Finally Friday

Date:                                 Friday, August 27th, 2010
Word of the Day:               orthoepy; the study of correct pronunciation
Weigth:                              227 pounds
Goal:                                 lose 100 pounds in one year duration
Pounds to lose:                  95 pounds
Waist size:                         56.5 inches
Rowing Duration:              105 minutes, 49 seconds, 91 minutes, 51 seconds


It looks like I'm back on track with Cruella, one hour and forty-five minutes,for the first session,  and an hour and a half for the second session.  I'm so happy, well, at least that makes up (partially) for my skipping my second rowing session yesterday, but, I think I was wise to skip it since my back was sore, I don't want to get a back injury, I've suffered with a bad back before.

I'm so glad it's Friday, I have been in such a slump this week, I was about to ask you to give me some input, that's how bad my slump was, but, I'm feeling better, thank you for sticking with me.

I appreciate receiving all of the jokes and smiles that you send me, it helps, and I like to forward them onto most of you via email.

I also want to try and remember to post my blog on Facebook; I'm told that that is another way of building a readership

This morning, I taped the movies 'You can count on me' starring Miss Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, this is an excellent film, slow moving but worth the effort to see it, so do try to watch it sometimne, and on the same disc, I recorded the movie 'An Affair to Remember' starring the fabulous Deborah Kerr,  and Mr. Cary Grant.   This movie is considered a chick-movie, but, I love it, I get so caught up with it,  and the tears just come streaming from my eyes.  I watch this movie privately because I don't like Zac to see me bawling my eyes out, he always says "Yet again?" "What the heck do you watch it for, if it makes you so unhappy?" obviously Zac does just not get it, but he's still a good guy.

Speaking of movies, today I'm going to write to you about my 'Summer of '42'  experience.  Please bear with me because there is quite alot that I have to say. 

'Summer of '42  is the story of a young man growing up who develops a crush on an older war bride named Dorothy.  It is somewhat of a true story, by the author,  Herman Raucher, who named the young protagonist, Hermie, after him.

  The movie was first only a screenplay, but, after the movied gained so much popularity, Mr. Raucher was urged to turn his screenplay into a book, which he did, and that became a bestseller.  Anyway, when the movie first opened in Toronto at the Towne Cinema, it was a restricted film,  I was only 14 years old, so I could not see it.  I heard about it plenty though, from my grade ten typing teacher, Mrs. Elizabeth Nichol,.

I had Mrs. Nichol for two classes,  and the first thing she ever said to me, was to sit up straight, keep my fingers on the home row, no talking, don't look at the keyboard, keep your eyes on the text, and I thought to myself, I'll never survive this class, never mind, that I was also expected in her class to learn the finer techniques of writing.

Oh my good sacred foot, was all I could say of Mrs. Nichol,  and I thought to myself that it was going to be a long, long year.  But an extraordinary thing happened, one day, I asked Mrs. Nichol if she had been to see some  movie, and from that day on, we got along fabulously, always talking about movies and never doing any work!  

Mrs. Nichol loved the movies as much as I did and we talked about them endlessly.  One day, when we were in my writing class, Mrs. Nichol asked me if I had seen the film 'Summer of '42,' to which I answered no, I wasn't able to see it as it was a restricted movie.  Well, Mrs. Nichol went on and on about this movie, how funny and touching it was, how realistic, etc., it was clearly her favourite film of the year.

  I remember, Mrs. Nichol blushing when she told me about the part wherein Hermie pays a visit to the drug store to buy a safe.  I didn't know what a safe was so I asked my teacher to explain it to me, Mrs. Nichol blushed even more and said she couldn't tell me, it was a better idea for me just to see the movie.

Well, as luck would have it, over the winter, the movie was reclassified to an adult entertainment movie,  thus allowing me the opportunity to see it.  My girlfriend, Barbie, and I, went that Friday night, to see 'Summer of '42' at The Cinema which was a movie house located in the Toronto Dominion Building on the concourse level, now I believe it operates as a bank.  Other movies that I saw at the Cinema were:   Cabaret, The Turning Point, Ryan's Daughter, A Little Night Music, and the aforementioned 'Summer of '42,' which I saw about ten times.

Mrs. Nichol and I kept chatting about movies, I kept getting marks in the nineties, I really wasn't doing any work in either of her classes (typing and writing) , but we liked each other and Mrs. Nichol and I formed our very own mutal-admiration society.

At the end of the school year, and after I received first class honours in typing and Writing, Mrs. Nichol invited me and some girls from the class to go one day in the summer for a daytrip to her cottage.

I was picked up one early day in July,  promptly at eight o'clock in the am., the other invitees were already in the back seat, and we headed off for a drive to Mrs. Nichol's cottage, which took about an hour,  When we got to the cottage, we noticed that Mrs. Nichol's friend, another teacher named Mrs. Vaughn was there and had also brought up some students for the outing.  Everything was on the level and there was no impropriety.

