Busy! Crazy! Rush, rush! At this holiday time of year, when I need to zone out, I escape to movies on TV. I am hooked on Turner Classic Movies, or the romance stories on Hallmark. (No, I cannot handle violence or horror stuff.) Oh, and Public Television. Another winner.
Remember, I am needing mindless escape.
Just lately, I “escaped” into the movie, “Dr. Zhivago” on TCM. It is a remarkable classic, set during the Russian Revolution. Dr. Yuri Zhivago, (Omar Sharif), a young doctor, falls in love with beautiful Lara Guishar (Julie Christie). Yes, it’s a love story, folks. And the scenes depict a desolate, starving, Russia, a cold freezing, snowy, frost-bitten country going through hard times.
Years ago, Fred and I climbed into a car with a neighborhood couple, and drove to Great Bend to see this movie, “Dr. Zhivago.” Coming out of the theater afterwards, we were greeted with a heavy snow. It was a surprise visit, that snow! It was coming down thick and fast. We stood in the lit parking lot, brushing the snow off the windshield, wondering how long it had been snowing.
In the early ’70s, the custom of women wearing stylish wigs was the rage. My hair had been a mess and when I left the house that afternoon, bidding good-bye to the kids and the baby-sitter, I wore my new, attractive wig on my head, and I grabbed a coat at the last minute. No gloves, no boots. It was cold, but hadn’t been snowing. Bye kids. Kiss. Kiss. We will see you later. Have fun with the sitter.
Back to the movie. We brushed off the car, drove out on 10th street heading west, and the minute the street lights were no longer giving us extra light, we were turning the curve at the then Suiter’s restaurant, heading west. We were in trouble. The snow was so heavy, and we couldn’t see the road. We couldn’t turn around. We couldn’t see.
Although we weren’t dressed for a snow storm, my wig served as a comfortable hat! Strange, but we had just left a movie where the actors were dressed in furs, and covered with blankets as they rode in a sleigh. Well, we were in a sleigh all right, but we didn’t have any furs.
Fred was driving, or at least feigning “driving,” because the snow was coming so fast in the dark that it gave him vertigo. Our lights were covered with snow. We couldn’t stop to wipe them off. We knew we wouldn’t have the traction to start again. We had to keep going.
But where were we?
I rolled the window down on my side and stuck my wigged head out the window. I was leaning out the passenger side window, and my wig was now askew on my head. My bangs were on the right side and the back of the wig was flowing down the left side of my face. Who cared! I watched for the grass on the side of the road. We drove where we thought the road “might be.” We traveled very slow. We would creep along, trying to figure out where the road might be. The snow was deep.
Two and one-half hours later, we arrived in Pawnee Rock. At least it “looked” like Pawnee Rock. Elevators. Antique store on the right. We sort of knew some people in Pawnee Rock. We found their house. We knocked. “Can we come in and spend the night”? The four of us did exactly that. We spent the night on the floor. Our coats were our pillows.
And the baby-sitter? Well, she made some good money that night. We left for Larned at 8 the next morning. Yes. We made it. And I will never forget “Dr. Zhivago.”
Judi Tabler lives in Pawnee County and is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune. She can be reached at juditabler@gmail.com or juditabler@awomansview.
