Kind of a bittersweet week for me. Endings: small, medium & large.
I.
Our tomato and pepper plants are at the end of their growth cycles. I doubt that we’ll get more than a handful of tomatoes– or a couple of peppers– before the fall chill kills the plants. It happens every year this way; I’m always surprised. This year the difference is that the other day I noticed two chickadees goofing around in the tomato plants. At first I thought that they were after the tomatoes, but as I kept watching I realized that what the birds wanted is the cotton string that we use, with the wooden stakes, to hold up the plants. They were pulling on the cotton string with their beaks, but unable to get it lose. So I decided that when I dismantle the tomato plants later this month I’ll cut the used cotton string into lengths and leave it out on the deck railing. Maybe the chickadees will use the cotton string to make their nests. We’ll see.
II.
Zen-Den and I have very few traditions. We don’t do the same thing for any holiday. There are no “but we always do this” restrictions on us. It comes from being on our own for so long– and from not having kids, I suspect. That being said, every September we look forward to our first drive into the countryside to go to a small, locally owned apple orchard that has the best apples ever. So this last weekend we got into the car and went out there, all excited about our first apple foray of the year. But when we got to the orchard, it was closed; a sign out front said: “Semi-Retired. Closed for Season. Be back Summer of 2012.” And with that, our one tradition went *poof* and we found ourselves apple-less in the countryside. Humph.
III.
As you probably know, All My Children ends this week. I still can’t quite wrap my head around this. I grew up around AMC– first at a friend’s house, where her mother was addicted to it; and then at my house, once my mother retired from teaching. The fact that my Mom, the happy hermit, watched a soap opera never made much sense to me; but she said that it gave her day structure and that Erica reminded her so much of her freshman year college roommate that she couldn’t not watch it. In fact, she watched it every day until her death fifteen years ago.
So here’s the odd thing: even though I never became a fan of the show, I realize that I’m going to miss it. Knowing that AMC was always on TV gave me a feeling of immediate connection with my mother. Rational? Not in the least. But it’s what I’ve kept tucked away in the back of my mind all these years. Of course, now with the end of All My Kids, that last connection will be gone. Forever.
Life’s busy now. More chit-chat next week, gentle readers. Talk at ‘ya then.
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
Hi, I found you while commenting on Michelle Fabio’s Bleeding Espresso post regarding the season of fall, and when I discovered your “AMC” post, I wanted to weigh in and let you know I worked on the show playing a prison guard when “Erica” was in jail and wrote about the experience of meeting Susan Lucci and hearing her insist, “Yesterday’s on tape . . . We go on from here . . . ”
I wrote about this in a blog entry this past April; when news of the show’s imminent canceling was first released, which you may read by going to this link:
http://thelastleafgardener.blogspot.com/2011/04/yesterdays-on-tape-we-go-on-from-here.html
Apropos of nothing, I have not had a television since the 1970s mostly due to the fact that I watched too much of it growing up (especially soap operas) and now-days I fill my head with as little as possible from television or movies — not because I am uninterested (but) it just takes me such a long time to clear my mind from unnecessary stimulus. However, I do understand how it gives people a sense of structure. I know it did for my dearly departed grandmother.
As for your assumption that the canceling of AMC will ultimately be synonymous with a severing of an “immediate connection” to your departed mother , I hope you find that to be untrue. Television programs come and go; and are easily replaced with others, but connections to a relationship with someone near and dear to you only grow stronger. I hope I don’t sound “hallmark” because I do understand how you feel. The “soap” , known as “As The World Turns ” (“ATWT”) is one I think of regarding my mother and grand mother (and I wrote about that too at the following link)
http://thelastleafgardener.blogspot.com/2010/11/walter-cronkite-jfk-funniest-videos-are.html
When ATWT was cancelled I may have had similar feelings to those you expressed regarding an “immediate connection” even though my grandmother was no longer alive and my mother no longer watched ATWT.
Your post is lovely, Ally, and “bitter sweet” as you say. Like yourself, I wear “eye glasses all day every day, all the time”; perhaps having a “lack”of physical vision makes one see and feel more deeply.
With heartfelt wishes for a SWEET week,
Patricia Youngquist, the LLG (Last Leaf Gardener)
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Hi Patricia, thanks for leaving such an interesting and in-depth comment. I loved what you wrote on your blog about your experiences with the soaps. Will take the wisdom of Susan Lucci to heart as this week progresses.
Love your idea that “perhaps having a ‘lack’ of physical vision makes one see and feel more deeply.” I believe that there’s some truth to it. Good observation. [no pun intended]
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Me again. Just stopped by to add a “PS” that I heard on the radio today that AMC will be continuing — on-line! I thought of you immediately.
On another note, feeling more deeply ain’t always fun, Ally, but having worn glasses since I was 1 and 1/2 years old has definitely made me look at the world in a different way, and I always appreciate unique perspectives. And speaking of that I like your shot of the Echinacea that is included in your reply.
I always have a few of those plants in my garden even though they behave like annuals instead of the perennials they are ‘meant”” to be! They have been the inspiration for many of my blog posts as well as my photographs.
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Patricia, so All My kids lives on, eh? Even though I don’t watch it, this gives me a sense of joy & continuity. Weird, huh?
I, too, appreciate the unique perspective. Relish it a bit more than the ordinary. I wonder how much seeing the world in a hazy way as a child influences acceptance of differences as an adult. Now there’s a topic for a PhD dissertation! Not that I’m going to write one, but someone else could.
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We have too many traditions and they are all changing due to distance and death. I hate that.
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Margaret, yes, you’ve had a lot of change recently. I like not having very many traditions, but the few that we do have I’d like to keep going. However, that seems to be impossible. So, I can either sit here and fret– or just move on graciously. ‘Tis life, eh?
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Not at all. (Your response of “this gives me a sense of joy & continuity. Weird, huh?” to my comment). I see it like this: Someone gets invited to celebrate a holiday with friends or family but he/she declines and stays home to work on his/her stuff, yet, they feel good knowing they were invited. OR, as is often the case where I live in NYC, a person, in his/her daily routine passes a restaurant or shop on a daily basis. One day he/she discovers that it has suddenly gone out of business, and finds himself/herself feeling sad about the “loss”. Soon after he/she discovers that the place has relocated and feels a sense of comfort. Do they now go to the place? No, but they feel comfort knowing that it is there.
As for your pondering “I wonder how much seeing the world in a hazy way as a child influences acceptance of differences as an adult” , I have a written a lot on this subject, although not a dissertation (-;
One of my first blog entries was about how having worn glasses since age 1.5 and considered as a legally blind individual has shaped how I “see” things, if you’d like to read it, here is the link:
http://thelastleafgardener.blogspot.com/2010/01/sunset-in-riverside-park-kaleidoscopic_7005.html
In the meantime, Ally, happy last day of summer to you and yours! Tomorrow is the Autumn Equinox. I always find adjusting to the change of sunlight brought on by the season’s changing a hard thing to adjust to, but like all things, I ultimately do. What is your experience with the changing of seasons and its consequences on your eyesight?
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You are the third blogger to mourn All My Children. That, of course, makes me want to watch it.
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Relyn, I haven’t wanted to watch it in years. But with it ending, I thought that I’d watch it. For my mother, I guess. [Really, honestly, I don’t know who half the characters are so it’s a bit tedious to watch. Still, I’m going to see it through.]
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