Ashley comes home from the War to celebrate Christmas around Aunt Pittypat’s table in Atlanta.
On this day in 1939 Gone with the Wind premiered at Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.
I first saw Gone with the Wind when I was in middle school. My uncle, who would later become my stepfather (it’s not as weird as you might think) took me to a Sunday matinee because he hadn’t seen it either.
Those were the days before TBS showed it almost as much as they show Shawshank Redemption.
Don’t get me wrong, those are two of my favorite movies.
I thought it odd that it was a movie that had an intermission. I thought it more odd that he didn’t buy me popcorn even though we had just had lunch.
Contrast that with my taking the 16-year-old to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them last night after dinner and still having to buy the large popcorn…and then popcorn of my own.
We don’t get to many movies these days. They’re not cheap. And you really don’t have to wait that long for them to show up somewhere where you can watch them online, or On Demand. It has to be a movie we really want to see.
For instance, we’ll be seeing Rogue One in the near future. My understanding is that we’ll also be seeing Dr. Strange.
Going to the movies isn’t quite like what it used to be. I remember Saturday afternoons going for the double feature and not really being interested in the second movie, especially after my snack money ran out during the first movie.
No, really, I can see a movie without snacks. I usually do.
And trust me, I always order the smallest possible drink.
Movie theaters are quite industrial these days. They’re big multi-plex buildings with stadium seating. There aren’t many of the grand old theaters left.
Richmond has one in the Byrd Theatre. For years you’ve been able to go see second run films there for $1.99. News this week has it that prices in 2017 are doubling to $4.00. And I’m okay with that. The Byrd is a Richmond treasure that needs a good bit of renovation and desperately needs some new seats.
On a side note, whilst writing this I realized that I had posts in May and June of this year with the title “Frankly, My Dear…”
But, I don’t give…
I digress.
We’ve two weeks left of 2016. There’s not much we can do to redeem this year.
Oh, sure, some good things happened in 2016. I got to do some great shows and had an amazing week at the beach.
But, as I’ve said, I think all of us have felt this was a difficult year.
One day we’ll look up and Ashley Wilkes will be coming down the road (work with me). We’ll get excited only to be told he’s not coming to see us and to find out we’re going to have to make a dress out of curtains to pay the taxes.
I swear I’m not drinking as I write this, but it is almost midnight.
What I’m trying to say is that we have a whole new year ahead of us. We can all hope that it will be a better year. But there’s no guarantee.
What we have to do is just take each day and each circumstance as it comes to us and then decide what we’re going to do about it.
We can say with Scarlet, ” As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”
But we probably shouldn’t say that in January because most of us are going on diets.
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