Thursday, February 24, 2011

Great things about being blind. Saving someone from a terrible first date.

I wrote the other day about going to the movies. As I said then, I have been going to movies, plays, concerts, and other performances for as long as I can remember. Whoever is there with me sometimes has to describe things to me.
The stage set at a play.
The action in a movie.
My family has gotten quite used to doing this and become very good at it. Some of my friends are also expert at this too especially my storyteller and writer friends.
Several years ago, a new friend of mine (who is now an old friend of mine) and I wanted to go to see the movie "Children of a lesser God" For anyone who doesn't know this movie, it is a movie about a woman who is deaf. So definitely a movie about disabilities. My friend asked me what I would need her to do during the movie. I said that in places where the movie was visual, she would need to describe the action to me. She asked if I'd ever had any people get upset at the movies when someone was whispering to me. I said no. Famous last words.
We went to the movie and sat down. The movie theatre was by no means full. The movie started. It has long stretches of dialogue but there are some visual parts as well. Near the beginning, my friend was whispering discretely to me during an action segment. There was a couple sitting in front of us. A man and a woman. The man turned around, glared at us, and said, "Be quiet."
I said, "I'm sorry but I'm totally blind and my friend is just describing the action to me."
He said, "I don't care. Shut up or I will get the manager."
I said, "Fine. Get the manager."
The woman with this man had turned a bright red.
The man got up and stormed out and got the manager. He returned with the manager.
"These people are disturbing me." he said loudly.
The manager asked what was going on. I pointed out that I was blind, that my friend was only describing action sequences to me when necessary.
The manager said to the man, "Dude you're not serious. You want me to kick these people out."
"they need to move away from me and shut up."
"Well dude. They have every right to be here and she has every right to have the movie described to her. If you don't like it, there are plenty of empty seats in here so you should move."
The man glared at us again. Then he said to the woman, "Come on. We have to move."
She said, "No."
So he got up and stormed off and sat by himself.
The movie proceeded on uneventfully. At the end, the woman came up to us and said she was sorry. It wasn't her fault. I assured her all was okay. The man came over to her and said, "Come on. Let's go to dinner."
She said, "You can go to dinner by yourself." And she strolled off and left him there.
My friend and I took off too. We still laugh at the fact that the only time I had big problems at the movies was for a disability movie and also that we unmasked an unsavory character at what we imagine was his first and last date with that woman. I guess I did her a good service.

1 comment:

  1. What a great story, Kim. I wish you.d been around on some of my dates years ago! I love that Ron and I (my hubby) were actually brought together by a blind friend. She kept insisting I should meet him, and I didn't want to. When we finally met and she introduced us, we were taken with each other. Who knew? After 16 years, we're still together, happily.
    I miss Caitlyn so much- I hope to get back to Ottawa and maybe will get to hear you tell stories again. I so enjoyed it!
    Liz

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