I spent the early part of this morning watching (for about the tenth time) the excellent little movie, Breaking Away .
BA appeals to me on a couple of levels. First, the plot centers around kids growing up in an area both economically and psychologically depressed by the closure of a local granite quarry. That scenario should sound familiar to those of us, especially the humble authors of this blog, that came of age just as the mills began to close.
The Cutters of Breaking Away remind me very much of the kids of the displaced mill workers of whom we saw many. The sense of loss devastated many folks who simply knew no other way. Life stopped for some, but not all.
I think I can say with some accuracy that your humble authors knew that life on the hill was finished; that the glory days of village life were in their twi-light. Other paths would need to be followed; other trails would need to be blazed and so they were. We were cutters of a sort. Our dreams and aspirations would flourish, but far from the quaint, close-nit life of the hill. But the heart still remains there. Maybe this blog is an indication of that.
I also like Breaking Away on a secondary level. It's a bicycle movie. I spent about fifteen years in the saddle, spinning the back roads of South Carolina. I still have some of the aches and pains to prove it.
Breaking Away: A funny, touching movie, well worth watching if you haven't seen it.
BA appeals to me on a couple of levels. First, the plot centers around kids growing up in an area both economically and psychologically depressed by the closure of a local granite quarry. That scenario should sound familiar to those of us, especially the humble authors of this blog, that came of age just as the mills began to close.
The Cutters of Breaking Away remind me very much of the kids of the displaced mill workers of whom we saw many. The sense of loss devastated many folks who simply knew no other way. Life stopped for some, but not all.
I think I can say with some accuracy that your humble authors knew that life on the hill was finished; that the glory days of village life were in their twi-light. Other paths would need to be followed; other trails would need to be blazed and so they were. We were cutters of a sort. Our dreams and aspirations would flourish, but far from the quaint, close-nit life of the hill. But the heart still remains there. Maybe this blog is an indication of that.
I also like Breaking Away on a secondary level. It's a bicycle movie. I spent about fifteen years in the saddle, spinning the back roads of South Carolina. I still have some of the aches and pains to prove it.
Breaking Away: A funny, touching movie, well worth watching if you haven't seen it.
1 comment:
One of the great flicks!
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