09 November, 2017
“Channeling Ernest Hemingway!”
OMG JoJo….I guess I must’ve missed writing these installments more than I thought, because after having composed one just yesterday, I found that these thoughts were ones that I was eager to nail down while they were fresh in my mind!! (smile) The catalyst for this was the arrival of the newest piece to be added to my collection.
Normally, I acquire the piece, then photograph it, then will have a period of time pass (sometimes weeks or even months) before I feel inspired to try to tell you “the stories behind the glass” as we’ve come to call them. However….the moment I saw this item on E-bay, I was intrigued by it!! I surprised myself because I didn’t want to add this piece due to its beauty, or sculpting or any visually discernible uniqueness.
As a matter of fact JoJo, I’m not that thrilled by it as “a crystal work of art” at all to tell the truth. It was an item I choose using some “reward points” that became available to me!! It’s a good thing too, because I think I would’ve been disappointed in it if I had paid the asking price that was requested!! (smile)
I wanted to get this item because of the incredibly vivid childhood memory it brought to me immediately!! One that has remained with me for 60 years believe it or not!! We’ve never talked a lot about my childhood….I know. Okay, so it’s a hot, humid summer Sunday in Detroit, in 1958!! I was 8 years old when a group of neighborhood friends and I decided to spend a Sunday afternoon (after church back in those days, of course) the way many kids did….by going to the movies!!
I’m tellin’ ya JoJo, back then you could literally be in a movie theater for hours watching the News of the Day, a Cartoon (maybe 2), some Previews of Coming Attractions and then 2….yes 2 Feature Films!! (ha,ha,ha,ha) All this for the paltry sum of somewhere between 50 cents and a dollar, which by the way, was a considerable amount of money for us kids back then!! I remember sometimes feeling guilty because usually each kid’s parents had given them money to “put in the change offering baskets” each Sunday, and we (knowing that we were planning on going to the “show”) would “offer up to the Lord” not quite the full amount we had been given!!
Shame on us, I know….but at the time we were “self-serving, greedy little offspring, whose major concern was to increase our potential popcorn and candy intake during the rest of the afternoon!! We weren’t proud of it….BUT….we also didn’t think the Lord was gonna “condemn us to the fiery furnace” for wanting to have a large Buttered Popcorn, with our Soda and JuJubees…OMG, the memories!! (ha,ha,ha,ha)
Well on this one particular Sunday, we certainly thought that GOD had finally decided to teach us a lesson because the movie that was playing was “The Old Man & the Sea”. It’s a film classic based on the novel written by Ernest Hemingway, and it starred legendary actor Spencer Tracy. The story involved the “battle between man and beast”, or perhaps “the strength or dominance of man against the forces of nature” if you will. The “beast” in this case was a huge Blue Marlin that Tracy (as an elder among a village of younger, stronger fishermen) had managed to catch while being all alone at sea.
The story was absolutely captivating as we watched him endure the taunting of the younger fishermen, who said his days were over as one of the “star providers” of fish for the village. There was a young boy who befriended him, and never lost his faith in the fact that the old man would catch a big one and show them all. It was a pretty interesting set up for the main action of the movie.
So….the old man catches this giant Marlin and Jodie here’s the point of my whole piece. All of us kids are sitting in maybe the 3rd or 4th row of the theater. We’re lovin’ the cartoons and all the other stuff. We’re even cool with the long build up to seeing the fish because we’re thinking “hey, so how big can this fish be??”
Well….our first view of the Marlin scared the livin’ hell out of us!! (ha,ha,ha,ha) This was more like the realism of “Jaws” than anything we had ever seen. Certainly, the “Great White Whale, Moby Dick” was a bigger sea creature, but we had not seen him yet!! We had not seen any kind of “real looking” fish that was as scary as that Marlin….specially as big as he was from the 3rd or 4th row!! The rest of that afternoon, we sat terrified, awed and excited as we couldn’t believe that the “movie people” found a fish like that to film with this old man!! (ha,ha,ha,ha,ha)
After having the hell scared out of me as a kid, I became fascinated by the beauty, size and strength of the Marlins, Swordfish, and Sailfish, and would always (when I could catch them) watch the deep sea sport fishermen who go after them. It’s still one of the items I would have on my “bucket list” if I realistically established one. I would like to be safety harnessed into that armchair at the back of the boat, large “super strength fishing pole” locked onto the deck!!
Trying to overcome the possible boredom as the minutes, (possibly hours) go by, and attempting to subdue the rush of adrenaline that would course through your veins as you anticipate the moment when you’ll face the beast that will be your foe. Then it happens, you feel the line get incredibly taut….the pole bends into an arch that you can’t believe it could withstand the pressure of reaching without completely snapping!! The sound of the rapidly spinning reel line whirring and feeling like a small turbine in your hands.
You tense up as you realize that this is what you came here for….this little “fishing excursion” is about to get serious!! You’re going to finally experience what it’s like to do battle with a fish that can grow to a length of more than 15 feet, and have a weight anywhere from 1500 to 2000lbs!! It’ll be exhilarating to see it leaping out of the water, tossing its head back and forth, left to right, and right to left in an effort to free itself from the fisherman’s hook!!
Then it will dive, deep….very deep, and you’ll think you may lose it. You’ll think that you have just seconds, maybe a minute to rest, perhaps regain your strength….you’ll need it because this battle can wage for hours, and it will most likely call upon you to dig deep into your character and resolve!!
Jodie, I imagine that to triumph over such a magnificent creature would have to be one of the most gratifying personal accomplishments a man could achieve. Yes, you did talk me into being able to purchase a townhouse I could call mine. You also encouraged me to go to see sailboats racing in Antigua. However, I’m not so certain that I’ll ever really channel Ernest Hemingway, and embark on my own version of “The Old Man and the Sea”.
I guess now, that each time I look at this Crystal Blue Marlin, I’ll think of that scared little 8 year old who “saw a fish in a movie”, and never forgot the impression it left, and the actual bucket list fantasy it created for the rest of my life!!
The Crystal Chronicles 