It's 31 days of Oscar this month on TCM and I'm in heaven!
I love old classic movies and what I feel and learn when I watch them.
What I also love is that I still havn't seen a lot of these old, great movies, and every time I'm introduced to a new old movie I'm completely blown away.
It reminds me of this dream I have every once in awhile about our old house. It was a tiny two bedroom, late Pioneer era house by the Capitol that we loved. Because of the "historic" nature of the little house our plans for additions were repeatedly refused by the city. They don't like the idea of making anything "bigger" over on Wall Street.
We even played with the idea of converting the attic to a sort of small community bedroom for all the girls, but it just felt like a real challenge to try to undergo construction w/ all our little kids, and that didn't solve the one bathroom, tiny kitchen problem. Our family had exploded from three when we bought the house to seven in just a few short years we were quite busting at the seams, and resigned ourselves to the fact that we had to look for a larger house. Over the years we remember our old little house fondly and wonder what our lives would be like if we had stayed there and tried to make it work. I think that it the basis for the dream I have, which is this; I dream that we are in that house, or that we have a chance to go back to it, or like it's a very lucky circumstance that somehow we "remember" we have this house we can go live in. In my dream we are there, very happily unpacking or reaquainting ourselves with the rooms and sweet charm of the place, when all of a sudden we realize there is a hidden door leading to other rooms, a whole lot of new space we just didn't realize we had before. All our problems are solved and we find there is plenty of very delighful space.
The idea is like "Wow, I didn't know that room was here!" or "How could we not have noticed this room before?" It's like discovering you've really always had something...you couldn't quite appreciate or "see" before....like Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ.
I have this dream pretty often these days, I guess especially now that we have all these kids who are becoming teenagers, complaining about sharing rooms and having to navigate around each other in our current house that sometimes feels just too darn small. It's funny how huge four bedrooms, two bathrooms and an unfinished basement felt ten years ago, when we were used to our tiny Pioneer Cottage.
Anyway, that's how finding an old movie feels to me. I can't believe I have lived all these years w/ out ever seeing The Inn of the Sixth Happiness with Ingrid Bergman! I saw it for the first time on Saturday and now I think It must be my new favorite movie! Maybe it was significant because there seemed to be some very definite messages in it for me at this time in my life. I doubt I would have appreciated those messages before. I'm also in love with The Best Days of our Lives, Pygmalian, Captains Courageous and about a million others. There are a few weeks left of 31 days of Oscar, so I'm excited about what other "old movie rooms" will be added to the little cottage in my brain.
