Profoundly Misled During Formative Years?
I was wondering, if like me, you grew up pretty much accepting and respecting that the parental word was not only law, but sacrosanct. I tended to believe anything that was told to me being of a basically credulous nature.
It was only much later in life that I discovered that not everything that was told was correct and that parents were not infallible. They were just another human being with all the human failings, even though they believed what they were saying was true.
Did you ever see the Bill Clinton interview (I think it was with Andrew Denton) where Denton, if it was indeed him, asked Clinton what Chelsea thought of his indiscretions with Monica Lewinsky and he said,
"Look, there comes a time in every child's life when they have to realise that their parents are not perfect."
I was gobsmacked, and promptly wrote it down so I would never forget it. He was an amazing man. I think he had all the American men wanting to be him and all the American women wanting to be Monica. Amazing.
Actually, if I may digress a little, I heard Ms Lewinsky had become a little rotund and amidst tears of distress appealed in a moment of weakness to a higher being to remove her love handles. It would appear that there is a God and she was heard as moment later her ears fell off.
Anyhow, back to the story, my father had always stated that John Wayne was no taller than my father's own six foot and was made to look big by a combination of built-up boots and camera angle. I accepted this without question.
Many years later I was walking along Regent Street in London and a dark limousine stopped and illegally parked in the road. A man got out. A young woman rushed past me up to the man and asked him if he was John Wayne. He replied'
"I am."
There was no question. He was.
He was also humungus. Every inch of the 6' 6" he was reputed to be. He was old even then and grotesquely knock-kneed. I thought a passing vehicle was about to expire, but it was only his knees knocking. As he crossed the street I thought a London bus would surely take him out and in ten seconds achieve what Geronimo and the Apache nation had failed to do in ten years. (Did I say I was credulous?)
So I was profoundly misled and I attribute my many failings to this. Any of you have similar stories? It doesn't have to be about John Wayne (I would have changed it to "John" too if I was called Marion). It could be Clint Eastwood or......You know what I mean. Anything.
Regards
Paul
