My Favorite Memory

It's 2004, I'm 6 years old and the thing I, and any other kid my age, love the most is Spongebob. Spongebob was my life back then; I had all the toys, the books, you name it. I believe the first time I ever learned to read was from a Spongebob book. The first time I ever CRIED during a TV show/movie was during the episode "Welcome To The Chum Bucket". You see this image:

And y'all know the struggle.

So, of course, when I saw commercials for "The Spongebob Squarepants Movie" on TV, I practically begged my mom to see it.

Her answer was no.

It wasn't a harsh no, a more polite one. She hated Spongebob and dreaded the day a theatrical movie would come out. The last thing she wanted to do was to sit through that. She loves her son to death, but she just said no.

I was a bit disappointed, but I understood and I moved on.

It's a week later. I'm in the back seat of my mom's car. We're driving to Grandma's house. I specifically remember hearing the crooning's of Rascal Flatt's while driving down Mackenzie road, approaching the T in the road where it meets Cook.

My mom asks "You remember my friend Ed and his three kids?"

I didn't but said yes to help ease the convo along.

"Well, he invited us to come over tomorrow night for a sleepover. He's gonna take his kids to a movie and he invited us along with him."

I could almost hear her voice change. It was as if, my oh my, she was giving in to something. Whatever could it be?

"What are we gonna see?" I asked.

There was a slight pause, until she softly and sullenly said "Spongebob".

I almost opened the door as the car was still in drive and ran out to the open field next to the road. I was jumping in my seat. OVERJOYED if you will.

I don't remember anything between after that and the next day.

It was the Regal Cinemas in Middleburg Heights. Only reason I remember is because the lobby was very bright and colorful, and there's really only one theater lobby around me like that anymore. I remember the three kids standing next to me, and I feel so horrible because, even though I loved hanging out with them after the movie that night, I do not, for the life of me, remember their names. We were ALL stoked. When I saw the poster out front, we were even more excited.

We sat near the back row(primo theater seating, by the way). I don't remember the previews before the movie, I'm sure there might've been one for "Robots", I dunno, I was too excited.

Hey, speaking of "Robots", that was another movie my mom took me to see in theaters. She might've brought a curse on me. Why?

I dunno, maybe because it contains this scene:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftT4-RfHaWw 

I promise you, I didn't edit that.

ANYWAY, back to the story.

I remember the movie very vividly. I remember being a little peanut, sitting in the theater seat and practically jumping around in delight.

If you haven't seen the movie, it starts up with a live-action segment of pirates finding a treasure chest containing tickets for the movie itself. This prompted both my mom and her friend to go "What is this?"

They seriously thought they had brought us to the wrong movie.

Thankfully, the animation started and we stayed, The next 80 minutes were a freaking delight, so much so that I'm having warm, fuzzy memories as I'm typing.

There's something about being a child and experiencing a movie you really, really wanna see. This wasn't my first movie in the theaters, but it was the first one I really wanted to see. Hearing the notes of Ween's classic "Ocean Man" being belted out at the very end still resides with me to this day.

As for my mom? She hated it, but I remember her distinctly laughing a couple of times; notably during a scene where Spongebob and Patrick encounter two hillbillies on the side of the road. They ask what their car(which is literally a hamburger) runs on: Mustard or Ketchup, prompting the two to crack up like a bunch of hyena's. I remember the whole theater laughing loudly, including, yes, my mother.

She also went "Really?" in hilarious disbelief when David Hasselhoff popped onscreen(too much to explain). She hated it, but was happy that I was happy, and that's what really mattered.

I don't have any interesting memories or stories of when I saw "Shark Tale" or "Fat Albert", but I saw 'em...

I don't know why I was compelled to tell this story. I guess because I've been hearing "Ocean Man" a lot recently, and that always relaxes me and takes me back to this specific moment in time. I always love hearing theater stories, just as much as I love to relay them. The world is going through emotional turmoil, so I figured I would share a story from a happier time, when Lizzie Maguire was huge and "Friends" was ending.

Take care.