It was an okay day and as I look back at it, I know I behaved badly as I was imagining all kinds of bad things about my teacher, and I wanted her not to like me, my imagination was running wild, as I was thinking of that movie, 'Summer of '42'

Of course nothing happened but unfortunately things seemed to change after that day and consequently I didn't stay in touch with Mrs. Nichol.    However, that summer, Warner Brothers  filmed the sequel to 'Summer of '42' called 'Class of '44'  in my hometown, Toronto.

 My best friend Andy, who was Barbie's brother, and I drove all over the city on our bicycles to find the location of where they were shooting the movie.  We did not have to look far as the movie was being shot around the University of Toronto,  which was just a hop, step and a jump away from where we both lived.

 I'll never forget seeing Gary Grimes, who played Hermie, for the first time.  Mr. Grimes was drinking a coffee and smoking a cigarette,  and appeared to be very friendly with all those around him.  Upon seeing us, Gary Grimes, approached Andy and I, and told us that we were late,  and that all "extras" were supposed to go to some room or other, I forget which one, to get costumed for our scene.  Naturally, we obliged finding the whole thing exciting, we were in the midst of an adventure.

After we were properly attired, I approached this young lady, who I thought was an extra,  and I introduced myself, and she did as well.  Her name was Deborah Winters,  and apparantly she had been in other movies.  She told me explicity about working with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in the movie 'Kotch' and then she described every detail of another film which she had been in and also starred Julie Harris.  I guess I was looking disinterested, as Ms. Winters brought the subject back to 'Summer of '42' and asked me what I thought of Gary Grimes' portrayl of Hermie.   I answered honestly,  and sarcastically,  that I thought Gary Grimes was just okay, even if he had been nominated for a Golden Globe award, but I thought I could had done it much better and then my conversation ended with Ms. Winters.

Well, Andy and I eventually were on the set, we were located in the hall of the library,  and when Gary Grimes would walk down the stairs and arrive at the bottom stair, Andy and I were supposed to walk on by.  Everything seemed to be going okay,  and after the director, well, I think it was him, called "Action,  Gary Grimes proceeded to walk down the stairs.   I went to walk on by him,  but Mr. Grimes stopped me and said

 "I think you're a stuck-up snob." and ":I think you owe me an apology!"

I was horror-stricken and didn't know what to say, fortunately, the director yelled CUT, and I didn't have to say anything.  And that was it, Mr. Gary Grimes walked away from me,  and Andy and I went back to the changeroom, got changed back to our regular clothes, and rather hurridly,  then we took off as we were rather scared at what had transpired.

The next day we went back to the scene of the crime, and this time, we kept our distance, while observing everything that was going on.  We found a piece of equipment which belonged to one of the cameras, and feeling disgruntled over the happenings of the day before, I wrote on the strap that Gary Grimes was a neanderthal as I thought that was truly an insult.  We soon got bored just watching and we decided to leave.

We went to visit another friend, Miss Carolina Burns,  and told her everything that had gone on in our lives from the day before to the present. 

Carolina wanted to be part of it and we said "no go," but we did know where the actors were living while they were in Toronto.  Gary Grimes and Jerry Houser were residing at an apartment/hotel called the Town Inn,  and Carolina phoned the apartment up and asked to speak to Jerry Houser, who was her favourtie actor of the movie.

As luck would have it, Mr. Houser was there and he even remembered seeing Andy and myself.  Actually, Mr. Houser wanted to talk to me, to which Cartolina declined after I firmly shook my head in the NO position.

Apparantly, the camera which we vandalized was discovered and they wanted to hold the people responsible.   I don't know how they knew it was us, but, evidently, they did.  I guess there really are eyes everywhere.  Carolina, behaved on cue and wonderfully on the telephone, by not giving out my telephone number after Jerry Houser requested it from her. 

We had a few more sightings again that summer as we had to take Carolina to the location wherein they were filiming, but we always were careful and kept a good distance away. 

I was never held responsible for the vandalizing as Andy and I were not legal "extras," and they had no way to know where we lived or where they could get in touch with us.

I always felt bad about what I had done and would like to have had the opportunity to apologize to Gary Grimes for behaving so childishly that summer, but the moment was forever gone,  and we never saw each other again

.  I kept tabs on the movie career of Gary Grimes, as well as following that of Miss Deborah Winters,  who I would have liked to have had a conversation with,  to tell her that I didn't appreciate her betraying me, but she was just being loyal to her co-star,  and it did provide me with a cute story that I would remember all of my life so I guessed things ended as they should.

  This day, I do not know what Gary Grimes is doing, he is clearly not making any more movies,  and Miss Winters sells real estate, I believe it is her own company, in Texas.

  I write in my blog every day,  where you get to read rather long and uninterestging stories,  such as the one that I just relayed, but that is how it goes, sometimes the truth isn't all that interesting , and I don't know why I wrote about it, but I did.  what did you think?

Topics coming soon:

Reincarnation
The night they raided Minskys
Food, Glorious Food