Letters to the Editor 1-2-14

Common courtesy at the movies
Editor:   
Recently, I was thrilled again to visit our local movie theater to see an eagerly anticipated film on the big screen. I left thinking I might never go again, just because of some members of the audience, and of no fault of the theater or the movie.
I would like to remind those folks that watching a movie in a theater is a communal experience. A movie theater is not your own private living room.
Please do not let your children kick the seat in front of them. Each seat is the space of the person occupying it and should be respected as such.
Please do not open your extremely crinkly and noisily packaged food during the quietest part of the movie. Either open it BEFORE the movie, or if you have perhaps forgotten that politeness, open it at the LOUDEST part of the movie.
Please do not talk about what is going on during the movie, unless, of course it is appropriate such as laughing or remarking “OH” when something unexpected happens. When commentary is wanted, I can always wait for the DVD.
All three of these things in the generally-common-manners category were experienced at my last visit to the movie theater.
I implore all Cloverdale folks to keep these common sense manners in mind when attending a film, so we can all enjoy our movie theater to the fullest and keep cinema in our town. Having a movie theater in our small town is truly a wonderful thing that none of us should take for granted.
Laurel Holmstrom-Keyes, Cloverdale