Day 38: A moment of recognition to remember

I was eleven or twelve, and it was New Year's Day. All the relatives were over, and there were two tv's in the house! One was the tv in the family room we would rent every year from the Rent-A-Center for a few weeks during Christmas vacation. The other one was a tv my uncle brought for the day and hooked up so he and his brothers could watch some football.

This was one of my favorite memories of a holiday, because after the big noontime meal, around 2 or 3, somebody in the family room turned on the non-sports tv and announced that there was a Cary Grant film festival that day . . .three movies back to back starring Cary Grant. Many of us family members did not leave that room until the room was dark and the third movie had ended. Arsenic and Old Lace, To Catch a Thief, and An Affair to Remember. And the final one was a movie to remember. The movie has some slow parts, but it is a great one because of the serious misunderstanding that keeps the two lovers unnecessarily apart for so long. And the concluding scene has one of my all-time favorite climactic moments of recognition, when the two are making polite small talk in her apartment, and both are refusing to say what they really feel out of pride and unwillingness to be vulnerable or show neediness at the risk of getting hurt and rejected, and then Nicky realizes the truth, mid-sentence, and stumbles through his words and strides from room to room as he understands it all now, that she didn't ditch him that day when they had promised to meet at the Empire State Building. That movie and that particular dramatic moment of recognition were such a magical experience to me that first time I saw it. I'll always remember the thrill I had to watch the characters in a story flip around in about 12 seconds from a place of heartbreak and stoic resignation and alienation to full understanding and explanation and reunion and joy.