1969–What Nana Remembers of It…

 

I remember being herded into the library with all the other youngsters in 1969…The TV was brought in…There were no flourescent lights back then…No central air or heat–just those swamp coolers–or, as most other people call them, evaporative coolers. In fact, I never saw flourescent lighting until my father got stationed at Offut AFB in Nebraska in 1971.  I also remember hating them because my eyes were sensitive.

Anyway, I remember the wooden shelves in the library that held all the treasures I loved rummaging through–the books…The books were my world even at this age…School had not started quite yet, but I remember that a lot of us were gathered in there with adults–and the TV’s were in black and white…Not color…I can still hear the squeaking wheels of the audio-visual cart that it was brought in on and can hear the sound of the static in my mind…

It was hot, but I was okay…We were given cookies and Kool-Aid…And I made sure I got my favorite that day–cherry.  I had already eaten my lunch–which back in those days consisted of huge rolls that were made from scratch, salad and whatever the main entrée was–and on this day it was spaghetti…I ate everything on my plate because one of the aides told me if I didn’t do so, then I wouldn’t get to watch TV in the library with everyone else–and I hated salad back then unless my mom made it.  Mom always knew how to make stuff the right way! And she still does…Too bad I didn’t inherit my unique culinary skills  from her, my grandmothers OR EVEN my father…

My household and the human race has been saved thanks to the fact we have TV dinners and we can eat out since I tend to screw up something at least twice a week.

Anyway, as I was saying, we all were herded into the library.  I ate my cookies, drank my Kool-Aid and sat in a chair close to the front of the class.  I did sneak a book in because I was bored, but the teacher said it was alright when she saw it because they were having problems with the TV.

For once, I read quietly as the others got restless and were called down one by one.  I think my mom was amazed I didn’t get into trouble for once. I had a knack for ticking off teachers and irritating them–sort of like Simon Burch with those questions adults hated to get…Like:  “Well if you know smoking is bad for you why do it?” to a teacher by the lounge once when I caught her red-handed…She just looked at me and said, “Tina…This is a bad habit and don’t ever start it!”

I quietly went back to class.  All the while I was pondering another thought: “If Santa is not real, then how did I get those toys and goodies last year?”  Yeah…She said Santa was fake to another student and I heard her. We told our parents and all hell broke loose the next day, but the damage was already done. I don’t think my parents said other than that, “She’s wrong. Ignore that.” but the other kid’s parents caused a problem so she did apologize to us both.

As we all were waiting, they had trouble getting the TV to work, so one teacher started with that teapot song…I didn’t do that one…Never liked it…She called me a sourpuss and I simply said, ” I won’t do it. It’s for little kids and it’s stupid.”  I then got put in the corner for a bit–until Rusty threw a spit wad and hit one of them in the butt.  After that I was forgiven!  He got swats.

Then came a lady who was singing “Yellow Submarine”…I knew that song and I liked it…Then again, I raided my sister’s Beatles’ collection on a regular basis–along with her Elvis and Beach Boys records…AND a lot of others too–Jerry Lee Lewis, Credence Clearwater Revival and–as age appropriate as one can get–The Monkees…I have you know I was really sad to lose Davy Jones this year…He was the big brother I never had but always wanted since my brother James used to bug the crap out of me all the time back then.  I think to a kid my age in 1969, Davy was kid-like and always happy and that’s why a lot of us liked him so much–and (NEWSFLASH) some of us loved Mickey Dolenz for the same reason!

I don’t know if those guys knew how many kids from dysfunctional families they enabled to smile and laugh, and I wonder if the surviving members will ever know…However there were a lot of us that were able to escape some things by watching that show…If  those guys had shown up on Sesame Street or the Electric Company–we’d have all been in Heaven in class!

As we all gathered around several minutes later, it FINALLY came on.   I couldn’t remember the words used, but I remember the flag being put on the surface of the moon and the astronauts “bouncing” around.  After that, I went back to reading.  As a child, I didn’t ponder the significance of the moment in History or the future it would lead to…I just knew the teachers thought it was important that we all be brought to the school to see this.

A few years later, I realized how important it is…And NOW–49 years later, we are seeing pictures taken from the surface of Mars and sent back to Earth…Like these two:

This is a view of Earth, Jupiter and Venus from the surface of Mars.

It almost looks as though one could walk on the ground and look up at the sky doesn’t it?  I am in awe of it…Here is another one:

This one is self-explanatory…

You know…I think if we could colonize it and survive, I’d move there…However, we probably couldn’t survive without building artificial means of producing an enclosed, renewable atmosphere that would meet our needs…In other words, we’d end up living in space stations of some sort. The planet’s surface and atmosphere are too hostile to sustain any life form…Then there are those damned solar winds they talk about and the high levels of radiation…I certainly never thought I’d see even  THIS much in my lifetime…Did you?  It makes me wonder what my grandson will get to experience in his life.  For those of you not born in 1969, you missed a huge point in History–but do you realize how big this one is? I do…

 

Nanahood Resolutions….

 

The time has come for change.  For one, I am cleaning up the blog.  While I do have a strange outlook on some things, I realize that it is because the people that were around me at the time left me rather jaded in thought. I tended to put everything into these neat little boxes of my mind and I  would compartmentalize them so that if someone or something did not make sense to me, they ended up there–my virtual “cornfield”.

Either way, it is time to change my attitude, my life and possibly (after the grandson comes) the latitude. I can no longer hide here. I am going to branch out. I’m getting back to the writing basics again…My family matters. My grand kids matter. This crap about holing up and only talking to a few select people is over.

