My family usually likes to watch a movie while eating a big Thanksgiving dinner. Last year, we watch the Rocky marathon on cable television. We had a blast because those movies were popular when we were much younger and all living under the same roof. My mom took my sister and I to see the first Rocky when it came out in 1976. Some 32 years later, there we were, watching the same movie together, even though so much has changed since then.
Yesterday, the movie of choice was Cinderella Man. I was the only one who had seen it, but my memory isn't the greatest so I felt like I was watching it for the first time. I'm not sure what the deal is with us watching boxing flicks. The funny thing is, my sister mentioned the possibility of seeing Ali since she's never seen it. The rest of us haven't either, so it'll probably go to the top of my Netflix queue for the next time.
As I was watching Cinderella Man yesterday, a thought ran through my mind. On the last page of my local newspaper, they usually publish "This Day in History" complied by the the Associated Press. I like to read through the list whenever I have the time. It helps me to feel grounded somehow. Wouldn't it be cool if someone in each family took the time to record such a list regarding family activities during get togethers?
You could bring it out each year, maybe at Thanksgiving or Christmas, and go through it as a family. It would generate all sorts of laughs and sentimentality and maybe tears. I'm thinking it might be my new project. It doesn't have to be long. Just a sentence or two that captures the essence of what happened that particular year during that particular event. I have a running start on Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving History:
2008: While enjoying a moist turkey with all the trimmings, we watched Rocky I, II, and part of III. We cheered. We might have cried. But most importantly, we laughed.
2009: While enjoying a smoked turkey that tasted a lot like ham, we watched Cinderella Man. Mom reminisced about how her dad, who was from Ireland, used to talk about James Braddock -- the main character the movie is based on.
