Walking the Wall

When I was young, I’m not exactly sure how old, but in gradeschool, our
black and white television broke (I’m 36 now). My mom and dad decided
there wasn’t enough on it to make it worth fixing–I didn’t have a
television again until I was married. I have to say that it wasn’t
really anything I ever missed. I was (and still am) a read-a-holic and
I really don’t remember ever feeling like there was anything to be lost
from picking up a book rather than turning on the television. While we
didn’t have a television, that didn’t mean that we were at a loss for
movies. One of the libraries nearby used to rent out reel movie
projectors and the movies to watch on it. The projector was big and
black and there was nothing more exciting than setting it up, pulling
out those big reels of film, and watching movies on the wall of the
living room–musicals and comedies for the most part. I fell in love
with Fred Astaire, not that
I thought he was handsome, but that I thought his dancing was pure
magic. I fell the most in love with the man that didn’t win Judy
Garland (Peter Lawford–my first true love) “Easter Parade“
that sang, “I’m just a fella, a fella with an umbrella, waiting for a
girl who saved her love for a rainy day,” and laughed and laughed every
time at the exquisite performance of the man creating the perfect salad
in the same movie.

I think the whole activity of going and renting the projector, picking
out the movies, setting it all up and settling in to watch the show put
a stronger sense of drama to everything we watched–something that
flicking on the tv and turning the channel just doesn’t seem to afford.
Still, my family sat down tonight and watched a dvd of Laural and Hardy
movies and even though there wasn’t the quiet clack clack clack of the
wheel churning the film across the lense–watching Flying Dueces
with my kids brought back incredible memories and I laughed so hard as
Stanely kept walloping his head into a sloped wall or threw a rock into
the river still tied to Ollie’s waist. My kids are used to the
incredible graphics of Star Wars and the vivid animations of Shrek and
Bionicle–but they were caught in the magic of black and white, corny
acting, and the joy of laughing for the sheer fun of it.