For me an aesthetic baptism was taking the new Chicago "subway" a day or two after it opened (1943) to the Art Institute of Chicago with my mother. I was totally taken over by the experience of seeing paintings...which I'd already seen in books and thus the demand to see the real thing). The underground ride ...under the Chicago River, was indelible, too. I was 6 and after that day only art mattered. The subway hasn't changed much. But in 1943 the tunnel walls gleamed pure white. Ad promised new material wonders once the wear was won!
I liked the Saturday afternoon movies, too. Serials were king. For some reason I remember the intermissions when generals and other bigwigs would appear on screen just after the showing of horrific war newsreels. Then the lights would go on and glass milk bottles would be passed to collect coins for some war relief. After that the lights dimmed and the cartoons began and a theater full of ruffian kids would hoop and clap! For kids, distant war and misery were far more unreal than the cartoons and the serials. What weird contrasts we experienced growing up in the 1940s. Sometimes at school, we'd hear that a classmate's dad or older brother had been killed in the war. On those days, everyone was hushed... for an hour or two. Kids played and laughed in a world of adult agonies. I've got a box full of old big-sized slides for movie theater projection, the kind Mando mentioned. They came from a family business in Wisconsin. They urged shoppers to buy their Oshkosh B'Gosh overalls and housewares at the Conger Store. WC --- On Wed, 12/24/08, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Enough "taste > To: [email protected] > Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 10:18 AM > Ah, Mando -- Saturday matinee was a treasured part of the > week for me too. > And one Saturday when I was eight brought a colossal > "aesthetic" baptism: The > movie "Fantasia". The color, the animation, and > the MUSIC! All of it was > effectively new to me. > > The ballet dancer, Allegra Kent, once described for me what > was her > "aesthetic" baptism. When she was seven or eight > she saw her first ballet. The impact > was fundamentally life-changing. Before that, she never > knew there was such a > thing. After that, for her it was the ONLY thing. > > > > > ************** > One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, > Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. > (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp& > icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025)
