PATCH BLOG: Country Gal/City Woman "I Knew Them When..."

Sadie, 4.5 pounds of the cutest little Chihuahua ever, and I were rocking away not that long ago (that would be Nov. 13) watching the cutest CMT movie ever, when what should appear, passing in front of my eyes, seemed to be unresolved "bits and pieces" of my somewhat lengthy life. This has happened before but usually when I am a bit remorseful, ashamed, guilty or bored...and once, just short of "drowning."

Was it the fact that Burt Reynolds, playing the part of the aging father figure to LeAnn Rimes' daughter part, was showing his real years in his every move on my Samsung television screen? And I have a few years on him...was this a call to do some "soul-searching" on my part? 

The fact that I have not spent one lucid moment thinking of Burt and his activities in years and now his still-handsome face and figure covers my entire Samsung television set...says only one thing to me: Blog material! And possibly some "soul-searching" along the way? As Dr. Drew says on his 6 p.m. PT-HLN hour-long television show: "Let's figure it out together in the next hour!" 

Burt Reynolds, the swashbuckling hero of some movies, the shifty-eyed villian or the handsome racecar driver in others? The one-time real-life playmate of Sally Fields and Dinah Shore, the "almost bare" fella in the controversial 1972 centerfold picture in Cosmopolitan, Where has the time gone? (I, admittedly, did some Googling on Burt and recommend you do the same...he is more than just a "handsome face and a good old Southern boy!") 

Who knows: Burt, who artfully played the "tough guy, the private investigator, the drunken politician, (and who can forget the hilarious "Smokey and the Bandit" movies) could well become the 2012 centerfold picture of the AARP magazine...will get back to you on that one!  He's got the female vote of my bowling league...

At one time, he was quoted as saying there were three stages of an actor's life:  "Young...Old...and You look good!" For Burt and any of us voting Golden Guys and Girls: "Two out of three ain't bad!"

 (And, definitely yes, catch this movie "Reel Love" when next you can...a clever plot, funny script and easy-to-look at actors kept Sadie and I glued to our seats when usually, a refrigerator break happens, all too often, during less-entertaining movies. Burt and LeAnn may well be the only actors you will recognize immediately but the whole cast played well their parts in this down-to-earth "fishing" saga...light and frothy, just the right fare for an overcast/rainy day.)

But about that "soul-searching" segment...

Long-term memory can be a pain or a blessing, and I mean that in the sense that some things, the "whys," incidents, trials, hurts (real or imagined) simply will not be put aside. 

The "problem" I cannot seem to shrug away has been 76 years in the making and I simply do not know how to resolve (or escape thinking about it at unlikely times).  Like Dr. Drew, perhaps this Blog will help me figure it out...but it does seem, from where I am sitting, that neither will happen. 

My "burden" centers around the "whereabouts of several childhood friends" with whom the Class of 1943 has lost touch and inquiries at Reunions offer no hope of locating them.

Turning to the Internet and all that it offers in times like this, just isn't "cutting it"...Plus they end up wanting my credit card number in the guise of a two weeks' "free trial" period. 

Why my problem includes the reference of one Burt Reynolds, I haven't a clue. It isn't like he is getting rich off my box office attendance, but it does prompt the thought that neither of us is getting any younger; and, just perhaps, it might be a good idea to tie up "loose ends."  

Harken back with me to my small hometown of Atlantic, Iowa, during the years of my attendance at Grant, Jackson and Junior High School - circa 1930-1940. 

Always there are kids who become friends because of their kindnesses, their affinity to come up with swell neighborhood games, whose mothers become your "substitute mothers" when a confidence needs to be shared, in short, your trusted "side-kick". 

And, then they move!  Away!  Never to be forgotten, in my case, but where are they? I need to know...

In the space of a few paragraphs, Janet Evanovich would have "Bounty Hunter Stephanie Plum" figure this all out for our reading pleasure, for sure.  See my dilemma? 

I wonder where Grant School playmates, Robert Pell and Bobby Gordon, are today? Both were such stellar "Run, Sheep, Run" participants and when news that both families would soon be packing up and heading for states that were hundreds of thousands of miles away, the Buck Town Gang moped for days for our loss of these two instigators of fun and mischief, if that was called for. Washington State was one destination, the other I know not. 

