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| You realize this means war. |
One of our best-loved comedies as kids was Caddyshack. My oldest brother worked at a local country club in high school that's a golfer's paradise. Me, my middle bro, and our cousin got bored one afternoon at an older cousin's wedding, held conveniently on a golf course. Without too much thought or planning, we jacked a golf cart for a joy ride around the grounds that was the height of the day, if not for the summer of that year. We still laugh about it, and I remember the outfit I wore: a waitress-inspired preteen dress separate, with white polka dots on a grey background, pink trimmings on the collar and sleeves that mimicked the rolled up ones of real diner outfits.
Tragically, one of my mother's oldest school friends from her old neighborhood in the Bronx died suddenly from head trauma as the result of falling out of a golf cart onto a rock while riding with her husband around their Arizona golf community's grounds. Even though none of us are avid golfers, golf courses and greens seems to run a current through our family's lives, and that's just what the movie is about: working class Irish Catholics looking to break through to WASPY society and its' supposed access to wealth and benefits. Some of us figured out a long time ago that money ain't the only way to a dream, and some of us still feel that money is a ticket out of dysfunction to a better life, and that's what the exclusivity of a country club promises to them; proof that they've finally "made it".
My mom loved the gopher from the movie the best, and he no doubt is a scene stealer: a cute, cuddly, rascally troublemaker who ruins golf paradise by simply showing up to do what gopher's do. She loves his little dances and song skits so much, that when I saw an animatronic doll that's a a dead ringer for the movie version, I bought it as a gag Christmas gift immediately. She loved it! All these years later, the darn thing still works. One of my nephews was terrified by it as a baby, and we still laugh about that, too. A doll that looks like a TeddyBear but moves?! Uh uh. Not right. He'd get this wide-eyed suspicious look on his chubby face that was the exact opposite of the intended reaction. Good times.
Cinephiles, Culture Vultures, and Couch Potatoes, I got it covered: http://www.pinterest.com/mariedoucette/culture-movies-and-t-v/.
