Cool regional columns from the 1950s

 Note:  This was originally published in The Armenian Weekly.

There was a time when there were no cell phones, internet or social media, which make communication so easy today. There were telephones (we call them landlines today), and each house had one phone number and one phone that everyone used. Long distance calls were a luxury most folks only used when really good or really bad news had to be communicated, and even then, the calls were brief.

This era began around the 1930s and 40s when most people got their first home telephones. It ended between 2004, when Facebook launched, and 2007, which marked the debut of the first iPhone. Interpersonal communication also took a leap forward after 1984 when the U.S. deregulated phone services. Soon after, service providers started offering unlimited long distance service.

Before then, how did people know when friends and acquaintances had weddings, births, graduations and deaths in their family? They sent letters and telegrams and posted such news in newspapers for their communities. The Hairenik Weekly served that role for its subscribers from its founding and continued to do so when it was renamed The Armenian Weekly. The first generation of Armenians born in this country started to graduate from high school and college, get married and have children during the first 25 years of The Hairenik Weekly. 

With the founding of the AYF, Armenian youth got to be lifelong friends with Armenians across the country. They would meet and bond at national events like the annual convention and AYF Olympics and various regional events like AYF Bowling. This generation wanted to keep in touch and stay aware of the comings and goings of their friends and acquaintances. After graduating from high school and college, they began writing for the Weekly and were given columns to report on local events of note. The heyday of this phenomenon seems to have been the 1950s. 

The longest-running of these columns were not written by AYFers but set the standard for all that followed. One was called “The Bostonian: Viewing the Hub of the Universe.” It is not clear who wrote this column as it had no byline. Perhaps it was the long-serving Weekly editor James Mandalian or his successor James Tashjian. Another was “This and That from New York” by Levon Keshishian. I believe Keshishian’s column, spanning from the 1940s to at least the 1970s, had the longest run of any column in the Weekly’s history. The first two regional columns covered news from the two most vibrant centers of Armenian life at the time. Let’s look at some of these columns from five issues from the years 1954-56.

“As the nation goes, so does Maine,” written by Anthony Mezoian, was published in the September 30, 1955 issue of the Weekly. There were Armenian communities in Maine and New Hampshire, a part of our history that is barely known or remembered these days. The first paragraph announced the marriage of my father’s first cousin. Here are two excerpts: 

Pauline Helenian [actually Kelenian] of Rye, New Hampshire and Airman Martin Quirk were recently married. He is stationed at Lockbourne Air Base, Columbus, Ohio… Ray and Alice Mougalian recently entertained the famed movie stars Betty [Bette] Davis and her husband Gary Merrill. Twelve attended the cocktail party and all Armenian “feed” which consisted of everything from shish-kebab to bourmah.

I would have loved to see a quote from Bette Davis and a group photo of this event, but none of the columns I read included photos.

From the Midwest, there was a column “On Wisconsin,” by Var Bagdasarian, which opened with the famed Drum Corp from Racine.

Imagine going to a bake sale and being able to buy paghlava, kata, lahmahjou and all the other wonderful Armenian delicacies. That is just what happened at the Gas and Electric Co., of Racine on Friday, August 14. The Drum Corps decided to repeat the Bake Sale idea, which was such a tremendous success, last year. They were equally fortunate this time too.  The people just “ate it up.” The food was donated by the Drum Corps parents and friends to help finance the trip to Washington D.C. Pretty nice of those women, wouldn’t you say — to take time out of their household duties for this project?  The proceeds were all clear profit, and must have been high because our Corps DID go to the Olympics. Oh, what a time they had, too. Hope you got to see them. 

It would be great if someone would write the story of the Racine Drum Corps. Maybe there already is one in the archives just waiting to be rediscovered.

Next up is the “West Coast Wire” by none other than Richard Hovannisian. While this was before he became an international spokesman for Armenians, we see a hint of what was to come from this great Armenian.

We had the great honor and privilege of visiting Unger Simon Vratzian for a couple of hours while he was in San Francisco visiting at the Karageozian home. It is difficult to explain the awe and pride of being in the presence of such a great man — a man who was an integral part of the Independent Armenian Republic serving as prime-minister. He was instrumental in the February 18 revolt against communism. His wealth of knowledge and wisdom can be found in no history book. He lives with the living hope and determination that Armenia will again be free. It is the duty of every Armenian youth to strive to make this living hope a living realization.

The same words could be used to describe Professor Hovannisian. He most definitely was a “wealth of knowledge and wisdom” and actually got to see a free and independent Armenia.

