Thursday, September 17, 2009

So Long Springfield

I know you'll all think I'm a bit loony when I tell you that I've spent the better part of September in mourning. No, no one has passed. No one is ill. My husband isn't leaving me yet. I am in mourning for Guiding Light. Guiding Light the television show. . If you happen to see me around 3:00 each weekday afternoon, you'll probably find me crying. Over a television show.

See, CBS has decided it's in their best interest to cancel the show I have adored for over thirty years to replace it with a remake of Let's Make a Deal. Hey, I LOVE Let's Make a Deal too, but on Game Show Network with Monty Hall and all that retro 70's stuff, not at 2:00 in place of The Lewises, Spauldings, and Coopers.

I started watching Guiding Light around 1981, I was in the sixth grade I think. Don't try to do the math it will hurt you. And scare you. For my 41st birthday, I'm having my favorite show cancelled. Good times. Anyway, I spent many nights that summer with a friend who along with her mother were addicted to the show. Having no other option, but to sit and watch with them, I began liking the show as well. The first story line I saw was two high school couples going to the prom, and being 12ish and just beginning to like boys and school dances just on my horizon, I was hooked. Oh, Phillip....how I loved you.

For the longest time, I was going to name my children Hart and India because I'd heard them on the show. Can you imagine?

My grandmother lived with us at that time and I was never home when she was watching her show of choice, Days of Our Lives, but I made it home just in time every day to see Guiding Light. She started watching it with me. My mom laughed at us. Eventually, though, she watched it too. My Granny died in 1982. I was out of school for a week watching it by myself.

We moved to West Virginia in 1984. We left everything and everyone behind. For a month I knew no one, but Reva and Josh kept me company until some future friends knocked on my door.

I frequently skipped my last period class to sit in my boyfriend's basement to watch the show. He thought we were going there to make out before his mom got home. HA. Got that boyfriend hooked on it too. When we reconnected as friends five years later, we did it over show recaps over the phone.

I never scheduled a college course at 3:00. On Fridays, I'd watch before beginning another drunken weekend. My roommate would always sit and watch while waiting for me. She died in 1999 right before I got married. I hadn't talked to her in a few years. I wonder if she was still watching.

When I taught, I'd get home just in time to catch the last half hour. Those last six months I worked, I'd come home and head straight to the recliner with my hand on my belly the entire time. My son seemed to like it too.

Maybe he missed it when he spent a month in the NICU. I didn't though, because watching it every day before I made the second drive of the day for the evening shift of force-feeding/staring in awe/professing all my love to my pitiful looking newborn, helped me through the longest time of my life.

For the past eightish years, Guiding Light has seen me through colic, teething, defiance, the terrible twos and threes and fours, sleepless nights (thank you, Tivo), a nasty neighborhood, and MIL visits. I was watching when they called about my mom's heart attack and I was glued to the screen while I was left alone in that waiting room while she had her surgery.

I don't know what I'll do every day without my Springfield family. I'm so very sad. Over a television show.

I still look for my childhood friend on Facebook now and then and wonder if she still watches. Watched. I'd like to thank her for introducing me to my favorite daily weekly pleasure.

I don't know how what I'd have done without it.

8 comments:

Jana said...

I'm going to miss it, too. I watched it for about 10 years (my husband actually got me hooked on it - he had a crush on the original Blake, Sherry Stringfield). I gave it up a few years ago after the umpteenth Reva/Josh breakup, but I think I'll DVR it tomorrow just for old time's sake.

Ruby Red Slippers said...

:(
Sorry for you!
I watched Days of our Lives in college, but not since then-
That would be like losing a family member/members! I am so sorry for you!

Aunt Becky said...

My condolences. While I didn't watch it, I do understand.

Dana said...

I'm so sorry for you loss Andria. While I don't watch it myself, I do get it. I was like that when Friends ended and that was only a 10 year addiction! I remember actually CRYING though....so sorry you're losing your beloved tv show.

Glimmer said...

I watched it with my grandmother! My sister and I watched it when my mother went back to work and we were alone together in the house, waiting for our parents to come home. Then I watched it with roommates in college. Lost the daily habit after that, but would tune in now and then to see "old friends." And to my surprise found that when my father retired, he was watching it! Like mother, like son (it was his mother I had watched it with as a child). Although he watched it for the comic value, he thought the whole thing was hilarious, even the parts not meant to be.

So, even though I was no longer a daily fan, I will miss it not being there. In fact, I hate it not being there. I avidly dislike game shows, truth be told. But sadly, we are in the minority.

I Am Boymom said...

I was hooked on All My Children for awhile. Funny how those shows become a part of out lives. Thanks for sharing your memories.

soapfanccb said...

i'm sooo sad GL is gone!! i wish i could get to so long springfield! i am going on soap cruise though! & there will be 3 GL stars there: www.soapcruise.com BUT i think so long springfield (run by the same group) will be a really special event for die hard GL fans, i wish i could go, i keep checking the site for added dates/locations! (I heard a rumor they're adding more - fingers crossed!!!!)

Unknown said...

I grew up watching GL with my grandmother when it was only on for 15 minutes a day. I didn't know how much a part of my life it would become and how many stories I'd be able to remember all these years later. It is my favorite show to watch alone or with someone else. I am missing it like crazy at 2:00 everyday I feel lost. I hoped it would get picked up by another network but I guess that was a pipe dream. My best friend Dan and I are going to So Long Springfield in Pittsburgh this weekend and I see they have added Las Vegas so I may try and swing that one also. I'm glad there's places like this for us to come to and share where people don't think I'm crazy for the feelings I have for an old friend, Guiding Light.