Old Movies and Books

When I was a young girl my mom gave me a love of books and movies. 

She took me to the library a lot. She and I would peruse the aisles and look things up in the old card catalog. If I ever said the word bored, she would immediately send me to the magazine and newspaper section to read some fluff in magazines, or even worse make me look something up for her. I learned not to say I was bored at a very young age because it would always result in being given something horrendous to do, like fold clothes or something equally fun.

I got what she wanted out of those library and book days. I have a great love of books and heaven knows old libraries make me very happy. The smell!  Hmm...No Kindle for me!  

In high school, I took an elective class called Best Sellers in my senior year. I thought it'd be such an easy class and it was. We were given books to read and of course, there were reports to be made on them. You could be writing a report or give an oral report. I recall my teacher giving me a science fiction book. Oh, how I hated science fiction. But we all had to read genres we did not like so this was mine. But I also knew I had to do an oral report this time and the book was science fiction. I was dreading this.

It was so damn difficult for me to get through this book. While there were some interesting things that I remember about it to this day overall the book bored me to tears. So I went to Mr. B and told him I just hated this so I can't get through it could he please give me something else to read. He said, No this was my book. I said I can't write a report on this because I honestly think this book is poorly written and it is boring the heck out of me.  Mr. B just laughed at me and said okay then, do your oral report on why you think this is a bad book, why do you think the writing is bad, why do you think it's boring. Write your report on that. But you better be able to back all this up with a good reason got it?  Yes! 

So that is what I did. I got an A. 

I stood in front of my class ( I even remember the dress I was wearing) and I told the story, the way the author took 2 pages to tell me that someone walked into a room was just too much and the reasons why I felt that way. I even said how I would have liked to see it done and why.  I explained how I would have liked to have seen the author expel on the story, not the language he was using to write the story. To me, his focus was English, not the story. 

He wrote with more adjectives than needed to explain one thing over 2 pages. It was overkill for me. But there were interesting points, such as these alien beings that look human who were born with rings on their index finger. When that ring was removed as adults they could become pregnant. 

I think that stuck with me because I thought - oh how cool is that for birth control!  I was 18 at this point and understood that this would be awesome.

I stood in front of my class and told my view of this book, I made my teacher laugh at one point so I knew I had a good chance of getting a good grade. I hit all the points he asked for and then a few of my own. After class, Mr. B asked me to stay. He told me he was proud of me for finishing what I started. I asked, "Can I tell you something and it not hurt my grade?"  He said, "I think so."  Hmm, but I went on. I said, "I never finished the book, Mr. B. I read the first 1/2 and it bored me so much I just skimmed the rest. I didn't need 2 or 3 pages to tell me how they landed here 1 page would have been enough."

He laughed and said, "Okay. get to your next class"

When I got my grade I was thrilled he didn't deduct me for telling him that.

Instead, he wrote a note on my report that said, "Very good job and I appreciate you trying to get through this book for your class. You've made me not want to read this book. You did a good job" 

I always thought he was just nice to me. Later I wasn't so sure.

Fast forward to my late 20s and I was working my part-time summer job at a local race track.

I was working in the clubhouse as a para mutual. (giving out their tickets)

I loved this job. A good friend of mine, Craig, worked there in the summer as he was a teacher. It was fabulous money. I worked at an airline during the day and I made 3x the money working weekends and 1 or 2 evenings a week at the track. And it was fun, I loved the people and my good friend Craig and I had fun working together.

I'm working in the clubhouse one day and Mr. B walks up to my window. 

He asks what I'm doing there. I said, "it's a part-time job. how about you?"  

He laughed and made his bet. He won a lot of money many times and the last time he gave me $10 for a tip. I told him it wasn't necessary but he insisted (I made a boatload  of $$ in tips!) 

Then he shocked me as well as made me very uncomfortable when he said, "Well you're an adult now and I'm no longer your teacher, would you like to go out sometime?"  

Ooooh ick - It's Mr. B. 

Now I realize that when he was my teacher he wasn't that much older than me but this was gross to me. I thanked him and told him I was dating someone. (I was just divorced but he didn't know that)  Thankfully my nose didn't grow so he didn't know I was lying.

He backed off quickly and nicely thank God.  

Then after work when Craig and I went to have a couple of drinks I told him about Mr. B (Craig and I went to school together so he knew him) 

I asked Craig, do you think that is why he gave me good grades in 11th and 12th grade?  

Craig laughed and said doubtful but it's obvious he liked you. 

Again, oooh ick. 

I never saw Mr. B again but I heard he was arrested for some gambling thing on a boat in international waters.  Never heard the outcome though. Yesterday someone asked me about a book I had read in his class and it made this quirky memory come flooding back to me.

Now because my mom also loved movies, we went to the movies a great deal. Never with my dad though. I remember seeing Oliver with my cousin and my mom had to separate us because we were talking too much. But overall movies in the theater or at home were something my mom loved. She turned me on to Haley Mills.   Oh, how I loved Haley Mills. My favorite movie of hers was, The Trouble with Angels. I recall seeing it at the Warner Theatre in my hometown. At least I think that was it. It could have been the Strand. I just remember it was a pretty theatre and we got dressed up to go to the movies. I got candy and mom got popcorn and we watched The Trouble With Angels. It was one of Haley's first movies I think outside of a Disney Movie. I just thought Haley was da bomb. Her hair, her clothes. 

She was in all the teen magazines of that time and I read them all. 

So my love of Haley movies and all books have collided into a memoir of Haley Mills and I can't wait to read it.  I saw online in my news feed that it has just come out. I know I will read this. In the 60s I was very young so the fact that I remember all this floors me. I googled the movie The Trouble with Angels and I see it came out in 1966 so I was all of 9 or 10.  The sneaking of the cigarettes in that movie is something I really remember along with the coughing. 😀

I imagine all women of a certain age remember her movies 

I have to go to Costco tomorrow after work and I'd love it if that book was there. Haley is 75 now. She doesn't look all that different, lucky her. 

But if this book says horrible things that were done to her as a kid in Hollywood it is going to piss me off. I hope it is a positive book during those easier times. I hope her time here in the states wasn't awful or that she wasn't treated poorly.

I want it to be as wholesome as her movies. 

Yes, I can be very pollyanna.