Zuzu's Petals

I'm not old enough to remember the invention of television. TV was always there, although in my early years only in black and white. There were four channels to watch: 4, 5, 7, and 9. There was a TV Guide published once a week in the newspaper so you knew what programs and movies would be on the air. And around 11:00 or 12:00pm, the TV stations would shut down for the night. There was also channel 11 from Baltimore, but reception in our area was so bad that it was usually unwatchable. There was no UHF, no VHS (or Betamax), no DVD players, no cable, no satellite dishes, no Blockbuster, no Redbox, no Netflix, no Youtube, and no Roku.

Watching TV together was a highlight of family life back in the day. Epic movies were broadcast once a year - and if you didn't pay attention to the TV Guide, you missed out. Every year we would sit together and watch Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, and The Wizard of OZ. One of my favorites was It's A Wonderful Life starring James (Jimmy) Stewart and Donna Reed.

Last night, we ate Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches with my parents, then watched It's A Wonderful Life on TV. It was a VHS tape in black and white, and it brought back fond memories of a simpler and better time in America. It's funny, I've seen this movie dozens of times, but each time I watch it I see something new. This year I noticed something about Jimmy Stewart's "falling down" moment - when he's smashing up things in his house. It looks like he's kicking over a model of a suspension bridge he'd built, symbolically shattering the last remnants of his dreams. The other thing was a comment from the maid. When she was donating money to save the Bailey Brothers' Building and Loan, she said she'd been saving the money to get a divorce in case she ever found a man and got married.

Some people say the movie is too corny, but I'd encourage you to suspend your disbelief and watch it in the context of the time it was filmed. There are some valuable lessons to glean from the characters, and some cool trivia too. It really is a wonderful life!