at any rate, we were in Texas. We found the nearest arcade and movie theater, and spent the evening feeding quarters to a skeeball machine, then finished it off with a movie. The online chair reservation system hadn’t worked, so to apologize, the theater presented us with inclusive greasy-yet-dry popcorn.
I don’t remember the movie we went to see.
People chatted quietly amongst themselves during the pre-previews, you know, that weird time when there’s a movie quiz and Maria Menounos wears a strangely fitting jean jacket to tell you about something unrelated to the movie you’re there to see.
The squelching of shoes on the stickiness of years of spilled coke sounded in the packed theater. I glanced over to a woman who was pulling buttery crackers out of her purse and handing them to her partner before the lights dimmed.
A movie theater. A normal evening.
As someone with an attention span of approximately 22 minutes, I never thought I’d miss a movie theater. An arcade? Unlikely to be missed. Here I am though, nostalgic for a time when I could jump in the car and search Google maps for the nearest arcade, then simply go there. No forethought. Shoulders squished in worn seats with people I wouldn’t recognize today.
Dear Movie Theaters, I’ll never take you for granted again.