If I get stuck, I go back to Lauren Vasil’s blog,  www.fizgiggery.com  for some inspiration…Or to Momsicle’s blog…Given the recent post on the little blue dot in Lauren’s blog, I decided that although we’ll probably never see space travel in our lifetime, it would be nice to be able to see places like this from a ship!

It looks almost like something you’d see in a video game or in sci-fi doesn’t it? It’s actually a view of the Carina Nebula from the hubble telescope. I really do consider space to be the “Ultimate Wonder”. It is infinite and timeless.

However since time tends to be somewhat of an enemy, it is best to concentrate on things that I would like to see here–like the world we live on.  Maybe someday I will get to do that.  The thought crosses my mind every time I look at my poster that I made.  I’ll put it up here on my next post, but I really want to position myself better than where I am now. I want to be an inspiration to my grand kids–and to teach them that there is much more to the world than what is right in front of them.  I hope that makes sense to you. It does to me.   It may be time to simply go forth and expand my horizons.  Have a great week!

 

The blah blah blah of Writing…Characterization and random thoughts…

Have you ever reached a point to where you just want to kill off every character you put in your own story, much like they did in the “Black Adder” series once?  Well I have…I have heard it all this week…”Send the character over the cataract or make them a bloody messiah!”, “Give your main character a tragic flaw”, etc…etc…etc…

When breathing life into or smothering my characters to death, I do not see the logic in having   “A” tragic flaw rather than several.  I also see no logic for NOT having at least one sardonic bitch in my story be it male or female. I have met men who make better bitches than some of the other females that I encounter anyway.  I also like putting dark wit wherever possible.  Also my “villain”  might be someone people can actually empathize with–much to my mentor’s dismay…She likes villains to be pure a-holes–clearly defined as EVIL.  Why?  In reality you can say Charles Manson is an ultimate villain of sorts. But in reality, was Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton or even Obama?  OR is it a matter of perception only?  It’s just a thought I felt that I should toss about because anyone who has ever been pissed at a politician of either side of the coin can relate to it.  Better yet, are WE our own worst enemies in labeling people as such?  Hmmm…What a question to pose given the political climate of the past 35 years or so…The “villains” I had most empathy for in my lifetime were Barnabas Collins of  “Dark Shadows” (the 1992 version with Ben Cross–it seemed more plausible and realistic) and  Bruce Dern‘s portrayal of  astronaut Freeman Lowell in “Silent Running” (1972).   Quite frankly, I’d really LOVE  to see Mr. Cross and Mr. Dern work together…I know it probably will not happen, but they are both freaking brilliant in their portrayals of any character thrown at them.

I also had a tremendous empathy for Jonathan Frid‘s version of Barnabas…I felt that he was “bullied” by Angelique.  If I had met Lara Parker as a child, I am 100% certain that I would have kicked her in the shins and ran for my dear life! I was a kindergartener that ran home every day to watch the original version!

For those who have never seen “Silent Running” I strongly urge you to watch it.  Here is a damned good clip with Mr. Dern here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji67t8xJF-s

And for those of you who really admire how Ben Cross played Barnabas, here is a clip–which he played pretty damned well, I might add…I used a clip showing the bad side of him too–and after watching it, I certainly wouldn’t want to be on that actor’s shit list! Not that he’d be like this, but that voice alone would definitely command some freaking respect, don’t you think? :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_zoTfRmm9o

Anyway there are times I write purely for my amusement and my version of Dark Shadows is one of those projects…One can tell when they read it, it is much inspired not just by my love of the show, but from movies such as “Spirit of the Beehive”, “Frankenstein”, “Paperhouse”, which is a strange movie but deals with the perspective of child emotions rather well, and I also deal with the perspective of a severely abused child–my main character, who thinks that while Barnabas guided her from his crypt, was only an imaginary friend. Barnabas, however, was meant to guide her in the present time.  Much of their encounters took place prior to her departure from Collinsport at age 8 to attend private school in Boston, per Elizabeth and Roger after they get guardianship of her.

In my version, the child is going to grow up to be the catalyst for resolving all things past and present.  I was really pissed off that Barnabas “declared” his love for Angelique in the end of the ’72 series when in fact, any psychotic bitch that did to a man what she did to him would never have been loved, but rather LOATHED.  To me that was unrealistic and done in haste.

While I am not giving my whole story away, I am going to point out there that I only wrote it because I get pissed off at all the crap that people toss  about with regard to characterization.  To resolve it and answer questions as to HOW Barnabas  knows about certain aspects of technology and historical information in the present, an outside character really has to be used for this. The characters of Willy, Maggie and others are “boxed” in due to the original adaptations of it, so I dug my own “good little girl” in the form of my character from the deepest recesses of the pit of my imagination.  Believe me, given what she has endured at the hands of her crazy bitch mother, the fact that she is actually “good” is amazing–but there are flaws she has…She trusts nobody-really…She keeps to herself even as a celebrity, and she feels that all she experienced was in her imagination.  She fears things that she remembers from time to time.  Her best friend up until she returns to Collinsport (outside of her band) is her dog…Can you fans of the ’92 series guess what I named him?    😀

I will reveal one thing…If anyone plays the part of the ghost of my new character’s dad someday (if I ever get this out there), I hope to hell it’s  Matthew McConaughey because he’d be perfect for that part.  As for the part of younger Barnabas there would have to be two younger people playing him as a boy and a young man, and then an older man to play him at age 50-55 (the namesake) in the present time.  Don’t ask…I won’t tell how that works, but it’s in there 🙂 !  I dug deeper than hell to explain things in a logical light…That time-space continuum that my character has to fix is a bitch to deal with but I finally worked it out…

Now for the big decision…Do I make my characters “messianic” and admirable, make them grey or send them all over the bloody cataract?  Stay tuned…Same bat time! Same bat channel!