Tag Archives: Athena grand

There’s Something About Going To The Movies

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My favorite movie theater is closing soon so I’m headed out to see one last show today. Our last movie at the Athena Grand will be Nosferatu, a retelling of the 1922 silent film of the same name. It sounds like a good old fashioned classic style film so I look forward to seeing it. 

Seeing a movie at home is nice. I have comfortable seating and a reasonably large screen for viewing but I have to say that the home viewing experience pales in comparison to seeing a good movie in the theater. 

Perhaps the best quality of the theater experience is the sense you’re in a deprivation chamber. There’s nothing to focus on but the movie. You can’t talk on the phone, jump up to deal with laundry, or run to do “the one small thing” you just remembered needs attention. 

All there is to focus on is the film. Multitasking isn’t a thing at the movies. 

In a world where constant multitasking is expected of us all, this feels like a rare and luxurious treat. Not to mention movie theater popcorn is always better! 

We do matinees which tend to be less crowded and less expensive. Plus, going to the movies feels like more of an experience rather than just a story on a screen. I so enjoy that experience and hope that while folks are choosing streaming more and more often, that we can still hold onto our movie theaters. 

I’ll miss the Athena Grand but do have a couple of other good theaters in the area. Do you have a movie theater nearby? What was your last movie in the theater?

International Find A Pay Phone Booth Day

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Happy International Find a Pay Phone Booth Day! It’s increasingly rare to find a working payphone as I discussed in this story last month but it’s almost impossible to find one in an actual phone booth. However, I do know where you’ll find one!

It’s in the lobby of the Athena Grand movie theater in Athens, Ohio. There’s even a sign posted inside that let’s folks know that it really works.

It was on this day in 1876 that Alexander Graham Bell made the world’s first ever telephone call. It was to his assistant in the next room. Less than two years later, Thomas Doolittle created the first phone booth which he called a “telephone cabinet.”

While this invention would change the world in ways he may never have dreamed, Bell refused to have a telephone in his study because he feared it would be too much of a distraction from his work. I suspect he was a fan of the phone booth because you would have to be purposeful in going out to use the phone rather than spending hours in an endless conversation at home. 

If you’re serious about celebrating today, go out and look for a phone booth! If you find one, maybe convince some friends to engage in the age old tradition of phonebooth stuffing! That’s where you see how many people you can fit into a phone booth. Wikipedia tells me that on March 20, 1959, students in South Africa set a world record when 25 of them were able to squeeze at least the greater portions of their bodies into a standard phone booth. 

See if you can beat that!

And if you can’t, maybe just take a selfie and report back here where you found your phone booth. I enjoy hearing about pay phones out in the wild!

Grand Pay Phone

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The Athena Grand movie theater in Athens, Ohio has a pay phone in the lobby. That’s right- a real and actual working pay phone where you can drop in coins and call someone.

There’s even a sign that tells people that it works.

One of my fun quirks is that I always photograph pay phones and phone booths whenever I see them. There are a surprising number of them out in the world but not nearly as many as we probably need. After all, not everyone in this world has a cell phone and there are still places that don’t have great cell service.

Sadly, my cell phone has robbed me of the ability to memorize phone numbers. I can recite my childhood phone number and the office number of my first job but have almost no recollection of anything acquired since my iPhone stores all that information for me.

So I couldn’t call anyone if I wanted!