This Was NOT "Splendor In The Grass," Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        That brilliant 1961 film--to think it is over 50 years old, now!!!!!-- was about a couple named Bud and Deanie.  This tragic story is about one named Mickey and Bipsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                            Whose real name, as can be seen, was Elizabeth Kallenberger Amirian!!!!!!
What a mouthful!!!!!!!!!!  No wonder she changed it to Bipsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                Bipsy had a hard scrabble life.  She started out being the child of a mother who was in an abusive relationship with her husband.  As the kids grew older, the abuse--physical and emotional--was heaped onto them, with Bipsy, getting more than her fair share.  Several years, later, somehow, the mother had the gumption to get she and the kids out of this mess, met someone nice, and married him.

                                                  But you have to wonder what sort of a number all this did on poor Bipsy.  Yet, to her credit, she did not become an abuser or killer, though, during adolescence, she went through a "wild" period of drinking and drugs.  But she somehow emerged from it to became an attractive, compassionate, forward thinking young woman, who yearned for marriage and a family of her own. Nothing wrong with that.  Bipsy was also the creative type--she had tattoos emblazoned on her, she wrote and performed her own music at local concerts and shopping malls, and she could turn a mean trick with a needle and thread.  She was even desigining the dress she hoped to be married in, from a series of different styles put together. Quite impressive.  Bipsy was a real creative type, who would have done welll for herself in New York, or, being from Calfornia, San Francisco, which is where she should have headed, instead of  staying in that podunk town!!!!!!!!!  But she loved it there, so hou could she know????

                                                   Things began to change, when, performing one day at a local mall, she crossed paths with Mickey Wendell Beauchamps Wagstaff, who was from one of the area's more prominent families.  They were instantly attracted to each other, in that way that opposites are sometimes said to attract--Bipsy loved the kind of stable security he seemed to offer, and he loved her forward thinking, creative style, something he wished he could be, but was incapable of.  That should have been the first red flag.

                                                    They courted for a time.  Mickey decided he wanted to marry Bipsy, and asked her stepfather for his permission.  Now, this stepfather, wisely, was not too fond of Mickey, and rightly so, but he told Mickey that since he was not Bipsy's biological father, he should go and talk to her actual mother, who was his wife.  Which Mickey never did.  There is red flag number two.  How sexist is that, darlings????????????

                                                      Somehow, the couple got engaged, and the families came to accept it.  But there were vipers lurking.  For starters, Mickey and his parents were devoutly religious, and belonged to some Christian Fundamentalist sect.  Couldn't they just settle for a picture of Jennifer Jones??????  Mickey, who professed he loved Bipsy, began bringing her to church services, which she was agreeable to.  But the congregants weren't too pleased; Bipsy's tattoos and bohemian way of life did not meet their approval, which they made known to Mickey.  But he continued to see her.

                                                         What turned the tide was a Sunday when the pastor said something in his sermon that Bipsy found questionable.  At the end of the service, she tried, rationally, to discuss it with him, but he would not hear of it, and he told Mickey that if he continued to see this girl, he would no longer be welcome in this church!!!!!!!!!!!!  Mickey begged to stay, but the pastor said no!!!!!!!!  Can you believe this, girls?????????  And this isn't even in the South!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  If I were Mickey, I would have belted that pastor in the mouth, told him to shove it, taken Bipsy and joined the Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence, in San Francisco!!!!!!!!!!!  Things might have turned out better, if he had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                            But, wait; as Margo Channing once said, "it gets better!"  So Mickey stands by Bipsy. When he tells his parents, they--get this!!!!!!!--stand by the pastor, and say that if he does not break things off with Bipsy, they will throw him out of the house, and disown him!!!!!!!!!
So he stands by Bipsy, and these nuts, who call themselves parents, do just what they said!!!!!

                                                               So, Bipsy is all Mickey has got--no church, no friends, no family!!!!!!!!  Why they just did not relocate is beyond me!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                  The irony of ironies is that throughout all this, right up to the day before the wedding, when she models her finished wedding dress,  Bispy is now beginning to have her doubts. She was a smart girl.  Her mother wisely tells her, there is still time to stop it.  The past several weeks have created tension in the relationship, and as Mickey lets out his frustration and anger, Bispy can see signs of similarity to her father--and she does not want that, no sir!!!!!!!!!  Good for you, Bipsy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                      She tells Mickey she thinks they should wait longer, to make sure they are right for each other, and feels this is the right thing to do.   I should also tell you, at this point, that, upon becoming engaged, both made the conscious decision to save themselves for marriage.  Which means these two--at 27 years of age--were virgins!!!!!!!!!  Can you believe it????????
But, then, never underestimate the power of these podunk towns!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                        Mickey,  on one level, is devastated.  Here he has given up just about everything--church, family and friends--for Bipsy; now he stands to lose Bipsy, too, leaving him with....nothing.  For what eventually happened, something had to be building in him for a long time.  He suggests they go for a ride, to talk things over, and Bispy agrees.  It is the last time she is seen in town.

                                                                          Driving to a mall parking lot, he kidnapped the girl, held her for two days, then proceeded to rape and then stab her a total of 39 times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Bispy was tied up, so she did not have a chance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What a sick thing this guy is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And, so help me, I blame his parents and their nutty religious beliefs and that  pastor as much for Bipsy's death, as I do Mickey!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                             This tragedy happened on February 12, 2009.  Mickey was found half out of his mind, covered in blood, over Bipsy's body, with a knife, when a security guard spotted the vehicle, and thought there was something weird about it being there!!!!!!!!!  Was he right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                  So, this so-called young man of Christan values--hah!!!!!--from a "good family"--another hah!!!!!!-- is going to rot in jail for the rest of his life.  If only Bipsy had had the courage to strike out on her own. She might have found love, and then some!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                   My heart goes out to Bispy, girls!!!!!!!!! She was capable of so much more, and so deserving of something better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                      Even Allison Mackenzie had the courage to leave Peyton Place!!!!!!!!!! And you all know where I ended up, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!