News of his death gave me a bit of a pang.. He filmed his movies in the north suburban Chicagoland of my youth. They just don't make teenage movies like they used to.
I recall that some of my friends and I loved that song "Don't You Forget About Me" and Maria, who was moving back to Houston after graduation, asked us not to forget about her while the song was playing. Done, Maria! 25 years later, every time I hear this song I think of you!
I used to sometimes fake illnesses to get a Day Off. Instead of running around downtown Chicago, usually on my bonus days, I slept in and watched Happy Days when it came on at 10 am. I used talcum powder to look pale and I held the thermometer up to the lamp to get it to register a fever. I think my mom knew about the faking.
Minus Long Duk Dong, Sixteen Candles is a sweet movie. My high school friend, Sarah looked eerily similar to Molly Ringwald, only prettier and without red hair.
His films provide some of the soundtrack of my youth too. My roommate in college and I played our Pretty In Pink cassettes on our boom boxes until they wore out. HERE is the Amazon listing, scroll down for the music clips.
My hometown, Winnetka, also claims the Home Alone house. These two guys visited and wrote about it HERE. My brother's best friend lived in a house diagonally behind it. We were all in college when they filmed there. For a few Christmases, the family used the extensive holiday lighting left by the movie company. It was the brightest house in a 2 mile radius. They also used to have a cardboard movie cutout of Kevin doing the scream in the front entryway window to alert visitors on pilgrimage that they indeed found the right house.
I think I'm going to try to get Planes Trains and Automobiles from Netflix. It's one of Roger Ebert's Great Movies.
1 comment:
What a cool association you have with all this... love the Home Alone house. Gorgeous!!!
Post a Comment