Do you remember the first time you saw it? Or are you one of those of the newer generation that has never seen it? Last Sunday, there was nothing on TV. I don’t watch a lot of TV. Instead, I read a lot but my eyes were really tired that day. I’m not a football fan so there wasn’t a lot on. In our local TV market, there are not a lot of choices on Sunday and I don’t have cable TV. I stumbled upon Jurassic Park just as it was about to start. I hadn’t seen it in a couple of years so I let it play and watched and the memories came back.
The first movie was released during the summer of 1993. My son was 11. He loved dinosaurs since he was about 2 so when we heard about the movie being released, he looked forward to it with great anticipation. He read everything he could find about the movie. At the time, we lived in southern California, in a neighborhood very close to the movie studios and people associated with the film industry. Some of his school mates had parents in the film industry so there was a lot of information and a lot of hype at school, not just on TV and in the newspapers. I knew he would want to see it as soon as it was released.
A group of us moms got together and bought tickets to a showing on the first day it opened and together we each took our kids to the movie. The group of us, about fifteen, sat together and I remember that first moment when a dinosaur appeared on the big screen, walking out in the open in the light of day. There was a loud and unified “awwwwww” as everyone in the theater sat in amazement, totally mesmerized. And although the Jurassic Park adventure in the movie didn’t turn out so well, we all loved the movie. My son asked to go see it over and over again and I didn’t mind taking him. We went with his friends. We went with his sisters. We went by ourselves, just the two of us. I think we must have seen the movie about six or seven times that summer and he may have seen it a few more times with friends and perhaps with his dad. From the movie, Tony decided to read the book and soon, he had picked up and read every Michael Crichton novel to date. His love and knowledge of dinosaurs continues to this day.
Every time I see the movie on TV, I wish I could see it on the big screen again. There is nothing like seeing those beautiful, extinct creatures on the big screen. As I watch, I can imagine that I am really seeing ancient history alive before my eyes.
Sometimes there is good to be said about small, local TV markets that give us only a very few choices.
Wasted Days And Wasted Nights 