Okay, so my husband’s “embarrassing things about Marilyn” posts are getting a little humiliating, aren’t they? And he never tells me ahead of time what his post will be about that week. I just have to wait until he POSTS it to find out. This week? I take some exception. Not to “Star Wars” since somehow, I don’t find that as awful as admitting that yes, I was into “Days of Our Lives”. Not even “Titanic” or “The Cutting Edge” are as humiliating. So I feel I must expand on this, as way of explanation.
I got into “Days of Our Lives” when I started high school back 1990. I had some friends that were watching it and I watched it too one afternoon. I found myself getting sucked right in. And like most teenage girls, I found a couple to focus on and fixate over. Now, for most of my friends, that couple was Jack and Jennifer. He was funny, she was cute and they were adorable together. But not me. Oh no. No, I was a Bo and Carly fan. Anyone who watched DOOL in the late 80’s or late 90’s or even now, probably goes, “HUH? Don’t you mean Bo and Hope?” Yeah, no. Bo and Carly. See, this was when Hope was dead (isn’t everyone on a soap opera dead at some point?) and Bo was left by himself, depressed and alone with a young, deaf son to raise. I forget now how the son was deaf in the first place, and he didn’t stay that way, but there you have it. Carly was a doctor, new in town and mysterious, and she happened to be fluent in sign language. The kid loved her from the start, Bo did not.
To this day, there are certain songs that I still associate with that era. “Oh, that’s the song they played on that commercial during the show’s big anniversary week! You know, the one with the comedy montage?” Sad. I would watch it every day, usually taping it and if the show was particularly good, I would watch the Bo and Carly scenes OVER and OVER and OVER again. It wasn’t pretty. I knew of a grocery store in town that had Soap Opera Digest on sale a day early and my friend would drive me over there so I could pick it up every week. And if that issue contained pictures of Bo and Carly? Well, those got cut out and plastered up on my wall in my bedroom, right next to my bed. I had a little shrine thing going.
I was so obsessed with DOOL during this time, that friends of mine became wary of even bringing up the subject around me. It was all I ever wanted to talk about. Missing episodes was a traumatic experience. I disliked the first Gulf War so badly because it preempted so many shows. Things reached a fevered pitch when Bo and Carly had their little Mayan wedding atop the pyramid in the Yucatan, but shortly after that, the guy who played Bo left and they brought a new Bo in. Uh, no. I wasn’t loving it. The storylines were getting goofy (they were already goofy though, I have to admit), I was getting older and just didn’t have the time or interest anymore. So by spring of my junior year of high school, I was off “Days of Our Lives.” Once and for all. Haven’t watched it since.
It’s a goofy show, that’s for sure. I grew up on “All My Children” and watched it up until very recently (damn them for killing of Dixie, AGAIN!). But I never feel the fever for it like I felt for DOOL. I look back and I cringe when I think of how I acted about that silly show. Still, it was an important part of my life at that time and goofy or not, it did shape who I am today. So kids, listen to your parents and just say no to soap operas. They’ll rot your brain.
Thoughts Aside
These days, housing is much more than carpets and furniture. From the home lighting to the security plans to the beds, everything constitute it now.
