Not unlike many of my friends who grew up in the 1960s and stumbled through adolsecence in the early 1970s, I earned spending money babysitting. I must have been pretty good because I found myself keeping quite busy from Friday nights through Sunday afternoons (and sometimes on week nights) managing children so that parents could get away for a few hours to enjoy a "date night," engage in community charity events or fulfill some social or business obligations.
Once the children were settled for the night, I would clean up any messes we made, then I would either work on homework or check out what was on television. Keep in mind that in the early 1970s there was nothing close to 24/7 news and sports coverage, cable with channels dedicated to food, movies, DIY programs, or reality shows which are so common now. Depending on where I was babysitting (some families had better television coverage than others), I was fortunate if my choices expanded to four channels.
One thing I could count on, though, was that Friday and Saturday nights typically aired old movies after the 10 o'clock news. I'd check in on my little charges to be sure all was right in their dream world, then I would switch on the TV, ready to be transported to wherever the film would take me.
Most of the time the movie was what my Mom used to call "a B movie" -- the ones starring the less than high profile actors and actresses of the time or the early pictures of rising stars. Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, June Allyson, Kirk Douglas and Van Heflin, were the headliners, although every now and then I might see Rosalind Russell, Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable, Lana Turner and Spencer Tracy. It really didn't matter too much; I was content to see a good story brought to the "screen" with great dialogue, costumes and pretty good acting. It really didn't matter what sort of movie it was: I liked comedies, dramas, historical costume extravaganzas, musicals......westerns, military, horror and sci-fi, not so much. Every now and then the television station would throw me a curve ball and I would find myself watching some movie starring Elvis Presley or one of the post-studio driven movies of the late 1950s or early 1960s. On those evenings, I always prayed that the parents would be home early.
Sometimes the parents did arrive home at their stated time and I would leave before seeing a movie to its conclusion, which was a real bummer if I was enjoying the film. Never fear, though, my mom would not go to bed until she knew I was home and it was not uncommon for me to get in the door to see her sitting in front of the TV watching the same movie I had been viewing. Rather than call it an evening, we would sit together to see the movie to its conclusion and she would recount to me where she had seen the picture in a movie theater "when she was a young thing" and what people thought of the movie at the time.
It was not often that my mom would talk to me much about her life growing up, but those moments shared watching a movie were pretty special. It is funny, now that there are channels dedicated to those "classic" films I have chances to watch them again. I can't see The Ballad of Cable Hogue or Desk Set or Love Me or Leave Me without thinking about her. She would share much about what it was like growing up during those years and when I see these old films again, I can't help but have a richer experience of those years gone by simply because I connected with her.
Now that these classics are so readily available through television and DVD, I still get to be transported to the diverse times and enjoy seeing not only old favorites but others as well. I also am enjoying that I get to see Jeannine enjoy these films. I have been amazed, but she readily enjoys old movies (newer ones as well), and if she happens to catch me folding laundry while watching a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers marathon, or whatever "star of the month" is showcased, she will usually watch for awhile and then suggest that when I finish folding clothes we put together some snacks and watch some more. More often though she will suggest that we go online to order the movies so that she can watch them anytime she wants. Her interest was not really in the plot details or the clothes or any of the things that film critics assess. For Jeannine, she likes the relationships she sees, especially those characters who exhibit the qualities of kindness, concern, helpfulness and love.
So for what it is worth, what started out as a means to pass time while children slept has become a lifelong interest and really a passion for me. Movies are a wonderful vehicle for entertainment, escapism and in many ways learning and understanding history. Films like Gone with the Wind, The Buccaneer, Anna and the King of Siam, or The Desert Fox, whose historical settings bring to life the events of previous times and deepen our understanding of the people and places which cannot be gleaned by mere facts and dates alone. From the comedies, especially those starring Cary Grant, Danny Kaye or Doris Day, we are able to tap into many of the foibles and inconsistencies in human nature that we all share. Beyond all of this, though, I have a tremendous fondness for what film has done for me in connecting with others; first my mom and now Jeannine. On one level it was a way to know and understand my mom that could not have been communicated otherwise; on another, it is a way to stay engaged with Jeannine even if it costs me playing Fred Astaire to her Ginger Rogers as we recreate some dance sequence from The Barkleys of Broadway.
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