Everyone younger than 30 will have to imagine what it was like to wait patiently for one of the three major networks or maybe a UHF independent channel (which always had fuzzy reception) to show a favorite movie. In fact, you weren't really waiting on it. It was all serendipity....a happy surprise....when a movie you really love came on TV. So, I distinctly remember happily stumbling onto Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen. It was wonderful! "Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow!" being sang in what my dad called "modern harmony" while the quartet sat at a booth in the dining car of a fast-moving passenger train. I think it was that movie (and maybe "Holdiay Inn" and "Christmas in Connecticut") which made a New England Christmas seem so idyllic. Years later, when we went to the Christmas tree farm to cut down a tree in Portsmouth, RI, it was with that in view.
I remember when my sister and I talked our Dad into buying "White Christmas" on VHS when it first came out. Then you could always count on TBS to broadcast it. For years, my girls and I watched a taped copy with all the Atlanta local mid-80's commercials. Now we have a DVD which includes a commentary by Rosemary Clooney!
Even though I know that Christmas (even in New England) isn't that blissful; even though I know that Rosemary Clooney later had emotional problems and that Vera Ellen was anorexic; even though, as I mentioned earlier, I've never really experienced a White Christmas; even though (and perhaps in spite of) the anxiety I feel about this war in Iraq; I still love to watch Phil dance with Judy ("The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing") and Betty wistfully sing "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me" (how 'bout those turtlenecked male dancers!); I still get misty when General Waverly is saluted as he walks into the theater in uniform; and most of all, I love to hear Bob tell Betty to "count Your blessings instead of sheep".
For a person like me, who is troubled by many things I see and hear, it is nice to allow myself to get sentimental at least once a year.
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