High school, movies, and memory
Sat, Apr. 4th, 2009 08:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scarlettinaI didn't go to my senior prom. Mostly, it was because no one asked me. My then-"boyfriend" was far more interested in having pictures of himself taken with a busty blond ballerina than chubby me, so he broke up with me just long enough to take her to his prom (he attended a different high school). I don't remember what I did that night. It almost doesn't matter. I'd had my prom night two years before.
When I was a sophomore in high school, most of my friends were seniors. They were a wonderful group, very protective of me and trusted by my mom. I'm still occasionally in touch with one of them. Anyway, they all decided that, rather than going to their prom, they were going to go to Adventureland, a dinky little amusement park on Long Island to which my folks occasionally took me and my brother when we were kids. Since my circle of friends was going that night, I was on the trip, too.
We rode the roller coaster, the carousel, and the Tilt-a-Whirl (my favorite). We played games on the midway. I still have the humongous Pespi-Cola glass that my friend Tom won for me, without a chip or scratch on it. I still remember the lights strung along the tops of the game booths and the music of the carousel. It was one of Those Nights, touched by some ineffable magic, the kind of night you look back on and think about, knowing that nothing quite like that will ever happen again. There were some wonderful moments later on in the evening that I'll probably write about at some point.
My point for the now is that Adventureland has become almost mythic in my memory--not mythic like the Oracle of Delphi, but rather personally mythic, a place of "perfect joy" whether I was there with family or friends, somewhere outside of time that will remain as it was in those days, the late 1970s, pure and fun and cheesily lovely. I never went back again after that one perfect night.
I've been hearing, lately, about a new movie called "Adventureland." Turns out that the film is based on this icon of my childhood and teenage years. It's been well-reviewed by The New York Times. And I find myself wanting to see it. Wanting to see it as soon as possible. I don't expect it to bear much resemblance to my memories or evoke the emotions I harbor about that brief period of my life in any way. But I'm curious to see someone else's interpretation of that time and place (actually, the film is set a few years later than my time), curious to see if it was actually filmed on site, and to see what sort of story has been laid over this place that provided the setting for such an emotionally key moment for me.
Anyone wanna go to the movies tonight? The film is playing at the Metro Cinemas. I'm thinking the 7:20 PM show.
When I was a sophomore in high school, most of my friends were seniors. They were a wonderful group, very protective of me and trusted by my mom. I'm still occasionally in touch with one of them. Anyway, they all decided that, rather than going to their prom, they were going to go to Adventureland, a dinky little amusement park on Long Island to which my folks occasionally took me and my brother when we were kids. Since my circle of friends was going that night, I was on the trip, too.
We rode the roller coaster, the carousel, and the Tilt-a-Whirl (my favorite). We played games on the midway. I still have the humongous Pespi-Cola glass that my friend Tom won for me, without a chip or scratch on it. I still remember the lights strung along the tops of the game booths and the music of the carousel. It was one of Those Nights, touched by some ineffable magic, the kind of night you look back on and think about, knowing that nothing quite like that will ever happen again. There were some wonderful moments later on in the evening that I'll probably write about at some point.
My point for the now is that Adventureland has become almost mythic in my memory--not mythic like the Oracle of Delphi, but rather personally mythic, a place of "perfect joy" whether I was there with family or friends, somewhere outside of time that will remain as it was in those days, the late 1970s, pure and fun and cheesily lovely. I never went back again after that one perfect night.
I've been hearing, lately, about a new movie called "Adventureland." Turns out that the film is based on this icon of my childhood and teenage years. It's been well-reviewed by The New York Times. And I find myself wanting to see it. Wanting to see it as soon as possible. I don't expect it to bear much resemblance to my memories or evoke the emotions I harbor about that brief period of my life in any way. But I'm curious to see someone else's interpretation of that time and place (actually, the film is set a few years later than my time), curious to see if it was actually filmed on site, and to see what sort of story has been laid over this place that provided the setting for such an emotionally key moment for me.
Anyone wanna go to the movies tonight? The film is playing at the Metro Cinemas. I'm thinking the 7:20 PM show.
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Date: Sat, Apr. 4th, 2009 04:01 pm (UTC)Hey, I went to the senior prom with the boy who had just broken up with me a week before. NO RLY. I was like, "But you're still going with me to the PROM, right?" So he did. And then I spent the entire night being flirty with another male friend of mine. Oh, high school.
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Date: Sat, Apr. 4th, 2009 04:59 pm (UTC)Anyway, we might be down for seeing the movie with you tonight. We'll keep you posted.
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Date: Sat, Apr. 4th, 2009 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Sat, Apr. 4th, 2009 06:06 pm (UTC)Do you remember Nunley's?
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Date: Sat, Apr. 4th, 2009 08:58 pm (UTC)They were strange, magical places. The trailer looks great.
Just follow the yellow arrows
Date: Tue, Jun. 9th, 2009 04:19 am (UTC)David and I went to Kennywood in '98. On the big roller coaster, which has a great first drop because the park's on a bluff, he was a bit freaked out but I was fine, not the usual way of things. On some level, I think I was still sitting next to my Dad on that coaster, and knew that nothing could be wrong with the world.