The next two columns are related. First, from “The Bostonian”: 

Had the distinct pleasure of meeting Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell and Rose Kehetian, and Mitch’s dad Kaspar, during their recent visit to Boston, and it was most refreshing to chat with such a wonderful family group devoted so thoroughly to the cause of Armenian liberation. Though they have come through a period in which dear members of their families have passed away, the closely-knit three have retained their natural ebullience. 

This same issue of the Weekly contained Mitchell Kehetian’s column, “Motor City News.” Kehetian had an illustrious career in Detroit. He was a reporter for the Detroit Times when he wrote this column for the Weekly then an editor at the Macomb Daily.

Mr. and Mrs. Zakar Manoogian announced the marriage of their daughter, Stella, to Jack Tian, son of Mrs. Anoosh Tufenkjian. The ceremony, performed by the Rev. S. Papakhian, took place at the St. Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church, after which a reception was held. Stella is an active member of the Detroit Moorad-Zavarian chapter. The couple honeymooned by taking a tour through Michigan. The newlyweds are making their home at 4055 Ida., Detroit.

It is not unusual that Kehetian wrote one column and was mentioned in another. As another point of connectivity, Ned Apigian just penned a wonderful article about Jack (Hagop) Tian and his brother Haigus, “A story of two Detroit brothers in war,” published on June 29, 2024.

We go back to the East Coast for “The Philadelphia Story” by Iris Pilbosian. In this column, she shares this tidbit about Dick Keshgegian, who was a pillar of the Philadelphia community. 

A hearty hello and welcome home to Dickie Keshgegian, just recently discharged by Uncle Sam, after spending many months in Korea. We can’t help mentioning that beautiful, new Oldsmobile, a “small” gift from mom and dad Keshgegian. Seriously, though, Dick, the Phila. “Sebouh” chapter extends a sincere “Welcome Home” to one of its favorite members.

The last stop in this September 30, 1954 issue of the Weekly is Washington, D.C. Anne Atanosian wrote this “DC Dateline” column about Dr. Sarkis Balassanian. He was from Argentina and attended the World Congress of Cardiologists in the nation’s capital on September 10-19, 1954. In describing Dr. Balassanian’s path to becoming an eminent cardiologist, she spoke to the spirit of the survivor generation and their children.

Reaching Argentina as a young boy with his parents, young Sarkis worked very hard to achieve his education, an education which found his yearnings leaning toward medicine. As any one of us who have listened to the stories of the early struggles of our refugee parents, we can appreciate that it is only through the most diligent kind of self deprivation that any progress can be made in a strange land. But this progress was made through perseverance which is so common a trait among our people.

There were more examples of local reporting in the December 29, 1955 Hairenik Weekly, including two columns from Chicago. The first was the “Windy City Wire” by Diane Nazarian.  Here are three updates from her column.

On November 25 little Becky Jan Sahagian celebrated her first birthday. Becky is the lovely daughter of John and Lucille Sahagian.

On December 5 the Museum of Science and Industry presented a program featuring the Armenian Christmas celebration. AYFers in the presentation were June Der Matoian, Charles Serejian, Violet Allikian, and Ara Bedrosian.

December 10 was the day of our colossal Hye Bar at the Sheridan Plaza Hotel. The Arziv [Ardziv] Band from Detroit was at its best and the crowd loved them!  Everyone danced and had a wonderful time until the wee hours.

My connections to people mentioned in these articles continue to surprise me, even though I know our community is small and tight knit. We got to know John and Lucille in 1990, the year we relocated to Connecticut. They lived in Fairfield, and we all were members of the Armenian Church of the Holy Ascension in Trumbull. I also grew up listening to the Ardziv Band. When I began to play, we always invited Simon Javizian, the leader of Ardziv, to join us on clarinet and sing a song or two. One of my ouds used to belong to their talented oud player, Harry Bakaian.  You can hear him playing it at the beginning of Kaleh Kaleh from their Traveling for Kef album.

Hazel Tatson in “The Voice of the Chicago” reported on the Chicago chapter wanting to start a local newspaper:

The Ararat AYF Chapter, recognizing this need, set forth to work out plans for organizing a paper that would fill the requirements of a small Armenian community. The AYF felt that such a newspaper would not only serve as a source of news, but it would better the youth and the parental organizations, it would bring the voice of the church closer to the community, and mainly it would support, preserve, and maintain the Armenian culture.

What a wonderful and noble idea. I wonder if the paper ever came to fruition. It would be interesting to review a few copies.

