When I was a child there were very few Christmas movies, and since we didn't have a TV until I was 10, I didn't get addicted to them until I got old (younger than I am now, but still old).
There were only two movies that I can recall seeing with my father and mother and those were: Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life. I can't remember the number of times I've seen those movies. Then when I was about 13 White Christmas was released for TV viewers.
I don't remember how old I was when the cartoons became my Christmas fare. Was it when I was in college or when I had children? Anyway, I have seen Rudolph, Charley Brown, and Frosty too many times to count and I still enjoy watching them.
This year, I'm overfed, so to speak, on Christmas movies. The Hallmark channel runs them from noon to Midnight. Lifetime has them on from 6 to midnight. And ABC Family runs them in the evenings as well.
Are there any new classics? I don't know. I know that I'm still enjoying the real classics on TCM (tonight is Gone with the Wind, which I'm not watching -- it's just oo long and I'm too sleepy).
Many of the TCM movies evoke those memories of my father and me watching late-night movies (11:30 to 1:30) including those like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Random Harvest and Mrs. Minnever. If I catch those titles in the movie scroll of a day, I will stop and watch, hankie in hand, no matter that I've viewed those movies dozens of times -- sort of like the new "old" movies: You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and While you were Sleeping, all sappy chick-flicks that Alan walks away from, and I sit engrossed for as long as they take to view.
Runnemede and movies -- some combination.
ttfn
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Wow, Judi, when I lived in Runnemede movies were something you went to -- not watched on TV. But then I was gone in the summer of '62. We would walk to the movie house in Mt. Ephraim or even the one up in Fairview. I was nine years old when I walked there to see "The Ten Commandments." Worst case, we'd jump on the old 21/31 and hit the one in Blackwood.
As for Christmas movies, my best memories were the days when "It's a Wonderful Life" was in the public domain and it was on TV almost nonstop from Thanksgiving to Christmas. My favorite now is "A Christmas Story," and I love that one channel does it 24 hours on Christmas. Jean Shepherd is simply one of my all-time favorite storytellers. But I still don't think kids should have guns -- they'll shoot their eyes out!
Bill, if you read this comment:
My father was a minister. We weren't allowed to go to movies. I never understood why it was okay to watch them on TV, but not in the theater. It had something to do with spending money to support wicked Hollywood, or some such thing.
The first movie I saw not on TV was with my husband on a date and my mother went with us. We went to a drive-in and watched, of all things, Mary Poppins.
The things I remember. Weird.
What a great story, Judi. You should write about that first date, if you haven't already. Details, please!
I'm curious if you could get Alan to sit on the sofa today and watch "Mary Poppins."
Hollywood surely was/is pretty wicked, but we Catholics of the fifties thought we had it under control. We had written the motion picture code (authored by a Jesuit priest, no less) and we were protected by the Legion of Decency! I can still recall in the vestibule of St. Teresa church in Runnemede -- a posting of movies and their ratings from that same Legion of Decency. Those "condemned" movies were always highest on my list of wanting to see! Alas, my parents were sending me to see "The Ten Commandments." Maybe that's why I never liked Charlton Heston!
Merry Christmas!
Bill: MY husband will sit down on the recliner and watch Mary Poppins and he always comments that it was the movie he watch with his M-I-L on a date with his favorite girl. Such a sweetheart he is. We've been married for 43 years. And Mary Poppins was something we took my mom to see AFTER we were married, but we still had dates. Actually we still have dates occasionally. He can still be romatic at times.
Bill: MY husband will sit down on the recliner and watch Mary Poppins and he always comments that it was the movie he watch with his M-I-L on a date with his favorite girl. Such a sweetheart he is. We've been married for 43 years. And Mary Poppins was something we took my mom to see AFTER we were married, but we still had dates. Actually we still have dates occasionally. He can still be romatic at times.
Post a Comment