All My Children

So, rewind to 1980.  We are moving back to Georgia - I had been practicing for months for choir tour.  My parents let me stay with Carmella, a friend from church, and her family until choir tour was over.  So, I got to live with them for a month.  During that month, school is out, so we're home during the day.  Carmella watched "All My Children" every day.  I couldn't help it, I got interested, even though I knew my parents wouldn't be thrilled about it.

Once I got home, I didn't watch it any longer.  Then, I move out of their house, and I have a VCR - so I start recording it.  I watched it on tapes for a few years.  And then, for some reason, I quit watching it regularly.  Every now and then, I'd catch up on it.

Then, the Soap Network was born - and I could watch it at night, so I did that for a while.

Seemed that every time I'd get back into it - Tad and Dixie had split up or were getting back together, Erica was marrying someone else or about to marry Jack again, Myrtle was still taking care of strays and giving them a place to live, Adam was still a jerk and Stuart was an angel, Angie and Jessie were on again, off again.  Then there was Brooke, and Opal and David and Greenlee and Kendall and Bianca and Joe and Ruth and Liza... and so many more.  I even remember Greg and Jenny.

Eventually, I just stopped watching altogether, I'm not really sure why, I just did.

A few weeks ago, I heard that it's ending it's 41 year run.  So, I started to record it again last week, so I could watch it up until the end. 

I've got two more days to watch, the finale was this past Friday.  I must admit, I got a little weepy.  And I recognized many of the flashback scenes they've shown.  I really expected them to do a little more in the way of flashbacks, but I guess they had to wind up story lines.

It's odd, even though I had stopped watching, it's just been there for most of my life.  I was 5 when the show first aired  (yes, you can do the math to figure out my age...), it was always there.  So, now that I know it's over, it's bummed me out a little bit.  Watching the episodes this past week made me realize that these characters have been part of my life for over 30 years.

I did just find out there is going to be an Internet version of the show, so maybe I'll check that out, but then again, maybe not.

And, while I'm typing this post, I hear that Desparate Housewives is having their final season this year... grrr.