Our trip to the movies in Winston

Last weekend I bundled Carmen and Clovis up into the car and took off for Winston to see "Pan's Labyrinth." The movie was great, the movie-going experience slightly less great. It was showing, along with several other worthwhile movies, e.g. "The Queen," at the Grand 18 Winston. It seems to be a new theatre, or should I say theatre complex. It's huge setting atop an enormous expanse of a hill top overlooking the highway. Each side of the thing must be about a city block long. It has 18 screens, hence its name.

There were, however, a few discordant notes, starting with the two police cars parked on the sidewalk in front of the main entrance. The crowd, however, seemed cheerful and nicely behave, despite the signs all over the place warning parents that children couldn't be left outside the theatre and had to leave within one hour of the movie they had seen.

But the worst thing of all was the state of the viewing room where we saw the movie. The staff had not bothered to clean it after the previous show. There was the garbage of the last audience all over the place. So while it is a nice new fancy place, the management is not able to even keep the place clean. Perhaps they need to use some of their profits to hire a few staff members at minimum wage to clean up. Or do it themselves, as the owner of the Liberty Theatre does here in North Wilkesboro.