The first two Godfather movies came on TV about a couple weeks ago one afternoon and even though my father, sister (Christine), and I have seen them before, we always jump at the chance to tune in as if we’ve never seen them. Both Dad and Chris read Mario Puzo’s book many years ago, and I’m just beginning to, up to chapter 9. In part 2 of the film there’s a quick scene when Fredo is a baby, very sick with pneumonia, wailing. Vito (de Niro) is agonizing over this a few feet away, visibly upset, concerned, and achingly helpless, as most parents tend to feel when their baby is suffering so much.
“Dad,” Christine starts to deadpan.
“That was you in February and we were like Vito here!”
I don’t remember if I had that idea first or if she did but it really doesn’t matter. We both “got it” right away and howled with laughter for a good few seconds, so familiar with the storyline of this film that we were able to momentarily distract ourselves, so embedded in the drama of Dad and his illness, and the toll it takes on him and on us, that this absurd, crude joke was oddly welcomed.
We indeed felt like Vito that day in February when Dad was rushed to the Emergency Room, three days after his 66th birthday, definitely not laughing. Dad was in a lot of pain with his pneumonia and sky rocket high blood pressure, thinking it was a heart attack, feeling as if he wasn’t going to make it. I cried in the ambulance sitting beside him asking why in the world did he wait until I got home from work, almost 6:00pm, instead of calling me right away. He explained that his chest didn't hurt as much yet, not until I arrived- as in, a weird “perfect timing”. But sometimes my dad has this incredibly high threshold and pain tolerance combined with the desire to buck up and follow procedure. I can picture him hunched over the living room couch (where I found him that evening) advising himself to, “just wait until Tennille gets home”, regardless of how much pain he's in.
He didn’t say anything back in response to our joke, unfazed. Not offended, but not joking back either, maybe a little smirk appeared on his face and a shaking of the head, “smh”.
Moving Onto Marilyn (for no particular reason)
Dad was watching a show about Marilyn Monroe on Reelz the other day, a scandalized, “behind the legend” kind of show. I think this one. In ‘91 or ‘92, someone gave his father a big black and white framed Marilyn poster for his birthday. That evening, my cousin Yvonne and I had the silly idea (again, I don’t know who thought of it first), to sing “happy birthday” to him with the poster between us, in the same (or exaggerated) way she sang to JFK in ‘62 and instead of saying “Mr. President” we’d breathlessly coo, “Mr. Graaand-paaa”. This got big laughs from everyone who was there. I know that sounds a little gross to be singing like that for your grandfather, but he was never one to give us creepy vibes thank God, and our dad’s family is very “Hurray for Hollywood” and always loves a good spoof/parody/joke. Nothing more came out of that.
Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jean and I share a random link -the same birth day and month. This makes me contemplate her more than I would have if we didn’t share a birthday. Christine is a big Marilyn fan and truly enjoys her work; me, not as much. I am not hating, I’ve actually been fascinated enough to sketch her face one day
Probably in ‘98. This was a photo I took of the drawing, probably in the early-mid 2000s, hence the flip phone nearby. The cheat method I used was something I found in a ‘How-to draw’ book from the library. Here are two good links describing upside down drawing.
This has you drawing using “the right side of your brain”, making the eye see more objectively. I like how it came out though the face looks faded and smudged, which kind of fits in a way - the faded, tragic kind of glamour that Marilyn embodied. I didn't seem to capture her fun, bubbly style here.
Same day. Billie's eyes are too small and far apart here in my opinion. But it looks more accurate than anything I’ve done prior, spatial wise. So I might try it this way again. Sometimes I write like this too in a way- I gather up information, life data all over the place, or ‘upside down’, not always making sense at first. I write it down trying to be objective, then later I try to make sense of it all and find some meaning.
Anyway, so far this is one of my favorite stories regarding Marilyn. I didn’t know this about her only up until about a year ago.
But since this entry began with a joke, however twisted, allow me to end with one of hers.
“It's not true I had nothing on. I had the radio on.” On reports of her nude photographs for a calendar, as quoted in TIME magazine (1952)
Pretty clever there!
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