I wonder where Marjorie Summers and Shirley Dawson, Jackson School classmates are today, and are they planning a Thanksgiving meal for their children and grandchildren, as I am? (Well, in truth, I am leaving the meal planning to Dana and Mary, but I will bring the cranberry sauce as requested.  It is the thought that counts, right?) 

Marjorie Summers was this cute little round-faced blonde lass who must have made an impression for that reason only as we were not playmates of the ordinary kind, we lived a distance apart. Our class time together was short, hardly enough time to warrant these "flash-back" moments that invade my privacy, but her face and my thoughts for her welfare, unexpectedly appear out of nowhere, and I wonder why?

Now, Shirley I remember for a more reasonable reason. Her Mom, Agnes Dawson, was my teacher at Grant; after school was over for the day at Jackson School where Shirley was enrolled, she would walk down Cedar Street to meet her Mom.  I looked forward to seeing Shirley's darkly brown head of curls bounce as she drew closer to my school, her smiling face framed by the collar of always a really pretty dress, one happy kid! She dispelled any thoughts I may have had that only "happy and smart" kids attended Grant School. Again, one day, the Dawson mother-and-daughter team moved; and the class seemed empty. I don't wonder about that one, I know. 

And then there was Velda! Velda literally popped into class one fine day at Jackson from a state unknown. Velda was a "looker" as some of the boys shared amongst themselves later on at a pick-up softball game in Talty's Pasture. The girls were of a different opinion, being girls you know! Tall for her twelve years, dark haired and tanned skin to die for and envy. And she was going to be a "Movie Star" when she grew up. 

This she confided to me, and to others, in an Essay entitled: "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up!" in front of the whole class. I certainly believed that she would be a "movie star" and if I played my cards right, I would be her "Girl Friday" some day, after graduation, of course. First on that Agenda, of course,  would be to learn Shorthand from Miss Black and Typing from Miss Rayl in High School, like four years later. For the time being, I could only gaze upon her comely features and wish I would grow out of being the "runt" of the 12-year-old grouping.  (Didn't happen!) 

But, Fate intervened and Velda moved; I often wondered if she did realize her childhood dreams. In my mind's eye, she would have been another Rosalind Russell, that kind of "movie star." But, Velda, of course, would be required by the genius movie honchos to change her name. I, then, would not recognize her on the silver screen as the dancing/singing "blonde" which those "honchos" would have also required she become. Why do these people "mess with perfection"? 

So, I am assuming that Velda is now living "the life of a retired movie star" somewhere in the hollowed-out Hollywood Hills, perhaps next to Leonardo DeCaprio's home, and does her own letter-writing these days. Velda, if you are reading this, it was so good to know you, to share your dreams. I am "unemployed" if you are still looking for an experienced "G.F."!

Russell Cooper (who had all of the requirements to be Atlantic's "clean-cut All-American boy") was the son of the Methodist Church's preacher, one of three children, and truly, by all standards of all faiths, was a "nice boy." Knowing Russell was the "passport" for the Buck Town kids to use the basketball court that was part of the Church's building.

Combining my family's love for basketball and a nagging feeling of affection for Russell, I found myself with girl friends (Twila Parrott, June Wright and Shirley Woolsey) using the court but also attending the Methodist Church for Sunday services for a couple of seasons. I attended more often than my less-determined friends.

Also, to no avail for the Methodist Church had this policy of transferring their ministers around the U.S.of A. and the Coopers, and our Russell, found themselves on their way to Alaska! I began relying on Romans 8:28 from that day forward, but that's not to say I always liked it!

In this coming Thanksgiving Season, and it is upon us, people!...I am thankful for these kids of my childhood, for the part that they played in my young life then, but perhaps, most of all, the part they play in my life now, a link to the past growing up in that small town of some 5,000 inhabitants so very long ago, memories that will never fade but only grow stronger as I think of what was.

So...to dear, sweet, aging Burt Reynolds, I thank you for choosing to play that character part of the dear, sweet, aging "Dad" to LeAnn Rimes in that CMT movie, a reminder that relationships can heal within the family, that there is more than one way to "catch a bigger fish" (and I am not going to give away the plot for it is truly hilarious) and that being a Blogger for arcadia.patch is something for which I am truly thankful. 

May Robert, Bobby, Marjorie, Shirley, Velda, Russell, Twila, June, Shirley (wherever you are!) and all your Progeny know that you have a large place in my pea-picking heart. Especially you, Burt Reynolds!

Happy Thanksgiving from mine to yours...

CG/CW