It's 9AM

Is There Anything On?

Chris Lowry

Jun 21, 2023

I don’t know if there was a better time.

The exact seasons mix in my memory a little bit.

But there was Lethal Weapon and Die Hard and Beverly Hills Cop and Breakfast Club.

And before that…

Grease.

My Dad married his third wife in 1980 and introduced us to our new step-sister that same year.

She was six months older than me and pretty dark cool.

I mean, for a ten year old girl.

Our summer breaks with Dad just got a little more interesting when we added a third to the dynamic duo of me and my brother.

And it had to be just a little bit hard for her because she went from only child to oldest, competing against a guy who everyone thought was her friend.

We had leadership clashes, and I’m sure there were slammed doors and shouts and possible attempts to get the youngest to sway one way or the other.

The swing vote.

And there was the house.

Back when there were three channels and PBS in the hinterlands of Mississippi where my Dad built his new home with oil rig money.

He had a twenty foot antenna on a twenty foot pole just outside the nearest living room window and someone had the job to go twist it to get a better signal.

I don’t remember rock paper scissors.

I just remember the youngest wasn’t strong enough and the girl couldn’t either, so the task fell to me.

Except during the days when my new step mom was at work and my Dad was doing his seven on.

Because I didn’t like soaps or daytime TV.

I wanted to go “play.”

Except it was hot.

Southern hot and muggy thick and humid.

No one wanted to be outside unless they had to be.

Slick sweat coated every skin surface just as soon as you stepped out into it, so I was outvoted from around ten to three.

We stayed in.

And watched Grease.

This was pre-VHS, so it must have been on cable or HBO and I remember my step mom making a big deal out of getting a deal for it.

I think she got a promotion at work and she was trying to do something nice for us.

Plus we never had a Beta-Max or a precursor to home entertainment.

My Dad didn’t watch television, he’d rather put on an album and crank it while he puttered around the house, when he was there.

But before we had to go back to the reality of Pine Bluff and school, we watched a lot of Grease.

Which is how I know the songs.

And how it became one of our go to movies when we were a little older and had a VCR.

I’ve watched a digital revolution, a streaming revolution and a home entertainment revolution, always amazed and astounded at the new ways we have found to entertain ourselves.

Because even on the cusp of it, back then, we did.

We danced to the songs, we sang the songs, and we raced once the sun settled west a little and we could venture outside to play.

You should see the looks I get now when some turn of the phrase or snippet of conversation sparks that one word that leads into a spoken word version of “You’re the One that I Want.”

Maybe you would be surprised how little greased lightning comes up in an average conversation.

I can do the same for Grease 2, for similar reasons.

They moved to Pine Bluff a few years later, and my Dad picked way out in the country to live and we spent every other weekend and lots of weeks each summer in his new old house.

A step down from the first home he put them in, but they were experiencing the bust cycle of the Texas oil Fields and dear old Dad was picking up where he could on rigs in OK and north LA.

I can quote Die Hard and Lethal Weapon.

Because my stepsister became my best friend for a long time.

Our best friend, and the season before my Dad and her Mom got divorced, we went to see those two together.

My treat from my job money.

And I got a forever phrase from that time that I still use almost every week.

Welcome to the party, Pal.

What movie have you watched over and over?

9AM

It's 9AM

Is There Anything On?

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