No. 56: Watch Forrest Gump

No. 56: Watch Forrest Gump

Run, Forrest, run.

Now I get it.

While I was in Colorado last week (original posts here and here) I watched Forrest Gump.  This movie came out in 1994 which explains why I never saw it. I was too busy having babies and trying to corral them.

This is a movie everyone references.

This is a movie that everyone says "You must watch."

I just never had. So I grabbed a copy off the $8.00 shelf at Target and took it with me to Colorado.

While my girls were cruising F Street in town on Saturday night, I plopped on the sofa to watch.

F Street in the daylight. More fun at night, apparently.

But not without a little trepidation. It is hard to watch something that has such a high reputation. What if I didn't like it?  And.  And.  And my girls said as they sashayed out the door  "O! That's a great movie. It's so sad."

WHAT?  Sad?? No one ever mentioned sad before. I don't want to watch "sad".

But I persevered.

And O! I am so glad I did.

I won't rehash the movie as I am the only one who has never seen it. Or WAS the only one.

But I will say for someone in my age range it is a trip down memory lane.

I saw John F. Kennedy two days before he was shot in Dallas. We lived in San Antonio and my parents sprung me and my brothers from school to see the Presidential motorcade. Two days later he was dead. Even though I was only 7, the image of the older kids crying as we walked home from school on that Friday sticks with me.

San Antonio  Nov. 21, 1963

My oldest brother had a low draft number. He joined the reserves. My other brother was luckier. His number was high. No Viet Nam vets at our house.

The segregation aspect was largely under my radar as a kid. I do remember traveling from Houston to San Antonio and seeing signs "Colored in back". I did wonder why all the black people had to eat in the screened in area in back of the road side diner while we got to sit in the Air Conditioning.

Revisionist history? 

Almost impossible to find a photo of these signs although they were EVERYWHERE in the South. 
If we don't have photos does that mean it didn't happen?

Watergate was definitely on my radar, though.  It was the topic of conversation at Robert E. Lee High School. It was the topic of conversation at dinner. It was THE topic of conversation. One dear family member who shall remain nameless swore Richard Nixon did nothing wrong. 

Richard Milhous Nixon

And AIDS.  O, AIDS.  I could do without AIDS.  I worked at a lovely restaurant in the late 70s, early 80s. It was a very new restaurant on the banks of Buffalo Bayou in Houston. The owner at the time and most of the staff were gay men.  One of my very, very favorite waiters was one of the first people to die in Houston with AIDS. No one knew what it was. And then everyone did.

I then went on to work in the travel industry. My bosses were two of the loveliest gay men you could ever meet. They held wonderful parties with the best food and plenty to drink and many, many friends. And then there weren't so many friends. And then there were only the straight friends. And then they were gone.

 Boss Bob

Boss David

And it was very,very sad.

So thank you, Forrest Gump, for taking me on a trip down memory lane. And yes, even though it was sad, it was a GREAT movie.




And thank you Chris for mentioning on FB that Forrest Gump was on and: "then did the kiss of death for doing something later, turned on best movie ever- Forrest Gump".  Aha! No. 56 was born.