The First Time I Watched “Home Alone” in Billings in 1990

Kevin! 

Now that we are getting into the Christmas movie season on TV, I started reminiscing on when I first watched Home Alone at the movie theatre in Billings, Montana. (Plus, Fox News radio had a great report about inflation and everything Kevin bought at the grocery store in 1990 compared to today)

Back then, as a kid in Glasgow, Montana- if you wanted to watch the big, new movie you'd have to wait for a month or so for it to show up in your local small town theatre. Luckily, when "Home Alone" came out in November of 1990 I had some friends who let me tag along on a several hour trip to the big city of Billings, Montana.

If I remember right, we got to see Home Alone fresh out in the theatre. We went to a big restaurant. And- we went to the Rimrock Mall, which was a very big deal back in those days. I bought a t-shirt with an American fighter jet and an American flag on it with the words "You Can't Touch This" written underneath.

I know, I'm a nerd. But this was after the Reagan 80s. We loved Top Gun. We loved America. And MC Hammer was on MTV at the time.

Tuesday morning on the radio, we played a news story from Fox News Radio about inflation and the Home Alone movie. Apparently a social media influencer looked at the items "Kevin" bought from the grocery store in Home Alone in 1990 and then compared the prices to today.

Fox News Radio: Macaulay Caulkin's character buys 10 items including dryer sheets, toilet paper, and a bag of army men, and gets a discount for his orange juice...all the items plus tax, and taking the coupon into account, would cost $68. That's a 248% increase in price. (Price was $19.83 for the items in the 1990 movie)

 

I got to reminiscing on that hometown movie theatre. Remember the Tron video game? Remember Mr. Terry scanning the aisles and whacking anyone with the flashlight if they put their feet on the seats in front of em? It reminded me also of a time we camped out in the bed of a pickup in our driveway. The Northern Lights on display that night looked like the lights in the Tron game.

That same friend who let me tag along on the trip to Billings- he could name the constellations in the crystal clear sky above their ranch near Glasgow. Whenever I see Orion through the lights of Billings I'm reminded of their ranch.

I got to see Mr. Terry in Billings one day in recent years, and it was fun catching up with him and laughing about the flashlight. The movie theatre is still going. They still likely have the boxes of Dots and Hot Tamales. And they get the movies a lot faster these days.