We're Surrounded - That Simplifies Our Problem

Of the three big summer holidays, I definitely like Memorial Day the most, grave visitation aside. I've never been one of those who likes going to the lake and spending three days of fun in the sun. I've always figured Richard Linklater included my favorite scene in Slacker just for me. A couple wake up one weekend and she announces, "It's a nice day. We should go to the lake." The guy says, "I hate going to the lake! You don't just go to the lake. You have to prepare for it!" Then he goes on this diatribe about how much stuff you have to take - ice chest, ice, beer, food, towels, suntan lotion, insect spray, etc. "Let's just stay here and read the paper," he finally says. Well, that's me. And on Memorial Day, I like to settle in and watch the war movie marathons running on a half dozen channels, salted with a baseball triple header and the Indy 500. And this year is going to be sweet because the rest of the house is going to the YHWH Family Compound. For. A. Week.

But the movies started to-nite and the Super Giant Killer begged to get to stay up to watch Sands of Iwo Jima starring John Wayne as Sgt. Stryker. It was really fun. She kept asking what all the equipment was and why they did this and that. She asked why the Marines didn't strap their helmets on, but I thought it might be too gruesome to tell her that if the concussions from artillery shells blew their helmets off they would take their heads off with them. About half way through she asks me if it's ok to like war. I asked her how does she mean "like war" and she said, "well, it's just so fascinating. I don't mean I like that people get killed, but I just love learning about it." I wasn't really sure what to say since I basically feel the same way. So I just said, "Let me tell you about a great movie called A History of Violence. It has this revolutionary new theory..." It amazes me how she 'gets it' though. The other day she was reading her D-Day book and she said I guess war is mostly about land and who gets to live on it. She said something similar tonight when the general was doing the obligatory large-map-and-pointer scene. And not seconds later, one of the characters says, "That's war - trading real estate for men." She got really keyed up when they raised the flag over Mount Suribachi just like the memorial she saw in Washington this Spring. Finally, she said, "Dad, I really love black-and-white movies. They are so way better than color!" I was kind of bummed she couldn't stay up to watch Sergeant York with me. She's going to be so cranky tomorrow I'll wish I was at the Russian Front.

It's kind of funny how my last post and this one converge because while I was watching Sands with her, I recalled how many war movies I watched with my dad. My dad always worked no fewer than two and sometimes four jobs at a time and when he was home, he was crashed in front of the TV watching football or buddy movies. So that's where I hung out to be with my dad. It was kind of a silent bond, but it provided a sense of continuity. My social and cultural education basically consisted of watching every war movie ever televised, every Clint Eastwood movie ever made (I can recite the entire list of charges read before Eli Wallach was hung in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly), and pretty much any movie made between 1955 and 1980 that include a gun from the props department. I saw more pimps with afros and thugs with acetone shirts and leisure suits than was probably good for a kid. And I loved every minute of it. I'm probably not going to watch all that with the Killer, but a few war movies won't hurt.

I have to post SGK's report card. I was so proud of her teacher's comments. She said the two things I most want to hear said about my child.