Theatre Pops...

     At work today the song Grease from the soundtrack of the movie came on the radio-- it immediately brought back a flood of memories from the summer of 1978 in Penticton. The mystery of the warm summer nights, the scent of Hawaiian Tropic hovering over the beaches, Singapore Slings, Tequila Sunrises (literally), tourist girls and Dooies Discotheque where I would hear "Grease" and "You're The One That I Want" endlessly over the course of the summer. I recall "You're The One That I Want" being one of the hardest songs for me to dance to... and I used to be able to "Hustle" with best of them.

      I didn't make it a habit to go see many movies in those days but Grease created such a stir (and rumors of Olivia Newton John in spandex) we just had to go--it's still my favorite musical  and couldn't say for sure how many times I've seen it. All that having been said the first recollection of being in the theater that evening was the girl that was sitting beside me. I recognized her as being a regular in the clubs around town, a "local" as we were known. The movie was about to start and she pulled a mickey of Bacardi out of her purse, topping up the Coke she had bought at the concession. I had  witnessed just about one of the best ideas I had ever seen until that time and could not believe I hadn't thought of it myself.

    There have been times since that I have smuggled a bit of Jack into the theater for my Coke or maybe a couple of beers until we finally figured out what I like to call "theater pops." Theater pops are these six ounce assorted plastic liquor bottles that they conveniently sell on display racks by the checkout counters in your favourite liquor store--what else could they be for, I ask you? They come in all your favorite flavours, Smirnoff, Jack, Fireball, Jagermeister (don't get that one, tastes like cough syrup), Canadian Club, etc. This one night my buddy and I were going to see Saving Private Ryan so along the way we stopped at the LCB for some supplies, I bought one of the Lambs Navy Rum and "Dave" bought two.

     The movie was almost three hours long so I kind of nursed my rum and Coke while "Dave" pounded both his TP's back. By the time the film was over "Dave" was pretty much smashed and I was feeling no pain--I all but had to carry him out of the theater. We made our way back to my truck and hopped in-- my co-pilot and I prepared for lift-off.  I felt OK and all systems were go until we received a deadly tap on the passenger side window. Dave rolled it down and there was a lady standing there, probably in her early forties and she said the words I'll never forget, "You guys aren't going to drive after drinking all that rum are you?" Neither one of us uttered a word (not that Dave could have anyway) and staring straight ahead I withdrew my keys from the ignition and exited the truck. God bless that Good Samaritan, we took a cab home and I learned two things that night; a) If you're going to take a Theater Pop choose vodka and 2) Leave car keys at home. Thinking of it now maybe there's a 3) "Do you really need to take booze to see a movie?" Not really, but it's kind of fun...

   On a sidebar Grease 2 was the shits but Michelle Pfieffer was pretty cute...