Stories

Contents

• I. Being a Dad
  • Dads Will Eventually Embarrass You! A rented Ninja Turtles movie, the wrong title, and a 10-year-old who walked away.

    From the biography Gregory is writing

    When your dad was little, there was no such thing as streaming movies. We had to rent movies from businesses like Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and even Giant Eagle. Giant Eagle was extremely competitive. They offered the best rental prices. I think, but I’m not sure, we could rent 5 movies for five nights for about $2.00 per movie. Every weekend we rented 5 movies so that Mike, your Aunt Caitlin, and their friends could watch them.

    Embarrassment? Dads do this, more often than I’d like to admit. One time, your dad wanted me to rent the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We went to Giant Eagle, and I started to ask the clerk about the movie. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but it was something like, “Do you have the Mutant Teenage Ninja Turtles movie?”

    Oh my God! I could see the shame on your dad’s 10-year-old face as he stomped away from me, as if he didn’t know me. I made the socially unacceptable mistake of not knowing the correct name of the movie. What a faux pas! How could anyone be so stupid? I can’t remember if we got the movie that night or had to return later. Sometimes dads don’t understand the importance of the little things. I’m sure I got the name right every time after that.

    On another note, Giant Eagle used to have posters and cardboard cutouts on display for upcoming movies. If I got there early enough before the release of the movies, I would ask the clerk if I could have the cutout or poster once the advertising period was over. Many times, we got the items I asked for.