When I was four years old I really wanted to see Flash Gordon, even at that young age I was a sci-fi junkie. Neither of my parents however was too keen on seeing this, I think the answer was always no. I’m not sure why – I think Queen was still popular at the time. I know that it was based on pop ideals and all in all it wasn’t that great of the movie – but geeze when your four-year-old is obsessed with something this small and it isn’t going to hurt him in any way, indulge him.

My grandmother in Greenville seemed to agree with my modern viewpoint on it. We were down visiting and she agreed to take me. We only managed to get down to see my grandparents in Greenville a couple of times a year, so my grandmother spoiled me when she got the chance. We went to the movies and I loved it, to this day I still immensely enjoy this movie, more now because of the memories than the movie itself. After the movie, my grandmother took me to McDonald’s and I had a hamburger and french fries with lots of ketchup.

What I have outside of memories is the rest of the story that I had forgotten over the years in direct memory, my parents in later years filled in the blanks. My grandmother originally was going to get me some food during the movie’s intermission. It had been so many years since my grandmother had been to the movies, that she thought there still were intermissions. By the time the movie was over she felt bad that I hadn’t eaten and took me to McDonald’s.

This grandmother died when I was young, so I only have a few vague memories and stories about her. I’m sure the rest I have will make it to the blog eventually. The interesting side note is my wife once criticized Flash Gordon, I relayed this story to her and never since has she bad-mouthed the movie.