Of course, there was a column from Providence. The “Providence Press” was written by Rosalie Kolligian. She announced the birth of her nephew in this particular column:

Mr. and Mrs. John Varadian of Providence are proud parents of a new baby, their second son. He was born on December 9, 1955. Mrs. Varadian is the former Sylvia Kolligian of Providence. Congratulations Sis and Jay.

The name of the newborn was not mentioned in the article. I asked Mike Varadian, who related that it was his cousin Stephen Jay. Sadly, Stephan passed away on September 20, 2000, a few months shy of his 50th birthday. He had battled brain cancer for 22 months. His obituary was in the October 7, 2000 Armenian Weekly.

There were three examples in the September 29, 1955 Weekly of regional columns. Levon Keshishian’s “This and That from New York” talked about the passing of two noted Armenians:  Dr. K. Seropian in New York and Dicran Bagdassarian in Tehran. Keshishian wrote about how he and his friend Dr. Seropian would discuss “Armenian politics, literature and international affairs” as well as their shared passion for stamp collecting. He had this to say about Bagdassarian: 

I had read his articles and books and had become an admirer of this revolutionary of this generation. He was a sincere man and very impressive. There are men you admire before you see them. Many disappoint you when you meet them, somehow you say to yourself, “I wish I had not come to know the man.” Dicran Bagdassarian was not of these, you liked him more. 

There were also two columns from Wisconsin in the 1950s. The second of these was “Racine News” by Corrine DerGarabedian. In one column was this tidbit:

At a recent Chicago meeting for members, two from Chicago and two from Racine volunteered to go to Waukegan and see how their chapter is getting along. The Racine representatives, Mary Madasian and Sonia Gelenian, reported that everything is running smoothly. We wish the Waukegan chapter all the luck in the future.

On the other side of the state of New York was Alice Arutunjian who wrote a column, “News and Views From Niagara Falls.” 

I am proud to announce that young Ned Apigian, 17, a Shant Committee member was awarded a $20 honorable mention award for a drawing in the mechanical drawing division in the Ford Motor Co’s. ninth annual industrial arts awards competition. Ned is working this summer and will start his last year at the Trott Vocational School in Niagara Falls.

We now have a beautiful bow of connections between the “The Bostonian” mentioning Mitchell Kehetian, Mitchell Kehetian’s “Motor City News” mentioning Jack Tian, Ned Apigian’s recent article about Jack Tian and this mention of Ned in the “News and Views From Niagara Falls.” 

Lastly, in the May 10, 1955 Weekly, I came across “Nutmeg Newsettes: Connecticut Capers” by Mary Kaprealian in which she mourns the loss of a beloved community member, presumably a genocide survivor.

It is with a heart full of sorrow that we start this report on activities and events in Connecticut. During the interim between this and our first column, the Hartford-New Britain area suffered a tragic loss at the sudden death of Mrs. Rose (Kalajian) Boornazian on April 23 at the age of 52. Mrs. Boornazian passed away suddenly as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage, as closely as we can ascertain. Her loss is mourned… not only by her family… but by both communities, as well. Our own friendship with her stems from the writer’s early childhood.

It would take an issue-by-issue investigation to learn when these columns began and ended and how frequently they ran. Clearly, they were popular in the 1950s. The artwork and masthead for each of these columns were unique. Some were clearly hand drawn and all of them used fonts we don’t see much of these days. These columns were, from my perspective, the social media of that era and another example of the treasure trove that is the Hairenik Archives.

Earworms

 

I learned a new phrase today.  On the way to school this morning, I was, as usual, listening to Morning Edition on my local NPR station.  They had a segment on ‘earworms.’  All I could think of was some Star Trek or other sci-fi movie or TV show where the bad guys tortured a good guy by putting some kind of beetle or worm into his ear that would slowly and painfully drive the good guy to madness by eating his brain.

Well, it wasn’t anything so dramatic but I was on the right track.

An earworm is basically a tune that gets into your head and stays there. 

The report this morning focused it as a nuisance that drives you crazy, because you simply cannot get it out of your head.  An example they used was a lady who visited her niece who she adored and was the shining light in her life.  The young lady listened incessantly to her favorite song Baby Shark Doo Doo Doo.  It became an earworm to the aunt, and it drove her crazy as she couldn’t get rid of it.

