A contraband excursion to an alternative universe - a black and white world featuring childlike creatures
I set the alarm for two A.M.
I had to see them, in the same manner that just a few short years earlier, I had to stay up and see Santa Claus.
I had to know that they existed, that they weren't just enthusiastic rantings from my father; that indeed, at one point in time and alive still through television, three crazy brothers, each with a distinct, exaggerated look and talent, disrupted humdrum reality with the most unconventional of behaviors.
That they should subscribe to the way that we, children, did things well into their adult years gave me hope - hope that maybe, conformity wasn't waiting to rob me of my energy, my uniqueness, my funniness. That one could be a kid forever.
But the alarm never got the chance to wake me from my sleep. Long before the fateful hour approached - why oh why were they airing this movie at two A.M? On a school night no less? - I was up, too thrilled with the prospect to catch so much as a single wink.
To the living room I carefully tiptoed, thinking that I'd bide my time with something banal before the feature.
What I caught instead fired me up as much, I was sure, as the much anticipated first glimpse of the Marx Brothers would.
Gary Cooper and company in Beau Geste: adventure, gun play, camaraderie.
Did the black and white world of which I had heard so much really hold that much excitement, enough to contain a subworld such as this plusthe Marxes?
By the time Duck Soup aired, I was completely beside myself! It was all I could do to jump up and down on the couch, muffling each laugh or squeal of delight with a pillow, hoping beyond hope that I wouldn't wake them, my mother and stepfather, neither of whom would appreciate my late night contraband visit to in this alternative universe.
Around four, to bed I went - again unable to sleep, mixes of both films, bullets and bon mots, replaying in my mind like a projector in perpetual motion.
In the morning, after some sleep, I awoke - bleary eyed, off kilter, miserable.
There was but one world for me now, and this - with its stern, inquisitive faces staring back at me suspiciously over the breakfast table - was not the one.
