Mission: White hat on old man
My old man goes to a lot of movies. By lot of movies I mean every single movie that comes out in the theaters, no matter the quality; its an odd problem of his. He sees a vast majority of these movies by himself, both because he goes in the middle of the day when people less able to set their own schedules are working and also because he actively seeks out movies that no one in their right mind would want to see. Because his goal is to see every movie that comes out, he often has to go out of his way to hunt down the awful movies that are only in theaters for a day or two. The point is that often pops is at the movie theater by himself.
Which is why I became instantly intrigued by this post I found on DCist. Apparently there's a movement afoot for single (older) adults to meet up at movie theaters, identifying each other by wearing white hats. You go to a movie, if you see some one who matches the profile (wearing a white hat and alone) then after the movie you strike up a conversation and see what happens from there. Seems like a nice idea, whatever floats your boat. Why shouldn't old people be happy?
You may at this point be aware of where all this is going: it has become my mission in life to get my dad to wear a white baseball hat when he goes to the movies. I could care less about the meeting people aspect of this project, I'm much more intrigued by the potential for some truly awesome awkward moments. Thinking about the old man leaving a movie still half-asleep (important background: I can count on maybe two hands the number of movies I have gone to in the last ten years in which the old man has not been asleep for 1/3 of the movie. He naps for the vast majority of the movie, missing crucial plot points, etc.. Why he choses movies as his prime venue for napping is lost on me) and being approached by some total stranger who thinks that he's sending out "pick me up" signals is almost too much for me to handle. See the important part would be to get him to wear the hat without telling him its significance. You see, my own aversion to small talk and/or speaking to people I don't know (and people I do know to be honest) is genetic. He wouldn't handle a friendly person coming up to him very well.
Potential problems to this potential hilarity:
1. Old man doesn't wear hats, would be very suspicious if I suggested he wear a hat to a movie
2. Old man's sleeping problem (people might be hesitant to approach a sleeping and/or recently waking up person)
3. Old man goes to a lot of movies in the middle of the day when few other people are there, lowering the potential for other people wearing in white hats.
Some how, despite these problems, I need to make this happen. The potential is there for a perfect storm of awkwardness and humor that really only my own family can achieve.
problem number 4. old man just read this website.
hahaha. becca screwed it up she read it to dad.
The white hat project is actually based on a postcard sent to Frank Warren the founder of Postsecret. His blog can be found at http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com
jake–you are funny.
Becca/Jess: Thank you for killing this project before it even got off the ground. You’ve screwed me yet again
Rachelm: Thanks for posting that. I should have gone a step further and pointed out Post Secret as the true originator (through the postcard) of this idea. His blog is one of my favorites, not to mention one of the more interesting ones on the internet.