The segment on NPR this morning focused on earworms as a negative.  Heck, the very name, earworm, and the image it conjured in my head is testimony that it is negative.  The report this morning even presented The Earworm Eraser that is a medley of cacophonous bits of melodies. Per the liner notes in YouTube, “The track features a series of audio patterns and rhythmic structures that are carefully designed to break the loop of the song in the listener's mind.”  The science is based on the work of Dr. Kelly Jakubowski a music psychologist at Durham University in the UK.

I have had songs stuck in head all my life.  Sure, sometimes they were commercial jingles or TV show themes.  I have only referred to it “a song stuck in my head.”  It was never a negative.  I loved music.  Each song stuck in my head would go away probably because it was replaced by another.  They weren’t negatives.  I loved them

As a kid, I had lots of earworms.  One example is when I had the Batman TV show Theme in my head for a week or so.  It was nowhere near being a favorite song of mine but like so many earworms, per the NPR segment, it was rhythmic and catchy.  It stuck and didn’t really bother me at all.  It stuck in my head until another song got stuck in my head.

I love music.  I love it when songs I love get stuck in my head.  I want to call them anything but earworms.  I want to call them earbutterflies, ear dolphins, or eargazelles, basically something very positive, very graceful, and most welcome.  These eargazelles are, in a way, a soundtrack to my life.  They are welcome, not disdained.  It is how I learn music.  The tunes get stuck in my head from over listening and over practicing the pieces. 

Here are a few examples. 

·      In May of 2017 as part of the Middle Eastern Music Ensemble of the University of Chicago we performed a song, Ahbabna Ya Ein, sung by Farid Al-Atrash.  That entire summer, including a teaching appointment in China, I could not get this catchy tune out of my head.

·      About ten years ago, this Armenian folk song, Al Aloukhus, was stuck in my head for months.

·      Ever since I first heard these songs, they have been eargazelles that have been stuck in my head numerous times for varying periods of time.

o   Offering by Ara Dinkjian

o   Uşaklı Kız – my favorite version

o   Hars em Gnum – Zulal version

o   Konyali- Κόνιαλης – Dilek Koç

·      And, lastly, to show that my eargazelles are not limited to Middle Eastern music, I present:

o   Both Sides Now – Joni Mitchell

o   Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright – Bob Dylan

o   Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) – Green Day

o   California Dreamin’ – The Mamas & The Papas

 

     These are but a fraction of the eargazelles I have been blessed with over time… earworms indeed!

Michigan 13 – Ohio State 10

 

It is the last day of November.  It is a perfect Saturday after Thanksgiving for college football.  The Game, Michigan vs. Ohio State, is minutes away from starting.  The pundits and anyone looking at it logically would easily prognosticate that Ohio State should easily walk away with a victory.  The panel of talking heads in the pregame, with the exception of Michigan’s Charles Woodson, picked Ohio State to win.  Michigan’s chances seemed even dimmer with the news that our all-everything tight end Colton Loveland will not be playing today.  Thus, there are zero starters from last year’s National Championship team on the Michigan offense today.

Michigan was a 19.5 point underdog and the over/under on the point total was 41.5 games.  People thought, assumed, that Michigan would get blown out.  Ohio State seemed like a juggernaut and literally the best team money could buy.  They spent something like $20 million to bring in Chip Kelly as the Offensive Coordinator, Jim Knowles as Defensive Coordinator, quarterback Will Howard, and others to build a team to beat Michigan and win the National Championship.

Michigan won the National Championship last year in grand manner.  It was an exciting year. At the end of that amazing season, there were wholesale changes in the coaching staff, 17 starters from last year graduated, and Sherrone Moore was named head coach on January 26 which was way too late to be able to recruit effectively.  As a result, Michigan has struggled this season. 

They began the season ranked number 8.  After loses to Texas, Washington, and Illinois in they fell out of the top 25 for the remainder of the season.  They came into the Ohio State game with a 6-5 record.  Most everyone thought they would end the regular season a rather mediocre 6-6.

There was a buzz amongst the fan base that maybe, just maybe, Michigan could win.  It was certainly aspirational but there was a wee hint of magic in the air.  We were having dreams of the 1969 team, Bo Schembechler’s first team, upsetting Woody Hayes’s so called “team of the century.”  That game was played in Ann Arbor.  Michigan was ranked #12 and Ohio State was #1.  Michigan won 24-12 and neither team scored in the second.  This was the first Michigan game I ever watched from start to finish and it made me a lifelong Michigan fan.

That 1969 was the greatest upset of Michigan over Ohio State in the history of The Game.  Well, it was until today.

