The Movies We Saw

By Gretchen Berg

At first, in my neighborhood, it was Disney.
Swiss Family Robinson made us build
sprawling tree forts and rip red caps apart
to stuff into dirt clod grenades.
We thought The Parent Trap twins
looked fake, but it was still cool
when they poured honey on the bad
girlfriend’s feet during the camping trip.
We discovered The Absent–Minded Professor
recipe for flubber but my dad saw us
carrying a tire, matches and a gas can
into the woods and stopped us.

Pretty soon the movies weren’t just kid movies.
The dad in To Kill a Mockingbird looked like
my dad, there were a lot of bad white grown–ups
except not the crazy guy next door, and Scout
wore a ham costume. Girls screamed all through
A Hard Day s Night, Joan Crawford and her ax
scared me forever, and I sat in the second row
all the way to the right for a James Bond
triple feature. Some kids didn’t get to see Tom Jones
because eating chicken and oysters was so sexy.
A Man and a Woman was cool and confusing.
We listened to the record and pretended to smoke.

Lulu sang To Sir with Love on a 45,
my brother pounded out Exodus on the piano,
and we knew the words to The Sound of Silence
before Dustin Hoffman did. I saw Dr. Zhivago
three times. He was completely cute
and completely good, but his wife
was rich and pathetic so once Lara shot
Rod Steiger we all knew what would happen.

Lara’s Theme was the most beautiful music
in the world. I’d listen and picture snow,
and revolution and Omar Sharif.
But mostly I pictured Julie Christie.