At The Dietrich

by
Hildy Morgan

     So, I’ll be sorry to see it go.  But then again, it’s got a ways to go yet.  July and August are the heart of summer and it usually remains warm in September even as the grass crackles underfoot.  These were lazy days, when we were children.  Lazy and time-on-our-hands wonderful.

     Before my mother had to go to work when I was twelve, these days meant playing with my cousin from Queens, reading book after book, swimming most days (but having to wait for half an hour after we ate) helping Mama with the wash and daydreaming.  Specialty in daydreaming.  My favorite dream being that I would grow up to be Jo March.  I must have read Little Women a hundred times, wept each time Beth died (the needle became to heavy for her delicate hand) and cheered at the end when Jo was published and was going to marry her professor. 

     The summer was lovely, the dreams most satisfactory.

     I worry some about the children today – their time taken up so much with things outside themselves.  Video games, cell phones, facebook, television, music videos, organized sports, stuff, stuff, stuff.  And I wonder how they can  develop a rich inner life if they never get a chance to dream -- - alone, unfettered by electronics or  sportsmates or music screaming in their ears.  Do they ever get a chance to just lie under a mighty maple and watch the clouds go by and wonder what the universe is all about?  Do they ever get the chance to watch the leaves play hide and seek with the sun and not feel guilty about it? 

     I suppose they’re all going to be just fine.  They’re young and smart and know so much more than we ever did at their age.  But I wonder if they know how to spend time with themselves, all alone, with just their dreams and their hopes and their ideas.  Because of all the things they need to learn to have a happy life, being able to enjoy your own company is one of the most important.

     And now, for a quick change of topic, we will be getting Magic Mike on July 13^th.  Warner Brothers simply wouldn’t give it to us before.  Don’t even ask me why because I have no idea.  One of the mysteries of the universe, like why salmon swim upstream instead of the reverse which would be so much more logical.

     This week we have the incredible Spiderman and then we have the religious film  For Greater Glory, a pro-Catholic film about an attempt by the Mexican government to make the church pay taxes on its’ giant land holdings and the war that started.  (Remember, folks, we don’t make ‘em, we just show ‘em.)  It has a devoted following and we will show it for one week only (it’s all we could get it for.)

     Finally, on the fourth of July my father would go outside in the early rays of morning and put up the American flag.  “There she is,”  he’d say,  “Old Glory.  She’s a fine flag, babe, and don’t you forget it!”  And I’m here to say to my Poppa who has crossed over but remains with me all the same,  “I haven’t forgotten, Pop – not the flag and not you.”

Happy Fourth of July, happy summer, happy memories.

     See you at the Dietrich.