If you grew up in my family and you read that title, one word would pop into your head.
Beaches.
I don't remember how we came upon loving that movie as much as we did. Was it the eternal friendship that the movie portrayed between the two female leads? Was it the reality of the Barbara Hershey character's tragic death in the eyes of our sheltered, preteen eyes? Was it Bette Midler's defiant attitude and showstopper style?
Or was it merely the cheesy, though somehow mesmerizing, music?
I may never know. The fact is, however, that we adored everything about that film. Beth, the oldest of the four of us, ended up buying it, I think, and it was perhaps one of the first movies that we owned growing up. We had the soundtrack, too. Oh yes. We'd all belt out "Wind Beneath My Wings" at the tops of our lungs while driving around the thriving metropolis of Thomasville.
I don't remember which came first, our love affair with Beaches, or our obsession with the talented Mrs. Midler. I'm sure that one led to the other. We rented all kinds of Bette Midler movies, including the most memorable (other than Beaches, of course), Big Business. This comedy was a story about two sets of twins, each swapped up at birth so that the new parents went home from the hospital with one child from each pair. Half of the twin-set was played by Lily Tomlin, the other half ... Bette Midler. We must've watched that movie 12 times.
Anyway, I bring all this stuff up because Bette was on Oprah the other day, promoting her big, new show in Vegas. Seems that she's taking Celine Dion's place as one of the semi-permanent attractions out there, and I couldn't be more excited.
Cal, on the other hand, is less than thrilled.
So any of you out there who'd like to take a trip to Vegas in the next year or so, please count me in. I'm sick of admiring Bette Midler ... from a distance. (HA!!)
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3 comments:
That's funny, Mir, because I read the title of this post and thought, "Beaches! I haven't seen that movie in forever . . . " My middle-school best friend and I watched it over and over and over. She owned the movie; I owned the soundtrack. Fantastic. Am wondering if I should watch it again, just for the fun of it, or if I would get confused halfway through about why I thought it was such fine film entertainment 17 years ago . . .
When I was in middle school, at a Christian school, our beloved Headmaster resigned in the middle of the year (I think it was some sort of political thing and he got kindof pushed out) and we all were so sad about it that we had a special "chapel" to say good-bye and the chorus sang "Wind Beneath My Wings" to him. Oh, Yes. They did. I'm pretty sure I remember crying in the bleachers.
O.K. if you ever find a group to go to Vegas, I'm in. E :)
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