The 6-5 Wolverines went down to Columbus and stunned the Buckeyes 13-10.  It was a low scoring old style smash-mouth game that would have made Bo and Woody proud… well, for sure, it would have made Bo proud.

The second ranked Buckeyes averaged 38.9 points per game this year.  Michigan held them to 10.  Those 10 points were all scored in the first half:  a touchdown and a field goal, that’s all.  The Michigan defense held them to zero points in the 2^nd half.  That is a testimony to how well the defense played.  Michigan held them to a season low of 77 yards rushing which was well below their 177 yards per game.  Michigan also held Ohio State to 175 yards passing where their average had been 261.5.  These are some impressive statistics.  On offense Michigan ran for 172 hard earned yards and passed for a less than mediocre 62 yards which is a testimony to the Ohio State defense.  Michigan’s 172 yards rushing against Ohio was the most Ohio gave up all season.  Both teams threw 2 interceptions and Ohio State missed two field goals.

The 4^th Quarter was Michigan’s which they won 3-0 to win the game.  They had three possessions and had the ball for 13:03.  Ohio State had two possessions.  The first was 3 and out and the second was a turnover on downs.  They had the ball a whopping 1:55 in the 4^th Quarter and had zero first downs.  These are some insane stats!

At the beginning of the game, the talking heads and the announcers talked about how Ohio State would bust it open in the second half, as had been their track record.  They would do this by tiring out the Michigan defense through ball possession and sustained drives.  In the end, the Michigan was the team that fatigued and stifled Ohio State.

Michigan fans were tough on quarterback Davis Warren all season long.  They gave him zero respect.  But he managed the game well today and did what he had to do to get their 13 points.  Ohio State’s quarterback, Will Howard, on the other hand is a fifth year senior portal/NIL transfer to Ohio State.  While he has been a good quarterback all season, this was his first Michigan – Ohio State game.  I do believe he had first game jitters. 

This crazy low scoring upset is bigger and more monumental than the 1969 version simply because Michigan was unranked, and the game was in Columbus.  Any Michigan fan will tell you that this win made the whole season.  And, four in a row over the Buckeyes?  How sweet is that.

Go Blue! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Election Wrap-up

 

I wrote two posts on the eve of the national election on November 4^th, The Eve of the Election: Is it Over Yet? and on Election Night 2024, November 5^th.  I went to bed on the 5^th certain that Donald Trump would be elected.  Upon waking the next morning, the news confirmed that Trump was indeed elected and by a rather impressive margin of Electoral and soon the popular vote. 

I decided to reflect on the election and mandate that the Republicans were claiming the people gave them.  I arrived at school early and wrote a good start to the piece before my first class.  I figured I would finish it later that day… which didn’t happen.  I figured, OK, the next day then.  That didn’t happen.  Maybe the next week and here it is the end of the month and I just getting to it.

What I wrote on November 6:  I woke up to a confirmation that Trump was elected as the 47th President of the United States.  Social media was already overflowing with the gloating of Trump supporters and bewildered disbelief of those less enamored with the man.

On my drive to the university, I was listening to NPR as usual.  Some talking pollster head made two important points.  The first point was that people who did not like Trump, because of any number and mix of character and moral reasons, voted for him.  The obvious question is… why?  It is simple.  They perceived him as a strong leader who could shake things up and get things done.  This has been true of Trump since he first began to run for President.  This is the source of the aforementioned bewilderment of those who would vote for anybody Trump because the, also aforementioned, character and moral issues.

The second point is more subtle and a law of economics and politics.  In periods of high inflation, the incumbent party loses the Presidency and often the Congress.  It is the result of the simple question Reagan asked the voters on his way to defeating Jimmy Carter:  Are you better off now than you were four years ago?  People that answer no to that question, tend not to vote for the incumbent party.   It matters not if the inflation was an inevitable consequence of the disruption to the economy due to the COVID pandemic.  If this point is true, the odds were against Biden or Harris… no matter who ran. 

Are people less happier now than four years ago?  In October, Gallup posted an article on a recent survey.  The title of the article says it all:   Majority of Americans Feel Worse Off Than Four Years Ago.   Dial it back to 2020.  Did people feel worse off than they were in 2016.  Yes, it  was due to Covid.  Covid was not Trump’s fault, but the people voted for Biden nonetheless.  Inflation was a leading reason people felt worse off this year.  Was inflation an inevitability of the aftermath of labor shortages due to the economic disruption of Covid.  I believe the answer to that question is a pretty obvious yes!

