The pandemic may have wreaked havoc on local movie theaters, but an Aurora family came up with a solution by showing movies on a garage door that may become a tradition.
Kirsten Czenk said she always wanted a projector for family movie nights and that the pandemic forced her to move in that direction.
“I always wanted to have movie nights in the summer when the kids get bored and when the pandemic hit and we couldn’t get together any other way I went on Amazon and bought it,” Czenk, 45, said about the projector. “There are emails I still have from my grandparents about starting this up last summer, and it was a great way to keep our family – which has always been close – together.”
The Czenk family movie nights on the garage door kicked off last July and continued weekly on Friday or Saturday nights – weather depending – for months. Czenk said at times, the family viewings would total more than a dozen people including her kids, her grandparents Roald and Francis Berg, as well as various siblings.
“We rotated picking movies with my kids picking something and then their great-grandparents and so on and we have watched a lot of different things from ‘The Magnificent Seven’ to ‘Black Panther’ to ‘Pollyanna’ and even the old version of ‘Cheaper by the Dozen,’” Czenk said. “We made sure the movies were age appropriate and in terms of the kids it was all about spending time with Grandma and Papa.”
The Bergs’ home in Aurora is where the weekly party goes down and includes a dinner which normally starts around 6 p.m., followed later with popcorn and the movie when the sun disappears.
Francis Berg, 85, said the age of viewers “spans from 2 to 87 years old” and that having that much company hasn’t been a bother.
“We have to make sure the movies are appropriate for the youngsters but we’re used to having a lot of people around,” Berg said. “Our neighbors don’t mind because they always see people coming over.”
Roald Berg, 86, admits the late movie starts should have been more challenging “given that we often go to bed much earlier” but that having the grandkids and great-grandkids around energizes him.
“You’d think we’d fall asleep but with the kids around that doesn’t seem to happen,” he said. “We enjoyed the way it all came together last year and watching some of the movies we saw brought back a lot of memories.”
Czenk said the movie nights have been a great way to have some family time.
“The kids have always been the most excited about seeing Grandma and Papa and would always go by their house every day after school,” she said. “To stop doing that hurt everyone as we’ve always been a tight group and the pandemic made things a real struggle. This was a way to stay connected and still keep everyone safe.”
Czenk’s children, including Brooklyn, 12, and her brother Kevin, 11, agree the highlight of the evenings is spending time with their great-grandparents and getting to stay up late.
“We started this last year and spent a lot of family time with our great-grandparents and our cousins,” Brooklyn said. “I’ve told my friends about this and they thought it was a great idea. We can’t start the movie until it gets dark, so we also get to stay up later.”
Kevin said he has “enjoyed spending time with family” as well as “eating popcorn out there.”
“We get together with our family and cousins and I like staying up,” he said. “With the movies – sometimes I didn’t like the titles but as I started watching them I got interested and I’m looking forward to doing this again.”
Francis Berg admits she is just as excited about year two as she was last July. The family movie nights began again on May 22.
“This has been wonderful and there were times last year when family members had other plans and canceled them so they could be with us,” she said. “I’ll admit I was kind of afraid this year that the novelty had worn off, but the kids are already asking when we were going to do this again. The biggest thing is just having everyone together.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
"movie" - Google News
June 01, 2021 at 08:25PM
https://ift.tt/3pa4KnN
With summer movie nights on the garage door, Aurora family continues new pandemic tradition - Chicago Tribune
"movie" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35pMQUg
https://ift.tt/3fb7bBl
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "With summer movie nights on the garage door, Aurora family continues new pandemic tradition - Chicago Tribune"
Post a Comment