Every year my mother’s family gets together in the summer, usually meeting in one of their hometowns to golf (for the guys mostly) and shop (definitely for the girls only) and eat good food while telling funny stories and TRYING to avoid the topic of politics. Political discussions in that family get heated.
During one of these mini-reunions my uncle from Dallas started telling a story about some kids from his neighborhood who made a movie a few years back. To say “Thank You” to the neighbors for not being annoyed with the production, they opened their parents’ home to let them all watch the finished product. Two things [edit: Three things! Thanks, Hubby] I knew before my uncle told the story:
- Owen and Luke Wilson are from Dallas.
- Luke Wilson and Gwyneth Paltrow, while visiting Luke’s parents, once shopped at the grocery store my uncle and aunt shop at.*
- The Wilson brothers made their first movie in their parents’ home.
“Bottle Rocket?!” I screamed out. “They made Bottle Rocket in your neighborhood?”
I am a huge Wes Anderson fan. Well, not really. But The Royal Tenenbaums is just about my most favorite movie, so that kind of makes me a Wes Anderson fan.
My uncle barely reacted to my scream. “I guess so,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders.
“DID YOU GO TO THEIR HOUSE.”
He didn’t understand the enormity of the opportunity he missed and again shrugged his shoulders with an unconcerned “No.”
So that’s awesome. I mean, it would have been SUPER AWESOME if he’d actually hung out in their house and sat on their couch while watching the movie, but it was a near-brush with awesomeness.
*I was once an avid people.com reader and that tidbit of information stuck in my brain. Useful? No. But there it is.