Abraham's Son, Chapter 3

 INT. DINER ­ DAY 

ABRAHAM enters diner and sits on a stool at the counter.

WAITRESS hands him menu which he studies.  Finally, he closes menu and puts it on counter.  WAITRESS approaches. 

WAITRESS: So, what can I get ya? 

ABRAHAM: I'll have the meatloaf with mashed potatoes and coleslaw.  Do you have White Rock Root Beer? 

WAITRESS: Yeah.  Any dessert? 

ABRAHAM: Maybe later. 

Then ABRAHAM eats his meal.  

INT. ABRAHAM'S LIVING ROOM ­ NIGHT 

ABRAHAM sits alone watching TV. 

ROBERT OSBORNE (O.S.): Hi, I'm ROBERT OSBORNE and tonight...

EXT. IN FRONT OF CINEMA ­ DAY 

It's Sunday afternoon and ABRAHAM lines up to buy a ticket to a movie.  

CASHIER: Yes? 

ABRAHAM: A senior ticket for the 2:00 PM show in room three, please. 

CASHIER: That'll be $10.  

ABRAHAM pays and CASHIER gives him ticket.  ABRAHAM enters cinema.

INT. ROOM THREE OF CINEMA ­ DAY 

ABRAHAM sits down and watches movie. 

EXT. IN FRONT OF CINEMA ­ DAY 

ABRAHAM exits cinema and walks to nearby coffee shop and enters. 

INT. COFFEE SHOP ­ DAY 

ABRAHAM enters coffee shop and sits down at table.  WAITRESS approaches. 

WAITRESS: What can I get ya? 

ABRAHAM: Regular coffee, please. 

WAITRESS brings coffee which Abraham slowly drinks. 

INT. ABRAHAM'S OFFICE ­ DAY 

Monday morning, ABRAHAM is on the phone in his office when his subordinate PETER stops by to talk. 

ABRAHAM (talking into phone): Yes, KEN, I got everything I need from Budget this morning.  My team should send the report you want in a couple of days.  (pause) Okay, bye.  PETER, what's going on? 

PETER: Yeah, KAREN and I got the Root Beer forecasts from Sales like you asked.   You'll have our analysis after lunch.  

ABRAHAM: Great! 

PETER: Also, thanks for the tip about my girlfriend.  It was right on the money.  We had a great weekend.  How was yours? 

ABRAHAM does not respond. 

INT. SANCTUARY OF ABRAHAM'S SYNAGOGUE ­ DAY

The following Saturday, ABRAHAM participates in religious services at his synagogue.  At one point he makes eye contact with his cousin SYLVIA.  Her expression is one of disappointment, while his is apologetic.  Services continue.  

INT. DINER ­ DAY 

ABRAHAM sits at counter of diner looking at menu.  When he puts it down, he is immediately approached by SARA CASEY, his waitress, a 30 year-­old ordinary looking woman. 

SARA: What would you like, sir? 

ABRAHAM: The chicken pot pie with the garden salad, balsamic vinaigrette dressing and White Rock Root Beer. 

SARA: Coming right up. 

SARA enters kitchen to relay ABRAHAM's order to chefs.  She returns to her station and approaches second customer. 

SARA: Something else, sir? 

SECOND CUSTOMER: Yeah!  When do you get off work? 

SARA: Can I get you your check, sir? 

SECOND CUSTOMER: How about your phone number.  You're kinda cute. 

SARA: Here's your check.  Please pay the cashier, sir. 

SECOND CUSTOMER: Come on.  I'm a nice guy.  Do us both a favor.  What do you say?

 SARA ignores him and goes to THIRD CUSTOMER.  

SECOND CUSTOMER pays his check and leaves diner. 

THIRD CUSTOMER: I'll have the steak sandwich, medium rare, French fries and a Coke. 

SARA: Coming right up, sir. 

SARA goes into kitchen with THIRD CUSTOMER's order and returns to counter area with ABRAHAM's food.    

SARA: Here you go, sir. 

ABRAHAM: Thanks. 

RESTAURANT MANAGER, young fat man, approaches SARA. 

RESTAURANT MANAGER: SARA, take your break at three and cover tables 9 and 10 in the dining room when you return. 

SARA nods.

Mr. Rogers

Fred Rogers was born into a rich family on March 20, 1928 (94 years ago) in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh.  He was an only child until he was eleven years-old when his parents adopted his sister. 

Rogers spent much of his childhood alone, playing with puppets. He began to play the piano when he was five years old.

Rogers was shy, introverted, overweight and frequently homebound after suffering bouts of asthma.  He was bullied and taunted as a child for his weight, and called "Fat Freddy".

According to Morgan Neville, director of the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Rogers had a "lonely childhood ... I think he made friends with himself as much as he could. He had a ventriloquist dummy, he had [stuffed] animals, and he would create his own worlds in his childhood bedroom".

