Esther Chilton

This week’s writing prompt is:

THE FUTURE

I remember watching the film Back to the Future, with its visions of the future including hoverboards and much more. What do you think our future will be like? Will we all live on another planet while Earth becomes extinct, or do you see hope for us?

You don’t have to share your work, but I always enjoy seeing what you come up with if the prompt gives you inspiration. Your last prompt was FILMS. Here are the pieces you shared:

Kim Smyth:

I’ve watched a ton of movies in my life, so I’m not sure I can recall just one favorite. Brampton Stoker’s Dracula is among the top favs, the OG Top Gun, Tombstone, and Twister are all on the list. Can’t wait for some sequels coming this year!

M Barker-Simpson:

The Breakfast Club. I watched it so many times as a teenager I could quote the entire script! I have some great artwork I found in a artisan market in Manchester that depicts the characters.

The Bag Lady:

Right now I am rewatching the “Mission Impossible” series and I just finished MI3 starring of course, Tom Cruise, but also the late actor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014) as the unlovable villain.

I can’t say I have a particular favorite although I’ve probably watched “The Blues Brothers” more than a few times!

Squirreljan:

What is my favourite film? That’s such a tough question. I think it depends on my mood. I know I struggle these days for a film to hold my attention. We’ll download or record one and then halfway in, I do some more of my jigsaw puzzle or a bit of crocheting, so I don’t get bored.

Over lunch at the London House Cafe in Malvern, I asked my husband what his favourite film was. After a lot of discussion about Alien, The Shining, Dirty Harry, and Predator, he decided upon Monty Python’s, Life of Brian. None of these were on my list, although I enjoyed some of them.

My short list ended up with the original Disney version of Jungle Book (I Wanna Be Like You); Gone with the Wind (tomorrow is another day and the best sex scene ever – who needs graphic detail when Scarlet O’Hara says it all with a smile); Oliver (As Long as He Needs Me); Carousel (When You Walk Through a Storm in its original context); Mary Poppins (Feed the Birds); and making it to the top, Grease. I chose Grease because I was just seventeen when I first saw it at the pictures, and it holds special memories. Also, every time it’s on television I say, “Nah, I’ve seen this at least twenty times. I’ll give it a miss.” Two hours later, I’m hoarse from singing all the songs at the top of my voice, word perfect and totally in tune, of course. There are worse things I could do with my time! I have a passion for musicals just like my mum.

I also love ‘old’ films. Put one on and I am transported back, not just to the film but also to the enjoyment of watching them with my mum, dad, and sister on a wet Sunday afternoon in the sixties and seventies. That raises another memory of the first time I ever cried over something on a screen. My younger sister would sob at an advert for crisps, but I never let tears fall over a film or television programme until I watched Carve Her Name with Pride at about the age of nine. I remember this build up in my stomach, bubbling until it erupted and then I could not stop crying. And what set me off? It’s an emotional film with a powerful story, but what really got to me was the poem, The Life that I Have by Leo Marks. I always loved words, and this made me truly appreciate the tremendous power they can have.

Roberta Writes:

Sleeping Beauty Symphony

When I was a little girl of six years old, I loved to dress up. I was never Robbie. I was Peach-Blossom, the Native American Princess, or Willow, the Irish tree spirit, but most often, I was Aurora, the beautiful princess from Sleeping Beauty.

I had the record of Sleeping Beauty with a frightening picture of Maleficent, the evil fairy and self proclaimed ‘Mistress of All Evil’, on the front cover in the form of a fire breathing dragon. The back cover featured animated pictures of golden haired Aurora and the three good fairies. How this story captured my imagination. I hadn’t seen the film, but I listened to that record over and over again. I danced and sang and became Aurora.

At school, I taught my friends about Sleeping Beauty and Aurora. I made up a play of the story, based on the record. Each of my friends had a starring role but I was Aurora. My teacher came across us practicing this play in the school playground one day and decided we should perform it for the whole class.

My patient father, quite used to his dreamy daughter, brought our old record player and the record to school and set it up for the performance of the play. My mom sewed me a dress from fine lemon fabric with an underskirt. My friends and I performed the play and I was Aurora in my beautiful, floaty dress. It was a magnificent performance that I’ve never forgotten.

Little girl

Bewitched by music

Enthralled by

Good fairies

Always dancing and singing

Happy enchantment

Years later I saw the film and it thrilled me. It is still one of my favourite Disney movies.

Battlestar Galactica Brides

When I was a little girl of six years old, I had a best friend named Susan. Susan was the daughter of one of the teachers at my school. The pair of us loved Battlestar Galactica, a TV series about human refugees whose home planet had been destroyed by evil Cylons and who were trying to find the legendary but unknown planet Earth.

Susan and I played Battlestar Galactica for months. I created ‘walkie talkies’ for both of us out of small Liquifruit boxes. The straw was the antennae. We pulled it up when we were talking and pushed it down again when we were finished. I wrote numbers on cut-to-size pieces of paper which I pasted onto the front of the boxes. These were the push buttons for dialing people. In my story, Captain Apollo was my boyfriend and Lieutenant Starbuck was Susan’s sweetheart.

One day, we decided we should stage a double wedding. We planned for this momentous occasion for weeks. Somewhere, we got hold of some tulle to fashion into veils and we both had white dresses. We picked fresh flowers from the garden for our hair and bouquets.

I’ve never forgotten that ‘wedding’ or the liquifruit ‘walkie talkies’ I made, although I can’t remember much about the show.

First wedding

In white with flowers

Girl children

Adherring

To traditional ideas

How life has changed.

Sexagenarian Scribbler:

What’s my favourite film?

Now you’re asking! My short list will be a very long one…

The first film I ever saw was ‘ One Hundred And One Dalmatians’, and not at your ordinary cinema. This was in Singapore, at our local swimming club; we would be seated on side of the pool and the film on screen on the other side.

Then, not long after we came home, it was Mary Poppins, with my brother and dad. (Mum suffered from claustrophobia and panic attacks.)

I remember at school everyone singing ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.’

In my teens, we’d go every week, it didn’t matter what the film was, half the reason was cos of the fellas!

And that’s where I had my first kiss with my first love. Boy, was I in heaven.

And then I met my future husband, and working in the city, we would regularly go to Leicester Square, a few stops away on the tube. Those were the days of Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and the big disaster movies, like ‘Earthquake’, The Towering Inferno’, and ‘The Poseidon Adventure’.

Nowadays, the kids wait to get films on DVD, or watch on Netflix, but for me nothing beats the atmosphere of the cinema and a big screen.

So back to my favourite..

A few contenders; ET, Apollo 13, Message In A Bottle (Kevin Costner might have had something to do with that one!)

And the winner…drum roll…

Dirty Dancing.

RIP Patrick Swayze.

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