Date Night

I watched Bonnie and Clyde last night for what must be the hundredth time. It obviously is one of my all time favorite movies. Oh sure, the story is good, the cast is good, it's all good, but what I really loved were the cars. Some people love the sound of a Harley motorcycle, some like the roar of a Chrysler hemi. I like the sound of a model A Ford moving down the road, like a popcorn machine on wheels. Back in the 1960s I went to see a lot of movies and fell in love with them. When my sister Peggy started to drive, she would take me along when she and her girlfriends would go to the movies. It was great fun because they always saw the movies that the Catholic Church condemned. I saw Alfie, The Cardinal, and To Sir With Love. Oh, and I saw The Sandpebbles with Steve McQueen.... dreamy Steve McQueen...   

Anyway, when I started to drive I got a girlfriend and I went to the movies with her. Usually we would double date with my friend Dave and his girlfriend. Again, we saw quality movies, not stupid action crap or horror movies. I still remember sitting in the Evergreen Theater watching The Graduate. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I still watch that movie every time it's on television.

Going to the movies with a girlfriend worked out okay. I could get totally immersed in the film because I truly had no interest in the girl I was dating. The only problem with this whole double dating thing was that after the movie, Dave, his girlfriend, and my girlfriend, wanted to go to a forest preserve and "Park". For anywhere from half an hour to an hour I had to make out with my girlfriend while Dave and his girlfriend made out in the back seat. Tongues flailing, fingers wandering, clumsy attempts at bra loosening, and then there was me and my girlfriend. I never got past sticking my tongue in her mouth while we kissed. She even took my hand and put it on her bra once. I panicked, "Oh look at the time. We've got to go. Dad wants the car back by midnight." That was the price I paid to go to the movies, making out with a girl. Thank god for the 1970s. That's when I started to go to the movies with other guys. I vividly remember going to see, The Last Picture Show. I really loved that movie. Besides that, a very horny lawyer named Darryl had taken me to see it, and the after movie antics were much more satisfying than going to the forest preserve with my girlfriend.