There's No Way to Tell
Aug. 5th, 2017 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetWhile I was in Northern Ireland last summer, I started making a list of all the stories I tell that I'd like to write down. This is one of them.
Like most families, I assume, we have running jokes and catch phrases within the family that persist over decades.
One day in the early 80s, I was sitting around the living room of my sisters' apartment on Prospect Hill, reading. Anne was reading TV Guide when she suddenly said "What?!" and thrust her magazine at Beckie to read. B. read the article, looked at Anne and said "There's no way to tell?!" and Anne said "Exactly!" and B. handed it to me.
It was an article about the record companies being annoyed with MTV, because the contracts under which they provided music videos to the channel stipulated that certain of their videos would be played at various frequencies--once an hour, once every three hours, once a day, etc. They suspected that MTV was not actually honoring their contracts, but since there was no way for them to tell, they were just having to take MTV's word for it.
This became one of our long-lasting catch-phrases. Wonder if Royal East is open on Monday's? There's no way to tell. Wonder what's playing at the Somerville Theatre this weekend? There's no way to tell. Wonder what George wants to do for dinner? There's no way to tell.
There's just no way to tell.
Like most families, I assume, we have running jokes and catch phrases within the family that persist over decades.
One day in the early 80s, I was sitting around the living room of my sisters' apartment on Prospect Hill, reading. Anne was reading TV Guide when she suddenly said "What?!" and thrust her magazine at Beckie to read. B. read the article, looked at Anne and said "There's no way to tell?!" and Anne said "Exactly!" and B. handed it to me.
It was an article about the record companies being annoyed with MTV, because the contracts under which they provided music videos to the channel stipulated that certain of their videos would be played at various frequencies--once an hour, once every three hours, once a day, etc. They suspected that MTV was not actually honoring their contracts, but since there was no way for them to tell, they were just having to take MTV's word for it.
This became one of our long-lasting catch-phrases. Wonder if Royal East is open on Monday's? There's no way to tell. Wonder what's playing at the Somerville Theatre this weekend? There's no way to tell. Wonder what George wants to do for dinner? There's no way to tell.
There's just no way to tell.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-05 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-07 08:50 pm (UTC)It's interesting - my wife also has a large and loving family. They also have a veritable treasure chest of stories like this, bursting with warmth and all the quirky humor of those involved.
And I love those too.
My family didn't have that kind of story - I'm not saying we didn't have stories or that everything was terrible, we did and it wasn't, just that this kind of story seems to require a certain critical mass that my family never attained.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-09 09:02 pm (UTC)I think at least in part it's a matter of storytelling being part of the family culture, so that when things happen we turn them into stories that we tell ourselves and others.