Fond memories

[Estelyn Telcontar]

My fondest LotR movie memory was seeing FotR in the US for the first time. Besides the enjoyment of the movie itself, especially since it was in English and I could hear the original voices with their varied accents, I attended it as a member of a fellowship of nine! My two brothers and their wives, plus four of our children, went to see it together with me, and it was a great family experience.

[Vanya]

Well, each movie premier was an event that I expected eagerly. But, month or two after ROTK release, in my hometown there was the LOTR marathon.
From 2p.m till 1 a.m next day, it was like an journey to ME. I almost wanted that they made no breaks betwen movies.
It was funny overhearing few boys talking:

"We go and see the movie, we come out.
We go and see the movie, we come out.

We go and see the movie, we crowl out!"

But it wasn't that hard at all!

[Lathriel]

Whe I saw fellowship my mom and the rest of my family didn't like it at all. But I wanted to see it again for some reason. However that didn't happen. soem weeks later I borrowed the soundtrack from one of my friends and i liked it. Suddenly the DVD came out and i became hooked along with my brother.

The we saw TTT because my aunt and uncle wanted to see it. This movie was liked by my whole family. (Even my dad who doesn't like fantasy all that much, he has never read fantasy in his life)
Shortly after I joined the downs!!!!

Then we bought the FOTR EE for my mom's birthday and from then on I became a LOTR geek my brother read LOTR (His first fantays book) and we got the other EE.

When watching ROTK I cried at the end and when we walked out of the theatre I bumped into some people because I was still blinded by my tears. theer are only two movies that make me cry and ROTK is one of them!

So I have lots of other memories but these are the most important to me

[Morsul the Dark]

i had seen fotr 4 times
ttt 5 times
and i was going to see rotk for my fifth time and i forced my mom take me one more time just so the pattern would continue

[Lush]

I remember having just finished my exams for the first half of senior year, having gotten my college acceptance letter, and, on the first day of winter vacation, seeing Fellowship with all of my high-school friends.

I remember I was wearing knee-high boots, my stockings were ripped, and I was laughing, and everyone else was too.

The film was great, but it was the entire experience, of being there, with people that you knew you were going to part ways with in a few short months, that really made me understand something at the core of the story, something, which at that point was still inexplicable, but already overwhelmingly bittersweet.

There, I'm done now. I think I'm going to go hold my blankie, suck my thumb, and sob.

[Lindolirian]

Well my most interesting experience was the midnight showing of the Return of the King. Since I had school the day after my mother forbade me to go, but after missing the past two years and this being my last chance, I formulated a plan. First off, I had to get a ride because if I were to take one of our own cars my parents would hear the garage door, would notice the loss in gas, etc. So I arranged with on of my friends (who was allowed to go) to pick me up. I started planning weeks in advance. My escape point form my house was a series of windows in my basement right above the couch. It was simple, remove the screen, clamber up onto the couch and slither out onto the dewey grass above. But wait, this was December and I knew my plans would be ruined if there was snow to show my tracks. I got lucky in that aspect and was eventually able to crawl out onto relatively dry grass, no traces left behind. My planning for this endeavor took a long time to put together. I gradually smuggled jeans, a sweatshirt, and shoes down to the basement and hid them in various places such as the DVD movie rack or under the sofa's cushions. Now the worst part about this was the incredible time crunch I would have. My parents usually went to bed around 10:30 and with the wondows I planned to escape from directly beneath their heads, I had to wait a full hour for them to fall asleep. Then I had to trek to the entrance of my neighborhood to be picked up without any noise of car doors or engines near my house. My arrival at the movie theater was planned for 11:50, which is, needless to say, cutting it extremly close for the midnight premiere of the biggest movie of the year. Tuesday, December 16, I headed off to bed at 10:00 wishing my parents a good night's rest as they watched on the news the lines building outside of the theater. I had my underwear and socks on underneath my pajamas so that I could slip into my clothes once I was downstairs. After waiting a half hour I crept to the top of the stairs and waited as my parents bustled about locking doors and turning out the lights. It was already past 10:30 when my mother decided that it was high time the dishwasher was unloaded. Great Scott, I swear it took her forever. I forced myself to wait patiently until she had gone into the bathroom to brush her teeth. My plan had been to sneak by as they were both in there with water running, but my mother's dishes took her long enough that my father was already in bed not five feet from the foot of the staircase I had yet to descend. Pretending I was Bilbo creeping down to meet Smaug, I took more than a hobbit's care to wiggle by the dangerous door. After a few breathless moments, I was in the basement. I laid there silent for a full hour (and a bit more) waiting for the bed above to stop creaking and the whispers to quiet. By 11:37 I was more or less back on schedule as I decided it was safe to don my escape garb and climb out the window. I did so with little trouble and was soon on my way towards the main road where I was to be picked up. I pulled out my 'borrowed' cell phone and punched in my friend's number to let him know that I was ready. He didn't answer so I assumed he was in the car and couldn't hear it or something. At 11:50 I tried again, getting a little worried, having an eight minute drive from my house to the theater. Still no answer. When 11:56 rolled around, I began a series of one call every 45 seconds. Never answered. After the dreadful hour of midnight struck I knew I was doomed. After such careful planning, I had missed the premiere of the RotK! With less than a grain of hope left I waited ten more minutes. Perhaps my friend had car trouble and he would be along presently. No such luck. At 12:08 I started my despondent trek home. I reached my own backyard and wondered how much I really would enjoy my warm cozy bed that night. I pulled open the window and stuck one foot through when... Glory and Trumpets!!! The phone rang! I was so startled that I almost fell through the window. I couldn't get it out on time and it stopped ringing. No! That could have been my chance! Quick call him back! I did and he picked up and frantically rattled off to me, "Ben! I'm SO sorry! I fell asleep and I lost track of time. I'm doing 95 down 82nd right now, I'll be there in a few minutes!" I was so flabbergasted I didn't say anything until he was done except "Ok, I'll be waiting." When he rolled up (hardly a minute later) I jumped in the car, and we roared off to the theater. I couldn't decide whether to be mad because he was so late or to be happy because I was actually gonna make it. In fact I haven't decided even now what to think. We got to the theater in record time and sprinted into the lobby. The attendant seemes to know what we were about and chuckled at us, glanced at our tickets and sped us on our way. I made it just in time to see Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimili and Legolas be greeted by the Merry and Pippin at the ruined gates of Isengard. We had, of course, bought our tickets in advance so there were only two seats left in the house. Mine and his, but they were so buried it took us fifteen minutes to find them and they were separated by eight rows.

