old-fashioned entertainment Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Settling In at the Drive-In – Photo: L. Weikel

Sideways

Today was a day. It started with a flat tire and progressed (regressed?) from there. We all have them, though. Those days when we wake up and feel a vague sense of anticipation – only to have everything go sideways in completely unexpected ways.

The stress only escalated when the ‘donut-spare’ was discovered to be flat as well. We seemed to be in the midst of a comedy of errors. Murphy’s Law seemed to be the operating principle for several hours. Eventually, though (after morning turned into lunchtime and then progressed into a hot and sticky afternoon before we accomplished a darn thing), we discovered that the flat was caused by a nail, thus rendering it easily reparable. Yes! I’ll take it! And call it a small, if significant, win.

Things Got Better

But you know what? We managed to salvage the day and retrieve our attitudes from the mulch pile where they’d been stuffed earlier. Saving the day was accomplished by indulging in the relaxing and nostalgic fun of going to a drive-in movie again. You might recall our foray into this ‘old-timey’ manner of enjoying the summer while in the safe (both outdoor and distanced) company of other people last year.

Re-reading that post and looking at the photos of the animation that danced across the big screen during the intermission between the main feature and the second movie of the evening makes me laugh all over again. I love that the Shankweiler’s Drive-In keeps those dated animated spots.

Honestly, it’s amazing to see how much more risqué and sarcastic a lot of early tv and movie entertainment used to be. Old-fashioned humor is often much more subtle than we’re used to now. In a lot of ways, in spite of the much more overt sexuality, violence, and profanity we see nowadays, sarcasm and naughtiness was every bit as present 50-60 years ago. Viewers just had to work a little harder to ‘get’ it. Or maybe it’s that we don’t expect it to be as odd as it actually was.

It was quite the dance… – Photo: L.Weikel

Grateful

I’m just grateful we were able to salvage the day.

In case you’re wondering, we saw Black Widow. I thought it was good; mostly I enjoyed the dialogue and personalities of some of the characters. I have to admit, though, I find seemingly non-stop ten minute long relentless footage of car chases or shoot-outs or aerial assaults extremely tedious and boring. Just because the special effects are available doesn’t mean we have to be relentlessly bludgeoned over the head with them. Then again, it is a Marvel movie, so it was in character.

The second movie was Cruella. I admittedly had pretty low expectations for it, to be honest. And given our experience with the second movie of the evening last year, we’d made a pact that if it really stank we’d leave early. Given all those doubts, it was pretty good. It had more recognizable faces in it than I was expecting and it gave an interesting backstory to the villain of 101 Dalmations.

All in all, the day turned out tremendously better than it started. Thanks, Tiffany, for the great suggestion!

“The Oldest Drive-In in America” – Photo: L. Weikel

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Not fireworks, but… – Photo: L. Weikel

Fireworks Bust

Man, I was so bummed out this evening. Karl and I were really looking forward to attending the Riverside Symphonia’s annual Concert Under the Stars at Tinicum Park tonight.

We’ve attended many of these old-fashioned, spread-your-blanket-out-on-the-grass, break out the picnic food, and listen to the music 4^thof July celebrations. They truly are nostalgic of celebrations you might read about from the 19^thcentury, with parasols and picnic baskets, and ladies with big hats fluttering hand-held fans.

The musicians of the Symphonia never disappoint. They always get my toes tapping, even if I’m immersed in reading a book or simply entranced by the vast opportunity to “people-watch” the hundreds who’ve come from all around to spend an evening indulging in simple pleasures. I know they’re from all around because there are usually license plates from at least six, seven, eight different states on the cars parked in row after row on the fields of dark green grass.

Old Friends From Another Time

It’s pretty much inevitable that I’ll run into old friends of one stripe or another. Some of us used to see each other on a regular basis when our kids went to school together – many for 12 straight years. Now, well…unless we make a concerted effort, we’ve fallen away and rarely connect.

So many faces we see are evidence of another phase of our life: friends with whom we spent some of the most amazing (and sometimes stressful) years of our lives, all wrapped up in the unnerving business of raising kids we all hoped would grow up to be unique, inspired, and essentially happy with themselves and their choices in life.

But alas, thunderstorms and whipping winds ripped through the area in the late afternoon, drenching us yet again. In all honesty, we toyed with braving the wet blankets and soaked shoes but when we checked the weather again, there was too high a probability for more storms.

Storms Wrecked It For Us

The best part of this annual event is the fireworks display. With the backdrop of the cliffs (palisades) along the river valley, they never fail to be spectacular.

I was so hoping to have them be part of our anniversary celebration this weekend. (It’s unusual for the Concert Under the Stars to be in June.) And to be clear: the concert was to go on “rain or shine.” So they probably still had the event. We were the fuddy-duddies.

Here’s hoping that next year we don’t get rained out. If you’ve never been, mark it on your calendar. It’s worth making a point to attend.

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