I collect the movie stubs for every movie I see. I’ve done so ever since The Mummy on May 7th, 1999. I have no idea why that movie in particular sparked the habit, but whatever—it’s fun.
I think there’s only a few stubs that I’ve ever lost. Once was for Star Wars Episode One (of which I’m not too distraught over) because theatre employees collected our stubs at the cinema door. (Yes, that’s the stubs of the tickets they had already collected. Weirdos.) There’s also a James Bond movie missing because my parents bought the ticket for me one winter holiday and I had forgotten to ask for my ticket.
I’ve noticed that many of my stubs have started to fade. The one for the movie “Blue Streak” is illegible to the point where I can’t make out the date. Squinting at it made me feel old. I know, I know… 29-and-a-half isn’t very old at all, particularly when most people regard their 30s as their favourite years. But I feel cheated of the typical youth experience, having spent my teens and early twenties in the closet.
It was a different time then, mind you, and even negative experiences helped shape who I am now. Entering a third decade will be exciting; and although there’s stuff to mourn in the transition, I’ve got some stubs to remind me that there were good nights with good friends; it wasn’t all bad.
Do any of you collect these things too?
Mon frere, your birthday isn’t till July and you’re having the third-decade angst already!
I collect stubs too (maybe I got that from you?), in a Cookies by George tin that’s come with me for some reason on every move. It is amazing how some of them fade – I find I can’t even read some of my old Famous Players ones, they’re just a white card with the watermark on the back.
I wish the Metro theatre here in town gave proper tickets instead of the kind you get in rolls (similar to what’s pooped out by skee-ball machines in arcades). I would love to have a record of all the wacky movies I’ve seen there, like the original Godzilla and 3D Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the cartoon festivals and such.
I don’t know why Famous Players decided to print their tickets with disappearing ink. I think Blue Streak says October 12, 1999, but it’s hard to tell. Is it as geeky as it sounds to want to set up some sort of database to save them before they just become bits of torn paper?
Yes, but in all fairness, you were never in the Geek Closet.
I might just do the same… I wonder how many stubs I can fit onto the bed of my scanner.
Oh dear… I might actually do it. Why, why am I such a nerd?