I’m finding it difficult to find anything good to look at in the emails or on any social medias.
The only thing I can watch without cringing is the weather in all areas of the world where people and animals live who I care about.
Deleting emails is something I have to do on a daily basis. I dump at least 200 each day to keep the total around 500. Big waste of time. I’m lucky if I get one email from a friend, the others are credit card companies offering me a great deal, how Caroline Kennedy breaks her silence on her cousin RFKjr, blasting him for being a “predator,”People Magazine telling how Harry and Markel had another argument, or recipes from websites that I looked at once. It’s all a time swamp. And yet there are perhaps one or two that peak my interest (while I’m deleting), and that interest results in a gazillion more emails.
The main reason I’ve stayed on Facebook for so long is it’s been a way to keep in touch with my busy family. However now they are more into Instagram; quick and easy. Plus Facebook is where I post my columns, along with posting them on Instagram.
I remember when social media began on AOL. I remember communicating with a fellow who told me he spent $4,000 monthly on it, back when it was dial-up. (Idiot? Enthusiastic?)
I must have also been an idiot because I met with the fellow at the Westwood (now Geffen) Playhouse in 1994 to see Steve Martin’s play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”
I had season tickets there, for two, and would invite someone to accompany me.
The only thing I remember about the fellow was his hair was down to his waist. Nice guy but intermission was more interesting than him as I ended up standing next to Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. I thought we were looking at art in the lobby but when I googled the Playhouse, it said there was never any art in the lobby.
So my memory about my ‘date’ for the show is just as foggy about everything back then. But I do remember Beatty and Bening and that I didn’t do the fan-thing to them.
I once did a crazy fan-thing, though. I loved Wallace Berry who starred in “The Champ,” and “Treasure Island,” black and white movies from the 1930s. I loved him like a grandfather I never had.
When his nephew Noah Beery Jr. was in “Circus Boy” in 1956-1957, I found another love. Then he acted with James Garner in “The Rockford Files.” Loved it. Loved Noah Beery Jr. It was his warm character roles that he played and he reminded me physically of his uncle Wallace.
One day I read in the L.A. Times that Noah Beery Jr. was recuperating from surgery at a nursing home about two hours from my house in Southern California. I don’t know why, but I got in my car, drove the two hours, found the nursing home, walked past the reception and found his room.
He was in bed, in his hospital gown with his head heavily bandaged, his familiar face and lips that I remembered smiling. I sat next to his bed and told him how I loved his uncle and how I loved him in all the roles I’d seen him play. He grasped my hand and patted it softly. Not wanting to take too much of his time, I then said goodbye to him and thanked him for all the wonderful times he was on the screen. Tears ran down his cheeks.
Then I drove home. Happy yet sad.
What’s a girl to do?…keep deleting those emails and remember the sweet memories of Noah Beery Jr.
Lucy Llewellyn Byard welcomes comments and shares. To contact her, email lucywgtd@gmail.com
