I just got back from dinner with my folks, who are in town visiting for the weekend. I love dinner with the folks for so many reasons, one of which is that I have by far the highest alcohol tolerance of anyone at the table. My mom is, has always been, and will always be a lightweight - couple of glasses of wine and she is done for the night. My dad, by all accounts, was quite the party animal as a youngster; however, from spending so much time with my mom, he has now taken on lightweight status as well.
Now, we never get rip-roarin’ drunk at these outings, but we’ll have a bottle of wine between the three of us, and then a Sambuca (the Sambuca thing is interesting too, but that’s a story for another day). This puts them in a pleasantly tipsy place, and leaves me to listen to their stories of times past. And boy, do they love to tell these stories (as do I, and whenever people complain, I cheerfully blame Mom and Dad for letting me inherit this trait). That’s fine with me, I truly love to hear them… sometimes, its a story I’ve heard a hundred times already, but it really doesn’t matter. And sometimes, I stumble upon an interesting revelation - tonight was one of those nights.
Tonight’s story was about Mom and Dad’s first date, and goes like this:
Mom and Dad first met in their mid-twenties in Manhattan, where they both lived at the time. Mom was a nurse; Dad worked in accounting at one of the big accounting sort o’ firms. Mom had several roommates, and apparently Dad had dated all of them before he and mom went out. Anyway, Dad convinced Mom to go on a date with them, and they went to the theatre to see “A Man for All Seasons”.
It was springtime when they went on this date - for many accountants, this is by far the busiest time of year, and Dad was no exception. He had been working long hours for a number of days in a row, so he was utterly exhausted. So, they found their seats, settled in for the movie… and within 5 minutes, my Dad was completely asleep (which, if my childhood memories are any indication, involved some fairly serious snore action). If any of you have been on a first date, you can probably imagine that falling dead asleep within minutes of the beginning of said date can make a fairly poor first impression.
Thus, Mom had to assess her situation. This guy just friggin’ fell asleep on her on the first date. Should she give him a second chance? After her deliberation, the decision was ultimately made based on one thing - she had found that movie to be dull as all hell. As a result, she gave him another opportunity, and they fell in love, and ultimately got married and started a family, which over time resulted in the spawning of my older Sis and me.
While it won’t win any best/funniest/whatever story awards, the tale is a cute one when presented well, and they can tell it to me a thousand more times and I’ll still enjoy it. But this evening, while listening to it it again, it struck me - if Mom hadn’t found the film to be so lackluster, she wouldn’t have agreed to the second date, and I wouldn’t be here now, typing family stories of questionable public interest on this message board.
So, to anyone involved in the making of “A Man for All Seasons”, I offer my thanks. You all created a movie which won a multitude of different awards, but didn’t appeal to Mom in any way, and as a result it appears that in an odd way, I owe my life to you 
