Daytime TV Sucks. But Ridgemont High Stands The Test Of Time

I usually prefer to go do something during the day.  And if the weather's nice, I'll take the satellite radio out on my patio (my back yard is my favorite room in the house) and read.  Or even just watch the birds at the feeders.

But lately, we've had some problems.  Our washing machine has been haunted by gremlins, and the repair guys have now been here four times.  Hopefully they got it fixed.  And I need some work done on the house, so I called my friend, Ralph (R. Clegg Construction 801-550-8596  I've known him for 35 years and he's the best if you need a contractor) and I've had to be in the house where I can hear the doorbell to let people in.  I was bored, so I turned on the TV.

Daytime TV sucks.  Well, unless you like reruns of, COPS and shows about jails.  Then, you got something on all the time.  All the movie channels don't show good stuff, or new stuff during the day.  I even tried to watch GAC (CMT a long time ago fell off the table.  It's not a music channel any more, it's all reruns of shitty shows the company that owns them already paid for) and I don't LIKE MAINSTREAM country music.  But the girls are usually pretty and your attention span only has to last three minutes.  Then you can go get some more iced tea. 

It was so awful after a couple of songs, I couldn't take it.  The formula seems to be, put in a pretty girl, talk about a pickup truck, mention Jesus SOMEHOW, and show an American flag, and the lyrics be damned.  Some idiot will buy it.

As Todd Snyder said, "As long as there's a moron market, and a faggot in a hat to sign..."  I apologize for using, "faggot".  But that's what he wrote, and I want to be accurate.

I prefer Jackson Taylor's take on it in his, Country Song.  The first line is, "This ain't no country song, about your fucking pickup truck, or your grandpappy's farm..."  I will be eternally grateful for Laurie Dyson for turning me on to this guys music.

But I digress.

I finally gave up and was going to go read a book and listen to the satellite radio, which takes a little patience to make work in the house.  When I stumbled on an old movie.  I can't remember the last time I watched, Fast Times At Ridgemont High.  But I still remember some of the lines like it was yesterday.  "Learnin' about Cuba, havein' some food".  "Danger is my business".  "My dad is a TV repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools.  We can fix it!" 

I have come to the conclusion that you don't have to be in your early 20's, sitting in the theater with your drunken friends, on a Friday night in 1982, for this movie to be funny.

My son was walking back and forth behind the couch, trying to put his work uniform together between the parts in his room, and the parts in the laundry room, and I would hear him stop so he could watch for a minute, and laugh at something.

Him:  "What is this?"

Me:  "An old movie called, Fast Times At Ridgemont High"

"Did you record this?"

"No."

So, I'm pretty sure he's going to be looking for this.  And when he watches it, he's going to have some questions.  He won't understand the, "Mall Culture".  When he and his friends go to the mall, it's not to hang out, it's to actually buy stuff.  He won't know what a video arcade is.  He's going to wonder why no one has a cell phone, or computer and he won't understand the concept of a pay phone.  I'm going to have to explain Demone's ticket scalping to him.  You want tickets?  You buy them on line.  And when, Stacie takes, Rat into her room after their first date to look at pictures in a photo album?  That will not compute.  You keep pictures on your PHONE!

This will be as foreign a concept to him as black and white TV.

I hope he will sit down and watch it with me.  After seeing it again, I'd watch it one more time just to explain what it was like in, "Dark Ages" before computers, email, cell phones, and video games that actually came home with you and didn't take all your quarters.

And Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh were awesome.  THAT is what beautiful looked like in 1982.

It was a nice trip down memory lane.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll wait for Ralph while watching a DVD of, Dazed And Confused.