Not so neighborly in Prairie Village |
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| KC Confidential | |||
| Written by Hearne Christopher Jr. | |||
| Wednesday, 09 December 2009 00:00 | |||
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For 44 years, Babick – or “Father Christmas” as some have come to call him – has turned his home at 7611 Falmouth into a Pixar-like, animated Christmas spectacle. From Thanksgiving through New Year’s the city turns the former AT&T worker’s block into a one-way street to accommodate the thousands of Cowtowners who pilgrimage there every year. Early on, some of Babick’s neighbors decried his traffic-inducing display and tried to quell it. But over time those unhappy with it moved on, and Babick’s display grew into a cherished local tradition. Until now… “I’ve got just one irate neighbor,” Babick says. “I thought all that was done. He’s from Iran.”
The new kid on the block? “No, he’s been here for the last three years,” Babick says. “He just got irate last Thursday night, he came over and started yelling at everybody. We had about 75 people here and he was saying, you owe me this and you owe me that. And one lady said, ‘OK buddy, I’ll write you a check.’” Babick wasn’t sure what his neighbor wanted, “but it was loud,” he says. “And he said, ‘You owe me. You owe me. You pay me.’ He was talking to me first, then to everybody. He didn’t really name his price – well yeah he did – he said, ‘You owe me $3,000. You pay me. You pay me.’ Then he put up (those) four sticks – he doesn’t want anybody to walk on his driveway. I was going to decorate them. You know, I like a good rumble if it’s a fair rumble.” The dispute has migrated to City Hall. “His wife will call the police on me,” Babick says. “She does it two or three times every night.” That said, does Babick have a holiday tiding for his angry antagonist? “Do you dare write it?” he quips. “Well, you know I hope he has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I even complimented him on his (holiday) decorations and he didn’t say a word.” Do as I say…? Word that AMC will no longer allow moviegoers to BYOT – bring-their-own-treats – set off plenty of handwringing in the local news media. The Star, for example, quoted Fine Arts Theatre Group main man Brian Mossman as saying “a no-outside-food policy” at his three area theaters is “clearly posted.” Is former Shawnee Councilwoman Tracy Thomas – a movie lover of the first order – bummed by the ban? “No, because I’ve always snuck food into the movies,” she says. “I just never knew that it was legal. Except that I caught Brian Mossman buying bulk candy before he went into a movie and I asked him why and he told me it was legal.”
Move over Burt Bacharach About local jazz diva Carol Duboc’s concert with jazz legend Hubert Laws Saturday at the Folly… There’ll be more to the Pembroke Hill grad’s show than music from her new Burt Bacharach-themed CD. That after discovering that she and Bacharach – a Kansas City native – had something else in common. “We both wrote for Tom Jones,” she says. “Tom Jones is an interesting guy; he’s probably the most talented person I’ve worked for. He told me when Burt Bacharach brought him ‘What’s New Pussycat’ he thought it was a joke. I actually put ‘What’s New Pussycat’ in the (Folly) show. I put my own spin on it.”
Hearne on the street… About KC swing king Dave Stephens “Christmas Holiday Jazz Circus” at Jardine’s Thursday… Turns out this is the first in a series of shows Stephens plans to theme a la the acclaimed Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire movie “Holiday Inn.” The 1942 film about an inn only open on the holidays won an Oscar for Best Original Song for Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.” Stephens plans to open his “inn” again for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and holidays to be named later.
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Been awhile since Prairie Villager Mike Babick has had to deal with ticked off neighbors…
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