Family's Christmas Day movie outing fades to black as power outage affects 1,500 DTE customers
Shannon Lafferty and husband Scott DeRaad, left, paid to see Robert DeNiro in "The Little Fockers,'" but the Christmas Day movie outing with Lafferty's mother, Ann Carlson, and stepfather Allen Carlson, right, was stymied by a power outage. Photo by Ronald Ahrens for AnnArbor.com
Shannon Lafferty set out with her family for the 12:45 p.m. Christmas Day showing of “The Little Fockers,” hoping for a lights-out performance.
Because of a power outage darkening portions of Pittsfield and Lodi townships, she and her family got just that.
Rave Motion Pictures Ann Arbor 20 on Carpenter Road was among the estimated 1,500 DTE Energy customers affected by the outage, which occurred around 11:30 a.m. Traffic signals on Carpenter Road between Packard and Ellsworth roads went out as well.
DTE Energy spokesman Scott Simons said power was restored around 1:15 p.m.
The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department and Saline Area Fire Department responded to a vehicle accident at Bethel Church and Dell roads in Lodi Township around the same time, which caused a power line to block the roadway.
But Simon said he didn’t know the exact cause of the outage.
A sheriff’s department dispatcher said the incident report did not note any injuries in the crash.
Meanwhile, expecting a large crowd of movie-goers, Lafferty of Scio Township arrived at the theater with her husband Scott DeRaad and her mother and stepfather, Hamburg Township residents Pat and Allen Carlson, ready to use the tickets they had pre-purchased online.
The four had attended a Christmas Day movie before and encountered a mid-afternoon mob scene.
“So we thought we’d go to an early one,” said Allen Carlson, a retired Chrysler Group executive who now serves as Hamburg Township treasurer.
“We usually gather for breakfast, go see a movie and then go for Chinese,” said DeRaad, a Ford Motor Company engineer.
He said a “more formal” Christmas celebration was scheduled for Sunday, when all of the family could be together.
But theater employees had been turning patrons away since before the day’s first scheduled screening, “Yogi Bear,” at noon.
The only sound inside the lobby was the buzzing of an electronic game’s default alarm.
An theater employee referred questions about the situation to Rave Motion Pictures management. A call to the company’s headquarters in Dallas wasn’t returned today.
“Why did we want to see this one?” Pat Carlson asked, acknowledging some indifferent reviews for “The Little Fockers.” “We wanted to laugh.”
A disappointed Carlson, who recently retired as a summer nurse at the Lions Bear Lake Camp near Lapeer, observed that there wasn’t much else to do. The only businesses open along Ellsworth Road were gas stations and a deli and market.
Looking through the area-wide listings in the newspaper, they considered the possibility of going to see the movie in Brighton.
It was either that or go back home and watch something from Netflix.
Ronald Ahrens is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.
Comments
Basic Bob
Sun, Dec 26, 2010 : 10:58 p.m.
@Carrie, the "triple time" was in response to a previous comment which was moderated out. I was just pointing out that it is common practice to pay skilled workers premium pay for holiday work in addition to their holiday pay. I think that is the right thing to do.
Ariel
Sun, Dec 26, 2010 : 10:59 a.m.
Should've just gone to the Michigan Theater!
Carrie
Sun, Dec 26, 2010 : 8:22 a.m.
Basic Bob, It sounds like you are jealous. You would also be the first to scream if your electricity were affected. No, I am not an electrician, but I am thankful for those that work on Christmas so that I may have a wonderful day.
Basic Bob
Sun, Dec 26, 2010 : 12:15 a.m.
@AlphaAlpha, "Triple time" is only because you add in the holiday pay they would get if they were able to stay home with their family. Since Christmas is on a Saturday, they probably get their holiday pay on Friday. So they make twice as much as a usual weekday to take care of an emergency caused by someone else. I'm not scoffing.
melissa
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 11:13 p.m.
They were lucky they didn't have to suffer through the experience of seeing a movie at Showcase er, Rave Cinemas. That place has turned into an incredible dump. The power goes out all the time, the equipment is always malfunctioning... Not to mention it's constantly filled with people that do not respect others (for instance, constantly checking cellphones or talking on the phone, or talking to each other) and the staff does nothing to correct it. All done with going to the theater. (No, I don't live in Ann Arbor, and no, I'm not old.)
Bear
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 10:54 p.m.
to answer these outrageous comments about how much the DTE workers were making in 'overtime', first, how much would it take you to leave your family christmas to go to work? Second, I don't know if any of you were actually reading the whole article, but it said the outage lasted about an hour and forty-five minutes total. Hardly "made more money today then most of us make in a week." (sic) I don't know where such prejudiced skewed thinking comes from. So, what do you think? Would you trust someone who is paid minimum wage to fix your neighborhoods' power grid? You get what you pay for. I'd rather pay for excellence. And besides that, have ANY of you considered how dangerous it is for these guys to repair downed power lines? You had better know what you are doing when you tackle that much unleashed power. But you are going to scoff at what these people make to leave their families on christmas day in order to keep your power on and give wildly uninformed opinions as to how much they are making as if they don''t deserve every penny. Shame on you. Well, I'm glad I don't have to depend upon any of you for my power, I'd probably be in the dark for the weekend. Most of you seem to be in the dark for a bit longer.
David Briegel
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 10:05 p.m.
I LOVE The Onion!! But, can we survive a Christmas without movies?? The horror!
Lorenzo
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 8:08 p.m.
A power outage on the weekend... on a holiday... those DTE techs that are on call probably made more money today then most of us make in a week.
David Briegel
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 7:35 p.m.
A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night! I don't know if Humanity and The Fockers have anything in common!!
Basic Bob
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 7:27 p.m.
I drove by a little after noon. It's amazing how few people remember to stop when the traffic lights are not working. Good thing traffic was light.
AlphaAlpha
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 6:58 p.m.
Touche ShadowManager.
ShadowManager
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 6:17 p.m.
Those Fockers!
Ann English
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 5:56 p.m.
Brad, Just yesterday, annarbor.com had an article titled, "Chinese and a Movies Day," describing what some people do every year on December 25. So this article looks back on what happened to one such group's intentions for today.
Brad
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 5:23 p.m.
"A call to the companys headquarters in Dallas wasnt returned today." And who exactly is surprised by that? Or for that matter, thinks it is news? Or thinks *any* of this is news??
AlphaAlpha
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 5:12 p.m.
There, there. Just imagine the OT paid to the DTE guys today. They are thrilled...
Macabre Sunset
Sat, Dec 25, 2010 : 4:28 p.m.
This is perhaps the most depressing story I have ever read. Oh, the humanity!