Some First Times You Just Don't Forget, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                        Fifty years ago, on Sunday, February 25, 1968, at the Clairidge Theatre in Montclair, New Jersey, I saw "Gone With The Wind" for the first time.

                         Back then, I was in seventh grade, beginning to navigate adolescence, and not doing too well at it.  Or, at least, as well as I wanted.

                           But I was a reader, and Margaret Mitchell's epic was the one of the first adult novels I read.  Melanie's death was one of the few things in print to bring tears to my eyes, and, of course, it did so, on screen.

                           My parents drove me, saying they had a surprise for me.  When I noticed we turned off to Montclair, I thought maybe we were going to Aunt Martha and Uncle Jack, who lived, nearby, in Cedar Grove. But when we pulled up in front of the Clairidge, I knew.

                            My father and mother both saw the film, in 1939.  My father had seen it more than once, and did not want to go, so my mother went with me.

                             One thing I remember.  I don't know what print the Clairidge had, but when the title came on the screen, the words did not flow across, as they usually do. Instead, they were blocked , like this:                  "GONE WITH
                                                  THE WIND".

                               I don't know why, to this day.

                              The movie made an impression on me, especially with its message of survival, via Scarlett's iconic speech at the end of Part One. Which I will play for you.

                               Want some irony?  I just discovered I could see this film, on a screen, on this very day.

                                 But--I would have to go to Astoria, at the American Museum Of The Moving Image, at 6:30 PM.

                                 If only I were 50 years younger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!