In August, 1977, I took my cousin and her cousin, who was not my cousin, to a movie on Kelowna, B.C.’s main street. I can’t remember what we watched, probably Star Wars. I do remember that, following my mother’s orders, after the movie I took them to a neighbouring Chinese restaurant. They were bored and so was I, so we had a Coke and I drove them home.
That was the last time I went to a movie on Bernard Avenue.
The following summer, I graduated from high school and, before my graduation party hangover subsided, left Canada for a gap year in Norway.
My “gap year” lasted four decades and a week.
When we moved to Kelowna in 2018, the good old Paramount sign was still there but the theatre was a doughnut chain franchise.
My wife loves to remind me that “Things happen for a reason.”, and I love to pretend that a coincidence is just what the Oxford English Dictionary tells us:
“a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.”
Sometimes though you have to wonder…
In 1990, my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter. The baby was due on May 6th, which, coincidentally, is my sister-in-law’s birthday.
Vibe couldn’t wait until May 6th though, so she was born on February 27, which, coincidentally is my wife’s birthday.
Coincidentally, I was born on my mother’s birthday, too. The doctor told my mother that wouldn’t happen. I think I overheard him and decided to treat her by emerging from her womb on her 26th birthday, March 26th, 1960.
If you add the days and the months up, February 27 (2/27) and March 26 (3/26) add up to 29. Coincidence.
During my four-decade-long gap year, my mother celebrated her birthday without me.
When my corporate career came to a close, Kirsten and I moved to Kelowna to be closer to my parents.
Suddenly, she was the mother who had to celebrate her birthday without the presence of the present who was born on her birthday. In 2020, just before the pandemic disrupted everyone’s lives and travel plans, we were together for Vibe’s epic 30th birthday in Rotterdam.
This year, my mom turns 90.
Vibe was able to get time off work and come to Kelowna for the celebration.
Kelowna’s city planners were asleep at the wheel when they allowed the Paramount to become a doughnut shop franchise.
Fortunately, some people have better plans for our city’s future. People like Carolyn and Kyle Nixon and their teams at Nixon Hospitality. They turned an empty, old fruit packing warehouse that had once been a tobacco processing plant into a restaurant, music, and entertainment venue, complete with a six-lane bowling alley. They named it after the tobacco company, B.N.A. It’s now a local icon.
Building on their success at B.N.A., Nixon’s opened their second location and named it Skinny Duke’s Glorious Emporium. It had a ‘70’s vibe and reminded me of the basements I used to party in during my teenage years. Yes, the memories are faded and blurry, it was the 70s, but I do remember them in a kind of sort of way. As a salute to the building’s history, they named their pizzas after some of the people who ran the bars and restaurants that previously occupied the Skinny’s space. Then, when they reopened for takeout only as pandemic restrictions were slowly lifting, they named a pizza after us.
The pandemic was especially hard on hospitality and Doc Willoughby’s which had been a main street icon in Kelowna for two decades was one of the casualties. When they called the Nixons, the Nixons stepped up.
In their continued efforts to bring innovation, entertainment, and vibrancy to Kelowna, they hatched a plan to open a new restaurant. One that would combine great food and drink with full food and drink service at the seats and tables in the theatre.
Thus, the scene is set for another series of coincidences.
As a belated birthday for Vibe and Kirsten and a bit of an advance one for me, we decided to do what we often did when Vibe was a kid; dinner and a movie.
Since it has everything under one roof, Bernie’s was an obvious choice.
The 6:00 pm show on the Saturday night Vibe was here was “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.
Vibe had never seen it. Call us out for poor parenting if you will, but maybe we didn’t want to give her any bright ideas during her teenage years.
In 1977, when I was taking my cousin and her cousin not my cousin to movies on Bernard, Kirsten was an exchange student at Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, just North of Chicago. Coincidentally, the high school in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is Glenbrook North, Glenbrook South’s arch-rival. The movie had scenes and places that reminded Kirsten of the transformative year she spent in the Windy City.
My first job after leaving university was as a ticket taker in a movie theatre in Oslo, Norway. The #1 movie during my three months in the theatre before I took a 25% pay cut and signed on as a hotel security guard was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!
We had a wonderful night at Bernie’s made even more memorable by the remarkable circumstances that saw a movie Kirsten and I had a special connection to on the bill.
When our evening ended, we agreed that we’d never have a doughnut in the old theatre, but we’d definitely go back to Bernie’s.
There’s something special about washing your popcorn down with a well-crafted cocktail.
City planners should know that!
Stay safe, Always Care
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In addition to writing stories, I love to tell them.
As a multi-award winning corporate leader in the fields of hospitality and global security, captivating keynotes, compelling coaching sessions, and edutaining, motivational workshops are all part of my repertoire.
Email me at paul@alwayscare.ca.
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