Graduation Day

Gold cherry

By hudsonmoon

Mon, 14 Oct 2019
  • 2272 reads
9 comments
 

Elmhurst, Queens, Winter 1968

I was sitting in a front row balcony seat with my feet up on the railing; smoking a cigarette. Kool extra longs. It’s what my older brother Dave smoked. It would be my brand, as well. I was fourteen.

I played hooky that day and decided to go see The Graduate at the Elmwood Theatre on Queens Blvd: a short walk from the house in which we lived. The Elmwood was built in 1928 as a vaudeville and movie house. It was called the Queensboro Theatre back then.

The Graduate was the first sexy adult movie I had seen. I had seen a lot of hooky-playing adult flicks in 1967: Bonnie and Clyde, In Cold Blood, Cool Hand Luke, In the Heat of the Night, and let’s throw in To Sir, With Love to satisfy my Brit fix. It was a great year for movies.

But the Graduate would be the first movie to grab hold of my adolescence and have me pay close attention. It was an education. So I didn’t feel that bad about cutting school. I was being educated by Mike Nichols, and my smoking in class was a bonus. Putting my feet on the railing was like telling the world to go fuck itself; you nuns have no say over me now.

Angry young man nodding in agreement as Benjamin battles the adult world. Light up another Kool, kid, and settle in for the ride. I was fourteen and hadn’t so much as kissed a girl, or held a job yet. But I felt every awkward Benjamin moment. Became aroused at the thought of seduction. Enraged at the status quo adult world with their martinis and plastics. It felt like a coming-out party. The sort of feeling I had when I first heard the Beatles in 1964. This is my world now. You can keep your Frankie and Annette Beach Blanket Bingo movies. I got it from here.

I remember leaving the movie theater feeling cooler than I did when I walked in. It would still be a while before I did any girl kissing, or found my way in the world. But, hey, I didn’t have me a Mrs. Robinson to strike a match and light my fire. Believe me, I looked. Unfortunately, the women in my neighborhood were more the Edith Bunker set. There was to be no seducing of my innocence.

I didn’t come from a bookish family. Movies and music were all I had, and I never complained. Our Lady of Good Counsel catholic school wasn’t stocking up on the Henry Miller’s just yet, and the only thing I remember reading in school – and only because I had to hold it to memory for a recital – was The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear. I can’t even remember if I was costumed for this. If I was, the humiliation of it all probably blinded me to the fact that it happened in the first place.

You can’t smoke in a movie theater anymore, but you can damn well put your feet up on the balcony railing. Unless, of course, you get yelled at by the big lug sitting behind. Go to a matinee. It’s quieter.

 

Picture courtesy of Wiki Commons

Certificate PG
Non-fiction
This Boy's Rambling Remembrances
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

True cool!

Submitted by Philip Sidney on

On the brink of adulthood with all those possibilities stretching ahead - this evocative piece is our facebook ans twitter pick of the day - do share.

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

Thanks for the POD honors PS. Always nice when that happens.

Rich x

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Another sparkling, vivid piece of life-writing - and a very well deserved pick of the day Hudson

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

You took me back to the 1960s again Rich, not that I hadn't kissed, but there was always that scary feeling of necking and getting love bites, having to cover them up in case mum or dad saw them. It must have been harder for boys having to make the first move...unless of course you had a Mrs Robinson to teach you a few moves. wink

As always another fine read.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Penny4athought on

You really need to chapter these and make a book – I know so many who’d feel connected to these stories, as I do - for once again, you are writing part of my diary...just like Keansbury, NJ- I too have been to the Elmwood Theatre, and it holds a special place in my memories- it was where my husband and I had our first date- The movie wasn't great..."The Paralax View" but maybe I shouldn't say that, someone might actually like this movie, but personally to me, it rambled to no where and in the end no conclusion - but I didn't really care- I was on a first date with the man who'd become my husband a short...ten years later (but that's another story) and truly all I saw that night were stars...

I lived a stones throw from Queens in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. There was a close group of us kids who grew up together and, as we said "hung out together".  Some lived on my block and some lived around the corner, and we grew through adolescence together. I can remember on late summer nights sitting on someone's stoop, sometimes mine, maybe around the age of thirteen, give or take a year, and if one of us said they were hungry, we'd all walk over the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge and into Sunnyside, Queens to the White Castle there on Queens Blvd. for what was accurately called 'belly bombs" (there were other names we'd hear too, but not fit for nice readers) they went down so tasty but you tasted them long after they were digested, as they continued to blow up in your tummy - still for only .25 cents they were the best priced for a young teen to afford.

I remember, we'd also walked over that bridge one Halloween night, around the same age, to Calvary Cemetery - not sure why anyone thought this was good idea - walking through a cemetery on Halloween night with a full moon? But as I remember, it seemed the whole neighborhood of Greenpoint kids and Sunnyside kids were in there that night, so the thought had legs. We'd just gotten into the cemetery when someone screamed, we never knew who, or why but we all ran different ways - and in the dark, scary headstone world, we lost each other. I ran out of the cemetery - by this I mean I had to climb down a stone wall- it was how we got in too, since the cemetery was technically closed for the night- and I ran home, all the way, and I never would go back again on Halloween, or any other night, but when we met back on the stoop that night...we all had tales to tell - tales that none of us have ever forgotten. 

Ahhhh.. Those early days of teenage years can really bring on a smile. You make me reminisce, and I love getting lost in your stories because I know that world and the way you tell your true stories is refreshingly, nostalgic.

Thank you for sharing these, they're all gems and I cannot wait for the next one.

Penny4athought

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

Sorry for the late reply, Penny. And what a great reply it was. We ought ot hool up sometime and trade stories. Elmwood theater. Never expected to hear from anyone who's been ther. Ha. I remember being in that Macys across the street staring at the the Beatles White album. It was around Christmas time 1968. I just stared. I couldn't afford the damn thank until the next year. Have also been to that White Castle you mention. Love those things. Miss them artery cloggers. Thank you so much for this. I enjoyed the very much. Btw calvary cemetary is where my Mom and Dad are buried, along with a number of other family members.

Rich x

 

Submitted by jolono on

Every film mentioned, a classic, and also on the list of my favourites. Another great slice of life from you Rich.

 

Submitted by celticman on

life is sometimes simple. like then.