My Grandmother's Movie Choices Went Off the Rails!
4-minute read
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my love of Rocky. That newsletter led me to think about a lot of movies I enjoyed as a kid and the memories that go along with them: Convoy, Star Wars, Hooper, Grease, and many more. Some of my favorite movie memories from my childhood occurred with my grandmother.
My brother and I spent several summers with my grandmother in Chula Vista, California. We were living in Ohio at the time, which is where my dad was from. I loved Ohio (and still do), but those summers with Nana were always special. She was fun to be around and took us to a variety of places such as the college where she went to school, a flea market, and Knott's Berry Farm. On top of all those fun activities, Nana had a pool and HBO!
It’s hard to believe, but HBO has been around since the early seventies.
Every month HBO mailed a little guide to its subscribers which showed the various movies it had that month and when they would air. I loved reading that guide! I planned out my days and weeks (as much as a boy could do) around that guide. TV Guide was neat, but this was HBO!
I watched disco movies like Thank God It’s Friday, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Xanadu and loved them. I watched crime fiction movies like The Deep, Coma, and Good Guys Wear Black (Chuck Norris, baby!).
HBO was also where I watched Jaws for the first time. That movie scared me so badly I could barely get in Nana’s pool. When she took us to the beach, I didn’t want to get in the water above my ankles. Of course, the movie was amazing, so I had to watch it a second and third time that summer.
I made my fear of the ocean and Nana’s pool even worse by watching Piranha that summer. She really should have monitored what I was watching!
***
In the summer of 1980 (when I was a whopping 11 years old), my grandmother took my brother and me to see Kurt Russell’s latest movie at the drive-in. I don’t remember the name of the business, but it had multiple screens and what seemed like a thousand car parks. If you’re from the Chula Vista/San Diego area, I’d love to know the name of this place.
We sat together on the bench seat of my grandmother’s massive green car. I was the older brother, so I always sat near the passenger window. Jason got stuck in the middle, but he adored Nana, so it wasn’t too much for him to bear.
Kurt Russell was already a well-known actor because he starred in several Walt Disney movies with titles like Now You See Him, Now You Don’t, The Strongest Man in the World and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. All of which I saw on The Wonderful World of Disney (Sunday nights at 7 on NBC). The 1970s were a great time to be a kid!
Anyway, since Nana had such confidence in Kurt’s wholesome movies, she took us to see his latest film, Used Cars. If you’ve never seen the movie, it’s a raunchy comedy filled with profanity and some topless scenes. Nana was horrified, but I was enthralled! I was an eleven-year-old boy, so I thought it was the greatest movie I’d ever seen.
Nana didn’t make us leave the drive-in, but she certainly wasn’t enjoying the film as much as I was. On the way home, new swear words tickled my tongue and images of topless girls ran through my mind.
While she drove, Nana cast a sideways glance at me. “We probably shouldn’t tell your folks about this one.”
She had a deal. My lips were sealed!
***
In the same summer, my grandmother took us to another movie at the same drive-in. She did her homework this time. The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark was a certifiable Disney movie and starred Elliot Gould. What could go wrong?
Like our previous visit to the multiplex, I sat near the passenger seat window. Off to the right, I could see another screen. On that one, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie was playing. I didn’t know who the stoner comedians were, but they seemed to have a lot more fun than the characters in the Disney movie, even if I couldn’t hear what was happening.
My grandmother repeatedly said some variation of, “Colin, stop watching that.”
As an eleven-year-old boy, I listened to my grandmother and immediately looked forward. Yeah, right. I snuck so many peeks at Cheech and Chong that I did not know what was going on in the Disney movie.
On the drive home that night, my grandmother eyed me. “We probably shouldn’t tell your folks about this one either.”
What’s your favorite movie memory?
When you think back on your favorite films, do you recall the theater you saw them in or who you were with?