When I was nine, my mother took me
to see Gone With the Wind for
the first time- that was back when
it was only shown in theatres and
my father, a farmer who had to get up
before dawn, refused to go
By the time I was sixteen and
drove there with my girlfriend, Suzie (who had
lived in Atlanta and could share
Southern culture) Scarlett O’Hara
had changed!
She was not the provocative shrew
my mother said she was
She had become a strong, feisty
woman, who let no man dominate her
Then I read the novel and Scarlett grew
even more complex- In the film, she was
the mother of Bonnie Blue, one child
In the novel, Scarlett was the mother
of four! – Now that is a whole different
Job description and thus would create
a whole different character!
My father said he would see GWTW when
it came to television
I remember laughing at that,
but eventually, in the late 70s, it did!
However, it is epic and deserves the
Big screen…
I read the novel seven times over the years
My changing perspective made it fresh
each time- I plan to read it this spring-
a 25 year lapse should make it brand new…
My mother would have been 100 on
October 11, 2014- the almost 75th Anniversary
of GWTW – I have new insight as to why
it so impacted her: She was 25 when it
hit theatres, a nurse in Palo Alto at the time-
A country girl in the city
learning the ropes, with Scarlett’s voice
in her head- truly it was Margaret Mitchell’s
voice, who, like an older sister may have said:
This is how it is for women, in a world of men,
we get along the best we can
Soon, my mother would move
back to Washington State and marry
my father, because: he wrote in a letter
that if she did not hustle,
he would not wait!
Even as an old woman
after my father’s death
Mother still spoke fondly of
Rhett Butler who offered
Scarlett a marriage of fun!
