
I didn't have much of a life when I was thirteen. That year I lost all my friends when my parents moved from Union City, New Jersey to Leonia, New Jersey. As the crow flies, this is less than ten miles, but to a thirteen-year-old, they might just as well have transported me to Jupiter.
I watched a lot of television in those days, and at night I'd lie in my bed and watch my tiny black and white, vaguely space-age shaped Sharp television until I fell asleep. Saturday nights were no different, except I remember watching Channel 13, and I remember when this logo came up--
I salivated at the thought that something was going to appear on
the magic box that I didn't see on network television, and definitely
not during my beloved Monster Week on the ABC 4:30
Movie. Tragedy and Comedy came up
out of the blackness, silently, and told me, "Prepare yourself," and
they stayed on screen long enough for me to do so. I knew I was going
to see something usually with subtitles, usually weird, and usually I
wasn't going to understand 90% of it. But despite all those things, or
maybe because of them, the movie was going to keep my interest.