“They’re here already. You’re next. ”
Today is mundane task day, and I’ve already started. I did a wash and managed to pay bills without bursting into tears. As for the rest of the day, the furniture needs polishing, the bed needs changing, the floor is long past needing to be swept, and the larder needs filling. I suppose I could do a task a day, but I figure by doing everything on one day, only one day gets spoiled.
It’s sunnier and warmer than it’s been so I’ve opened the windows. My usual quiet neighborhood is filled with the sounds of sawing and hammering and the voices of my neighbor’s wife and their three year old son. My neighbor is adding to his deck, and his son is outside chatting with his father. I was out earlier wishing them all a good morning.
Kevin McCarthy died in a hospital in Hyannis on Saturday. He was 96. I most remember him as a doctor in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, one of my all time favorite movies. When I was an English teacher, I taught a science fiction class, a course I had created, and during the semester I usually showed a couple of old movies. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, made in 1956, was one of them. The kids always chuckled at the reactions of the characters to the unfolding of the plot. All of the characters smoked. Any time there was a traumatic event, the characters raced to tame their terror with a glass of whiskey. Finding growing bodies in the backyard sent four of the main characters to the living room bar where they discussed what they’d seen, each of them with a glass of whiskey, neat, in hand. At the bar, they speculated, strategized and poured.
My students always me if that was how it really was in the old days.
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September 13, 2010 at 12:19 pm
“My students always me if that was how it really was in the old days.”
Well…was it? 😉 I figured out the difference between drama and real life at an early age. I’m surprised your school students didn’t have already-extant real life examples of tense situations to draw from when they saw the movie.
Of course we don’t all get to see the images of that movie in our real lives. 😉
September 14, 2010 at 11:07 am
Rick,
My kids were amazed that drinking was the adult response to fear in the movie. It wasn’t like anything in their own experiences nor was it particular to the movies of the day. Drinking to them was social; it wasn’t self-medicating.
My students were world wise by the time I got them in high school, but the 50’s were far away in time and in custom so they asked.
September 13, 2010 at 2:10 pm
That movie is my absolute favourite SciFi movie!!! I got so scared when I saw it the first time I couldn´t sleep all night 🙂 🙂 🙂 But I can´t for my life remember the swedish name for it. Probably something like the invasion from Mars :-)I think I´ll have to find it on DVD.
It´s been sunny almost all day here and warmer than many summer days. I hope this weather will stay some time now.
Have a great day now!
Christer.
September 14, 2010 at 11:08 am
Christer,
It’s still a favorite of mine, and I keep an eye on the Turner Classic Movie channel in case they show it. Few stations broadcast B&W movies anymore.
I need to get it on DVD too.
September 14, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Quoting:
“Few stations broadcast B&W movies anymore.”
Out here on the west coast, we prefer the term “glorious monochrome.”
😉
September 13, 2010 at 5:39 pm
ummmm, bodies in the backyard you say? and that gives everyone permission to drink. Cool. Well . . . I found one I think. Bye, Bye!
September 14, 2010 at 11:09 am
Z&Me,
Any excuse is a viable one!
September 14, 2010 at 11:48 am
Re: depiction of smoking. My wife is a Perry Mason fan and in the early episodes, Paul and Perry were often found puffing away. And once a courtroom confession was coerced, the guys and Della would often celebrate with an appropriate toast.
September 15, 2010 at 10:13 am
bob,
I too was a big Perry fan, but I’d forgotten how the two of them smoked in Perry’s office with Paul sometimes sitting on the corner of the desk.
September 15, 2010 at 10:08 am
Jeff,
I will adopt the west coast term. It sounds so wonderfully descriptive.