Old Friends

We all look for the comfort of old friends from time to time. For some its noodles and powdered cheese from a box, a well-worn t-shirt, a song you know by heart, or drive down a very familiar road. This week, for me, it was: Jesse and Celine, as well as Amelie, and next I might re-visit Lola. Heck, I even downloaded Mario (the original) for old time's sake. I am not one for repeats. I don't re-read books, not much for leftovers, and I rarely re-watch movies. Yet these aren't just movies, they're friends, that remind of a different time. Jesse and Celine fell in love shortly before I did, Amelie reminds me of simpler times, and Lola...well...I just like that movie. And Mario? We brought him home on the last day of 5th Grade, as a reward for each of my siblings and I receiving Straight A's on our report cards. That summer, it wasn't my siblings and I that discovered video games, as much as it was my parents. I think my dad and his friends played as much as we did, and my mom, resisted at first, but sat down with us one day, thinking she'd try her hand at Duck Hunt, the other game on the system. She shot the first duck, and then proceeded to shoot EVERY SINGLE DUCK until the score register started back at zero because it wasn't programmed to go any higher. And then she quit, and never played again.