I will add a third point.  It is harder for polls to be accurate.  In 1997, 36% of the people responded to polls.  By 2019, the number of people responding to polls was down to 6%.  This year it was down to 2%.  Michael Segal had an OpEd in today’s WSJ article, “When Is a Poll not a Poll?”  At 2%, Segal says researchers should call them projections because of the small sample.  Why are people not responding as they used to?  I believe most polls were conducted by phone and many home phones did not have caller ID.  Now with most people using cell phones, people simply do not answer calls from anyone they don’t know.  So, who answers the phones?  I believe it is older people with land lines who either have phones with no caller ID or they simply ignore the caller ID.  This elderly demographic is simply not representative of the whole population.

November 27:  So, does Trump have a mandate.  It is easy to make a case for that given that he had a 312-226 victory in Electoral votes and a 75.9 million to 74.4 million win in the popular vote.  The Republicans won both the House and the Senate.  So, claiming a mandate seems like a reasonable conclusion.  I cannot fully attribute the election results to the “are you better off now than you were four years ago” theory alone.  The folks that support Trump seem to really like the way he gives voice to opinions they have long stifled for political correctness.  This scares the people that didn’t vote for Trump and fear him, and Project 2025, as a threat to our democracy.

Celebrities are threatening to move out of the US.  Barbara Streisand, Cher, and Sharon Stone have expressed they considering leaving the country.  Ellen DeGeneres is in the process of doing so.  Others, more common folk, that are upset about the election say they are contemplating the same, but it is very likely that any of them will actually do anything this drastic. 

So, half of the country got what they wanted.  They feel vindicated and look forward a Trumpian nirvana.  The other half is certain our democracy is doomed, and despotism is in our future.  Me? I cannot buy into either extreme and believe, perhaps, naively in the checks and balances built into our government structure.  I also believe that if people are not happier in two years, the midterm election will go as many elections do as elections do as many do after a mandate election like we just had. 

We shall see.

Watching the First Christmas Movie of the Season

 

It is two days before Thanksgiving, and I am watching a Christmas Movie:  Love the Coopers (2015).  The weather is finally Novembery and while it seems too early for a Christmas movie, it is turning out to be the perfect movie for this evening. 

The film has, I want to say star studded cast, but maybe a solid well know cast is a better term.  Diane Keaton and John Goodman star as a couple in their sixties hosting a last Christmas in their lovely home before telling their family in the New Year, that they will be divorcing.  Alan Arkin plays Keaton’s father and Marisa Tomei plays her sister.  The rest of the cast, that are familiar to me, include Ed Helms and Amanda Seyfried

Set in snowy Pittsburgh, the movie at times has a Hallmark Christmas movie feel with classic carolers and department store Santas to it to evoke what I have to save is a perfect amount of nostalgia.  It is narrated, just the right amount of exquisitely written affirmations and insights that the Christmas movies are peppered with.  There are flashbacks, again wonderfully well timed, that add more nostalgia and affirmations.  This also contributes to the nostalgic courses of this film.  But Love the Coopers is also a modern saga of a functionally dysfunctional family dealing with the complexities of modern life of a divorced son who just got laid off, a daughter who is having an affair with a married man, a grandson experiencing the joy of first love, and another, younger, grandson unhappy about his parents’ divorce.  Of course, everything concludes with the biggest conflicts resolved and, as all good Christmas movies must, hopefully and warmly.

My favorite Christmas movies are basically the favorite Christmas movies of so many others.  The include, in no particular order, It’s a Wonderful Life, Love Actually, A Christmas Story, and select versions of A Christmas Carol.  In the second tier are most of the other movies that include Charlie Brown’s Christmas, Elf, White Chrsitmas, The Bishop’s Wife, and Miracle on 34^th Street.  All of my favorite Christmas movies have many of the same elements:  nostalgia, multiple story lines, conflict resolution (OK… this happens in every movie ever made), and they all end in a wonderfully, seasonal, warm, and hopeful place with a positive outlook for the future.

I watched Love the Coopers when it first came was on cable.  I thought it was good, but it did not resonate and have the impact it did this evening.  I do believe that I needed a dose of nostalgia and a wee bit of a hopeful ending.  It is now a favorite movie of mine that I will look for every year.

Christmas has certainly gotten way to commercialized.  The hype seems to start earlier and earlier every year.  Black Friday seems to have taken over the month of November.  We have already ordered our Christmas cards and have already mailed the first wave, to immediate family, out.  While I am fully aware that movie making is a business, a movie like this, Love the Coopers, is a respite, an oasis, from the hype and commercialization.