I am participating in the A-to-Z Blog Challenge this month. My theme is...the music of my life.
In
1983, director Mark Rydell and a movie crew from Universal Pictures moved into
Kingsport, Tennessee and the surrounding areas to film the movie, The River, starring Mel Gibson and Sissy
Spacek. This was a really big deal in a small town like ours, and to have
actors, directors, and producers from a big-name film company like Universal
made people feel like our town had been put on the map. I auditioned for the
role of one of the children even though I was much older than what they were
looking for (I was eleven and they were looking for a six-year-old, but I
figured it was worth a shot).
Many
people’s homes in our area were rented out by members of the crew. I remember
trick-or-treating at the home where the director was living. He wasn’t
candy-ready, so he gave us fifty-cents a piece. Locals helped coach baseball
and showed the actors how the other half lived. We showed up to watch scenes
with Mel Gibson being filmed, and Sissy Spacek kept her horses at the same barn
as ours. I even got to sing a song for her while sitting in her white BMW with
her husband and eighteen-month-old daughter looking on. She was a lovely
person. It was a really exciting time.
The River came out in 1984, and a lot of other interesting
things were happening for me during that time. I was cast in a small-town
production of Annie—nothing too exciting…I
played an orphan—and this little foray into theater solidified a desire in me to
act and sing (a passion of mine for many years thereafter). My stepmother gave
birth to the first of two younger sisters, and Mom, her new husband, and I made
plans to move to Washington, DC.
I turned
twelve in 1984, and all sorts of wonderful movies were in the theaters like
Ghostbusters, Footloose, and Sixteen Candles. The billboard charts were full of
classic—80s songs like Huey Lewis and the News, Madonna, Pat Benatar, Night
Ranger, and Eurythmics. Actually, there were too many good songs to mention
them all. This was one of my favorite times of my life, and one of my favorite
times for music.
What
were some of your favorite 80s tunes?
