In A World …

Cue deep male voice: “In a world of intelligent, rich and sexy men, only one stands out from the pack. He’s nothing like that. He’s Ron Nagasawa!” If there was a movie trailer about me, that’s how it would probably start. I’m just being realistic, although I can’t help but fantasize about movies. I’ve been a movie buff nearly all of my life.

I have my dad to thank for that. I was 5 years old and still remember going to a drive-in movie with my parents and my year-younger sister and infant brother. I’d like to say it was a James Bond movie, but in all honesty it was a Disney flick. The year was 1963 and we saw Fred MacMurray in Son of Flubber.

Eventually, he would take me to see all the Sean Connery 007, movies, as he had read all of Ian Fleming’s novels. When I was a teenager, we went to Wahiawa Theater, where I saw The French Connection and later Enter the Dragon, which I would end up watching about a billion times. Those were the days of double features and Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

But to my dad, the concession food was as important as the movie itself. And as a side note, I didn’t know it then, but I would end up marrying a young, pretty movie usher from Wahiawa Theater.

Anyway, no movie was complete without a hot dog, buttered popcorn and a Coke. In fact, I think my dad took me to some pretty lousy movies just for the concession food.

Well, the concession food addiction has stayed with me, except things have changed drastically in 2014. I took my daughter and her “boyfriend” to the movies this past week and although we saw different films, I still had my movie food. The difference these days is that I use a charge card to pay for it, same as I would for jewelry at Tiffany’s.

The other is that by the time all the previews are run, I’ve already eaten all of my popcorn. And finally, in lieu of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon, is some joker texting throughout the movie. Kind of makes me wish I was with my dad watching The Thing With Two Heads starring Ray Milland and Rosey Grier.