Cobbling together relationships based on shared pop culture references

Someone should write an essay about how people think they fall in love these days. My guess is that it would be based in some degree (at least initially) on "getting" each other's pop culture references from their youth. Like, you could tell yourself you are in love with a guy because he quotes the same line the cute guy whispers to Molly Ringwald right before he kisses her in Sixteen Candles (or, you could hate the guy for the same reason, depending on how you feel about Brat Pack movies). Or like if someone had the same toys you did when you were a kid (like "Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robot." Okay, I didn't have that toy but my uncles did and so I attach nostalgia to it). And if I meet someone who can talk to me about other childhood favorites like Little House on the Prairie, Holly Hobby, or EZ Bake-Ovens, I'm a goner. But you can only go so far with, "Remember that episode of Facts of Life where Jo admitted she was a lesbian? That's when the show really jumped the shark!" Then what do you talk about? Then where do you find your connections? I have forgotten how. And what was it like in, let's say, Romeo and Juliet's time? What did they talk about? Those f-ing peasants and their annoyingly catchy dirges? I don't know anymore; it's probably my fault for previously either always having relationships with guys older than me by 8-10 years or younger than me by at least five.

Writing class tonight and it's our last one before we have a small break and then I'll come back for another month of classes. We don't have any stories/poems/essays to workshop so we're just going to write for an extended amount of time and then take a break and come back and read our work out loud to everyone which will take forever, particularly if we write for an entire hour. There's one woman in class who writes like a demon. She can have seven single spaced pages in 20 minutes. But maybe not everyone will read.

Comments

Liz said…
I'm not hitting on you but I do feel the need to point out the following:

1. Holly Hobbie was the theme of my room when I was younger (chair, pictures, sheets, etc). I also had HH plates and cake pans.

2. For some reason, from the time I was about 5 I was in possession of several old fashioned bonnets. Maybe my Dad got them on some trip to 1870? My bff Kerri and her baby sister Katie used to come over and play LHOTP. We always made Katie into some tragic orphan we found in the woods and kept in the barn.
Aimee said…
That is so funny! I had two bonnets too. I loved them. My mom made one of them--it was blue and white with ribbons and matched my Easter dress. The other was more "real;" it was green calico and had the stiff bonnet. We played LHOP too and I was always Laura and we were frequently caught in blizzards.

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