A few weeks ago when I saw the trailer saying that they were releasing the 3D version of James Cameron’s movie Titanic, I couldn’t really understand why. I mean I know that it was one of the biggest box office draws in the history of all film and cinema, but I never liked it.
At least I’ve never liked the first part of movie where the hero from steerage was able to wine and dine and romance with a passenger from First Class. I mean in real life in those days he’d have as much chance of that happening as I would have as a black man eating at the captain’s table every night, it wouldn’t happen. But then I realized it is the 100th anniversary of the tragedy and so of course Cameron and the movies studios are going to cash in….again. Can you say Ca-ching? But I can’t blame the director for trying and probably succeeding when there are people like me around.
I remember the year before Titanic came out originally; even I got caught up in the hype and went to Atlantic City where the man who had recently discovered the wreck was appearing at the convention center and exhibiting artifacts from the ship. He was raising money for the preservation of wreckage site and the materials that he had brought up. I bought a piece of coal from him that was brought up from one of the bunkers of the ship for $10. When I think about it, it probably cost the White Star Line, the owners of the Titanic, about $10 a ton for coal back then, but what are you going to do, that what as all I could afford. I saw it on QVC a few years later being sold for $25 a piece, I wonder what I could get for it now? 1912 must have been a hell of a year, the sinking of the Titanic and the death of Robert Falcon Scott or Scott of the Antarctic as I grew up knowing him as.
You must be wondering by now what any of this has to do with the video above; absolutely damn nothing other than...
In the movie South Pacific, this song is usually the furthest part of the film that I can get to without tearing up and changing the channel. You see the woman singing reminds me of my paternal grandmother, except my grandmother was a little lighter skinned with even more Chinese shaped eyes. It seems her mother was a working girl in the classic sense of the title and Mr. Chin was a client of hers, if Chin was even his real name. But Granny had the same height and shape and moved like this woman. She even wore the same hair style all the years that I knew her. I doubt that she ever sang like this woman but it’s been over 30 years since I’ve seen her. I’ve lost or worn out of everything that she ever gave to me and all I have now beyond the memories is the realization that the year that my little piece of coal went down with the Titanic was same year that she was born.
So all this just to say Happy Birthday Granny Muriel! One hundred years.
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| Coal from the Titanic |
I enjoyed reading this. Here's to Grannies!
ReplyDeleteHear! Hear!
DeleteIn some ways you're very lucky & Blessed to know such vital things as your grandmother's natal day. Although I too carry a treasure trove of fond memories which will last me a lifetime, I have no tangible things, no articles or artifacts, no photographs & certainly no knowledge of her actual factual DOB. Though after birthing 12 children, including my father, some of whom are now in their 80s, & passing in the late 1970s, she no doubt would have already had her 100th-year-on-earth anniversary.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I ponder whether or not I'd want to live to see 100. I mean, if we still enjoyed a decent quality of life, would it be worth it... if all our friends & loved ones are dead & gone?
One.
I don't know if it's luck or blessed to know certain things about my family. I just know that it was important for my father since he was one of seventeen to know about his base, where he started from, and so it's important to me by default.
DeleteThe last thing that I still had from my grandmother was a mug that she gave me when I was 4 or 5 when she took me to the beach. That broke and shattered about 15 years ago and I thought I had lost everything. But I soon realized that things only remind you of other things and that if you already have memories of your own then those things are just secondary to everything else.
As far as the 100 year old thing goes, 40 years ago getting to a 100 was a rarity worth honorable mention on the Today Show. Now getting to 100 happens to so many people it doesn't even lift an eyebrow in some circles. I wonder what you will be feeling 40, 50, 60 years from now as your 100th birthday approaches and you and your friends and family are still bungee jumping just for fun.
Moaner,
ReplyDeleteAs Ian already knows, I have a 105 year old grandma who still lives by herself and can drive her car if she has too. She's sharp as a tack, but yes, she's depressed because she's outlived all her friends and a lot of her family.
Also, she never saw the movie Titanic because in her words, "I remember when it happened. I'm pretty sure I already know how the movie ends."
Really loved this story. I love the wisdom of our grandparents, and the things they say that isn't meant to be funny but it is! Like you grandma saying she knows how the movie ends! Love it!
ReplyDeleteDaji, I know most of your comment isn't for me, but I'll take the first part of it and say that I'm glad that you liked the piece.
DeleteThanks for sharing the story of your grandmother and the clip from "South Pacific". Although I've never seen this movie, I want to now. As for "Titanic", it's one of those movies that I will likely never see. I've held out this long, I might as well go the whole route.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm, actually I've never seen South Pacific either. I know it has something to do with racism but I only get to a certain point and no further and I have no idea how it ends. However, if you haven't seen Titanic then don't worry about it. I think you'd be much better off watching A Night To Remember, a movie made in the 50's centered around the ship's second officer Lightoller's plight with much less of the secondary stories of the glitz, glamor and false intrigue.
DeleteThanks for the story. Titanic however wore my nerves out!!! Really people. Happy Birthday Grannie. Thank you for sharing your grandmother's story.
ReplyDelete♫Musique♫, you should have your nerves worn out by Titanic or any other telling of the disaster. Although I don't think my nerves were frazzled when I first saw any of the versions of the event. In fact it wasn't until the destruction of the World Trade Center that I realized what the story was really about, the idea that it's foolish to think that anything mankind can make or do can never be undone by nature or events or by God if you will.
DeleteThank you for sharing this story, I do enjoy of hearing of other's family history(genealogy). The Titanic has some interesting history behind it to say the least.
ReplyDeleteChet Thank you, I've always believed that everyone has at least one good story in them and it's usually the story of their own lives. Most lives are affected by the lives of those who surround them and by those that came before them. I never met my great-grandmother and I knew my grandmother for just a short time but I like to think that there is at least a small part of them that still lives in me and if I have to reach back to a cold night in 1912 to link back to them, then I will. Plus it's a lot easier to tell their story than the tale of my murdered great-grandfather on my mother's side during the building of the Panama Canal.
DeleteSending Birthday wishes to Granny Muriel as well!!
ReplyDeleteCheers!!!
Interesting post. I actually enjoyed Titantic, I thought it was rather interesting.
ReplyDeleteWhen my wife and I moved to South Carolina a few years back, I moved from Maplewood, New Jersey. I've never heard of Lawnside, where is that?
You should see A Night To Remember, it's a much better film with much less Peyton Place in it.
DeleteI used to live in South Orange so I know Lawnside is a world away from you knew. It's in South Jersey, Camden county between Cherry Hill, Somerdale and Magnolia, or 10 miles southeast of Philly if that works for you.
Ahhh yes, South Orange. I used to walk from Maplewood, to South Orange and back again in the evenings for exercise.
DeleteGood stuff going on in South Orange.
Just stop by again to check on you. Looking forward to your next post. Hope all is well.
ReplyDeleteThis is me just being lazy.
ReplyDeleteC'mon brother, I think it's time for a fresh post.
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