Great flick.

After it was over he drove me home. That ride seemed so much slower for some reason. He dropped me off at the neighborhood and I walked back home gleefully running the movie though my head, thining about the parts I liked, the parts I missed, the parts that were just plain 'out-there', and I found that I had arrived at my trusty window. Dead tired, I slid back in. I was so tired i hadn't noticed that my coat pocket had gotten caught I was stuck, and I was suddenly hanging upside down over the couch. After a bit of struggling and too much noise, I plopped to the cushions and hurriedly began to change back into my pajamas because the clamour had woken my parents and they were already on their way to investigate. Here I must tell you that I am prone to sleep walking and occasionally wake up in odd spots around the house, thus I was able to pull this off. I landed my self on the couch just as the light flipped on and my dad groggily shuffled over. I knew he was gonna either wake me or try to carry me up to bed, but I couldn't let him touch me because my skin was still cold from the frigid December air. So at the last second I opened one eye and rattled off some sleep induced gobbledy-gook that usually comes out of my mouth when sleep walking. It worked and he let me guide myself back to bed under my own power. I flopped into my bed and prepared to wake up in two hours for a beautiful day at school the next day.

[Durelin]

No more motivation for getting straight A's...that was the only reason my parents let me take off an entire day and a half (and miss my English midterm exam!) to join the throng of people either in heavy coats or hobbit, elf, or wizard garb waiting outside the theatre on DC's fortunately large sidewalks. Everyone had three tickets in their hands, and a button on their coats, black with gold writing, worn proudly. "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "The Return of the King" could be found on the tickets, and the words "Trilogy Tuesday" on the button, three words that make sense only to the Tolkien fan movie-goer, or at least the The Lord of the Rings fan.

My dear, dear friend, a woman who works at my (now old) school, had arrived there at approximately 5:30 in the morning with a few other people. She had tickets for my friend, another woman who worked at the school, and myself, and also planned to grab seats for us, as she stood, at the most, 10th in the line. We were...well, we started counting, but gave up somewhere in the 90s. Still, we had two boxes of 'Munchkins', a blanket to sit on, and a copy of The Return of the King to study.

Soon enough, we were traveling up and down the line displaying an almost full box of our once wanted 'Munchkins' to waiters who just had to be hungry! Some gave us rather funny looks, others seemed just a bit hostile, some grabbed one or two, others grabbed a handful, and still others offered us food in return (these people were undoubtedly in hobbit garb). We gave up with about 10 of the buggers left, and then a couple came from somewhere behind us in line with the 'Great Cookie of Gondor'. A cookie pie with a White Tree neatly done in icing upon it. We declined their offer, displaying our hated doughnut holes. Next thing we knew, problem solved: they went on the tray with the Great Cookie on down the line. We should've known: the man was a Peter Jackson look alike (and in Peter Jackson atire: shorts in December, of course).

At about 12:00, I saw daylight for the last time. As I entered the theatre, I had no idea that I would not be leaving it again until 2:00 AM the next day. Between The Two Towers and The Return of the King we ate dinner. The theatre provided us with subs from a deli somewhere nearby. Why leave the theatre, our haven from reality? Gandalf was walking up and down the aisles, and there was a camera... I hid, while my friend waved and shouted, "I'm missing my English exam for this!"

Three epic, 3 1/2+ movies later, and I slept well, finally giving up and returning to school in time for lunch! Never was that movie as good as it was at 10:30 till 2:00!

-Durelin