Now I Gotta Cut Loose

I really don’t like the film Footloose. I mean it is a tad absurd. A teenager escapes from Chicago to the backwoods of a hillbilly town in Texas where dancing is prohibited. And then said teen fights the powerful Reverend of the town and not only gets to have his prom but steals the Rev’s daughter to boot. And then at the dance, all the kids bust moves that would make Bob Fosse proud. (Even Chris Penn!)

However, my Grandmother liked the movie. I never knew that. Then one day, I was at her house. I am not sure why I was even there. But, it was a Saturday afternoon and while other members of my family were also buzzing in and out of her front room I found myself planted on the couch while my Grandma was in her usual chair watching Footloose.

I sat there and wound up watching the movie on the console Zenith she had forever, with her. It wound up being one of the lat memories I have of her before she started to get really sick. My Grandmother liked her stories and would sit in that chair and watch her favorite programs and movies often. On this particular Saturday as we watched the cheesy 80’s Kevin Bacon vehicle we also talked a bit as well. Not about anything important but just had a conversation.

I spent a lot of my youth in my Grandparents house. My mom was newly single and working at Ford City at Karol’s Red Hanger Shop in the late 70’s. So, my brother and I spent a lot of time at the house on 82^nd and Major. My Grandmother definitely wore the pants in the family. She cooked the meals, paid the bills, set the social calendar, and if you were in that house you knew who ran the show. But, she also loved to laugh and play games. She talked with the neighbors and had an old phone book that had a catalog of names and numbers in it. She would get a call from an old friend or relative and she could stay on that phone for hours catching up.

As the years went by and I got older and all my cousins came along I didn’t spend as much time at the house or have the exclusive relationship with her that I once had. Sure, I cut her lawn for a couple of years there and would see her on all the holidays and of course St. Joseph’s Day but as I got older of course the relationship I had with her had obviously changed.

After my Grandfather passed away in 2002, it hit me that hey, she is not going to be around forever. So, I tried to see her more often and when I did I always tried to get her talking about the old days. I wanted to know about her and her big family. (A family that because of old Sicilian grudges I didn’t know many members of.) I heard stories about how some guy from the neighborhood was making unwelcomed advances at her and my Grandfather reacted by taking the guy and holding him upside down over an open manhole cover. I heard about the corner store they briefly ran.

I heard about how she worked during the Great War and her joy when her brothers made it home alive. I tried to learn how she made her “gravy” but it was impossible. (She never measured anything. It was you add a little of this and some of that, I had no chance.) When her sister, my Great Aunt Mary came to stay with her for awhile it was always a treat to have them tell a story with each one filling in some missing piece the other one forgot.

So, whenever Footloose comes on cable I associate it with my Grandmother and the memory I have of watching it with her. I find myself leaving the channel on a film that I like I said I don’t really enjoy. But, I did enjoy watching it with her. And am thankful I had that Saturday and the memory it gave me.