Rogers attended Latrobe High School, where he overcame his shyness.  He made a couple of friends who found out that (his) core  was okay.  Rogers served as president of the student council, was a member of the National Honor Society and was editor-in-chief of the school yearbook.  

Rogers attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire for one year before transferring to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.  He graduated magna cum laude in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music.

After graduating from Rollins, he worked at NBC in New York City as floor director of Your Hit Parade, The Kate Smith Hour, and Gabby Hayes's Children's Show, plus as an assistant producer of The Voice of Firestone.

In 1953, Rogers returned to Pittsburgh to work as a program developer at public television station WQED.  He developed puppets, characters, and music for children's programs.

Rogers graduated magna cum laude from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1962 with a Bachelor of Divinity.  He was ordained a minister by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church in 1963.

His mission as an ordained minister was to minister to children and their families through television.  In a CNN interview, Rogers said, "I went into (children's) television because I hated it so, and I thought there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen".

I agree with his assessment of children's television at the time.  I spent my youth in front of a TV watching such violent cartoons as Popeye and Mighty Mouse plus inane shows like Howdy Doody.  

Later, Rogers attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he began working with child psychologist Margaret McFarland, who became his "key advisor and collaborator" and "child-education guru".  Much of Rogers's "thinking about and appreciation for children was shaped and informed" by McFarland. She was his consultant for most of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood's scripts and songs for 30 years.

Ping Pong

 British manufacturer J. Jaques & Sons, Ltd. trademarked the name "Ping Pong" in 1901.  It was in reference to the game we also know as table tennis, which had apparently been developed in Victorian England.

Ping Pong was an important element in the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and China in the 1970s.  First, American and Chinese players competed against each other at the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Japan.  Afterward, the U.S. team received an invitation to visit China.  Later that same year, President Richard M. Nixon visited China as well.

Ping Pong became an Olympic sport in 1988 at the games in South Korea.  Chinese men have won six of the last seven Olympic gold medals in singles competition.  Chinese women have won all nine of the Olympic gold medals in singles competition.

Sometime prior to 1956, my family acquired a Ping Pong table my brothers and I played on in the basement of our home at 30 East Oneida Street.  We continued playing Ping Pong when we moved to the west side of Oswego.

I remember playing Ping Pong many times with my older brother Paul (7 years my senior).  He beat me every time.

I asked him to let me win...once.  He declined, saying that some day I would win and that victory would be earned.  I finally did win.

In 1958, I won the Mohawk Unit (two cabins of about 16 boys my age-13) Ping Pong championship at Camp Eagle Cove.  The following year, I was in the finals of the Siwonoy Lodge (about a dozen or more 14 year-olds) championship.  

My opponent and I were tied at two games apiece.  I was winning the fifth and deciding game, 19-16.  My opponent would be serving the next five points.  I needed two out of five to win the title.  One out of five would have created a tie (at 20) and we would have continued playing until someone was ahead by two points.  However, I lost all five of his serves and the championship, 19-21.

In August 1974 I returned to Camp Eagle Cove on a visit.  I found my name on a banner as ping pong champion in 1958.  I wonder where that banner is today.  The camp closed in 1993.

When my son Bret was a teenager, I bought a Ping Pong table for him in our basement at 69-43 Cloverdale Blvd.  At first, I beat my son every time.  Then, after a while, he beat me every time.  I haven't played Ping Pong in years.  

 

The Big Chill

 The Big Chill is a 1983 film which stars Glenn Close (nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, but won by Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously), Tom Berenger,  Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams and Kevin Costner (all of whose scenes where his face is seen were cut).  

The film received two other Academy Award nominations:  Best Picture (won by Terms of Endearment) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Lawrence Kasdan and Barbara Benedek, but won by Horton Foote for Tender Mercies).  

Before the movie's story begins, Alex (Costner) commits suicide.  Many friends from his time while a student at the University of Michigan (my daughter's alma mater) gather at his funeral in South Carolina.  Afterwards, they all stay for some days, mourning and reminiscing, at the nearby home of Harold (Kline) and Sarah (Close), fellow Michigan alumni who had invited Alex to stay with them.

The film opens with Marvin Gaye's rendition of I Heard It Through the Grapevine.  Other popular songs used in the movie are You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones, My Girl by The Temptations and Wouldn't It Be Nice by The Beach Boys.  

There is a scene in which the group of alumni watch a Michigan-Michigan State football game on TV.   For this purpose, they used the October 11, 1980 game at the Big House in Ann Arbor won by the Wolverines, 27-23.

One day while they are all together, Meg (Place), who believes she is ovulating, tells Sarah she is fed up with failed relationships and intends to have a child on her own. Sarah volunteers her husband to be the father.  He agrees and spends the night with Meg.

"What does the film's title mean? Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan explains that The Big Chill refers to the experience of cold adult reality after leaving the “warm embrace” of true friendship during college."