Sunday, March 27, 2022

POSSIBILITIES ONCE, MAY NOT BE LIKELY NOW

I don't recall my age or the year I realized and accepted that some activities I had always imagined I would experience some day, that I never would, such as visiting Paris, Scotland to name a couple foreign locations.  I have always had an appetite not even remotely fulfilled for travel to sites and continents away from my own.

I did fly to South America's Ecuador where I had never even thought about going or imagined I would visit, but leaped when the opportunity was presented.  Taking advantage of such situations when they occur is wise even if sudden schedule and life adjustments may be necessary.  I had to borrow money for the trip from the bank where I was then working in the loan department. 

An unscheduled stop occurred in Jamaica on the flight there.  I made a quick deplane just to say I'd been there before re-boarding to continue the flight.  My return flight had an unexpected stop in Peru where the most strikingly handsome and beautiful golden-skinned couple I have ever seen in my life boarded our plane.  I'll always wonder who they were.

Years later after I wed, I learned my husband was much more enamored with traveling in the U.S.   He said there was so much here that we had never seen.   So, we stayed primarily on this continent, did go to Hawaii but didn't get to Alaska and enjoyed only a limited Niagara Falls trip into Canada.  An anticipated further exploration north of our border never materialized, regrettably.  

Mexico visits were few, but simply walking across the border, except for once when I convinced my husband to drive over.  Thoughts of driving the Pan American Highway intrigued me.  I learned later the highway was incomplete in many places and little more than a dirt road in others as I rode on in Ecuador. 

This trip with my husband was a very brief intrusion into Mexico.  He was  unfamiliar with the Spanish language so turned on to a street with a sign that probably had said the street was closed to traffic for repairs.  I had studied French so was no help.  A workman running toward us, shouting, frantically waving his arms, conveyed our presence was a mistake. His behavior quickly convinced my husband to turn the car around and drive back across the border to the U.S. before we had an accident or got arrested.  The workman probably muttered to his colleagues, "Those loco gringos don't know how to drive!"

Early years before our children were born, we took a few short cross-country flights he privately piloted that were compensating pleasures to foreign travel for me then.  Many scenic drives through numerous states, plus visits to our U.S. national park system and monuments offered a bounty of attractions.   We were unable to visit as many Parks as we had hoped, especially when his declining health in later years altered those expectations.  Lengthy cross country scenic train trips in the U.S. and Canada about which we mused never could become a reality.

All of this came to mind when I recently checked my KCET Public Television Station's (PBS) weekly Friday night movie.  I always wanted to visit Scotland which I learned was the evening's 1983's movie's setting.  I was in the mood for a movie with some beautiful scenery and a light entertaining story line.  No record of Scottish ancestors had been found among those of mine so efficiently researched a few years ago by blogger/researcher Judy at "Onward and Upward -- Ever Forward".   I remain convinced there may be some forefathers preceding those whose identity was named in my English/European background.  

"Local Hero was filmed in several locations around Scotland.   Most of the Ferness village scenes were filmed in Pennan on the Aberdeenshire coast and most of the beach scenes at Morar and Arisaig on the west coast" reported by Wikipedia.

Here's the original 1983 "Local Hero" movie trailer:


Here's a more extensive current link to sites with color photos of film locations offered at "Almost Ginger" by blogger Rebecca Sharp "twenty-something avid cinephile and traveller, as well as a minimalist, optimist, Hufflepuff and proud ginger."  Corrected link to "Almost Ginger".


So, I viewed "Local Hero" -- lovely country and beach scenes, subtle ideas and all that you might enjoy from a Criterion Collection of films I recommend.  Here's some of what Criterion said about the film:

"Bill Forsyth put Scottish cinema on the map with this delightfully eccentric culture-clash comedy.  Riffing on popular representations of Scottish life and folklore, Local Hero follows the Texas oil executive Mac (Peter Riegert), who is dispatched by his crackpot boss (Burt Lancaster) to a remote seaside village in Scotland with orders to buy out the town and develop the region for an oil refinery.  But as business mixes with pleasure, Mac finds himself enchanted by both the picturesque community and its oddball denizens---and Texas starts to feel awfully far away.  Packed with a near nonstop stream of droll one-liners and deadpan gags, this enchanting cult hit finds Forsyth surveying the idiosyncrasies of small-town life with the satirical verve of a latter-day Preston Sturges, arriving at a sly commentary on conservation, corporate greed, and the legacies we leave behind."

An interesting 2019 essay by Jonathan Murray includes:

"Bill Forsyth is Scotland's most famous filmmaker, and Local Hero (1983) is his most famous film---for many, the true subject of Local Hero's title is the Glasgow-born writer-director himself."

Perhaps you have also concluded some once anticipated activities are no longer likely to occur for you during your lifetime.

10 comments:

  1. Exactly six years ago when I was 73 I returned from a visit to my relatives in the South of India to be felled by what was diagnosed as clinical depression. After treatment and recovery, I discovered that my COPD and replaced and revised hip joints will no longer allow me to be as mobile as before and since then, I have been stuck to my city and I visit only those places where I can be sure of being able to manage within my limitations. I have stopped driving and use cabs or autorickshaws and depend on my children for other outside chores.

    I have accepted my limitations and am content with my current lifestyle.

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  2. It has also been my experience. Though I had no desire for foreign travel or cruises like my friends, I liked to hike and explore wilderness areas (no backpack camping though). Now, I am lucky to walk down to get the mail with my husband. I've lost a lot of physical ability but am glad for the memories. I keep thinking-- could I get some of that back? Do I want to? lol Old age is a different life, more limited in physical scope for me but my mind still travels everywhere :)

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  3. I have been lucky enough to visit and live in a bunch of countries. Scotland has been on my list and I have not been there. I wanted to visit Russia before COVID and now probably will not be able to before I die.

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  4. You managed way more out of country visits than I. Me too on wanting to visit Scotland. Most of my heritage is English/Irish but my fraternal grandmother, a ginger herself, claimed some Scottish heritage. And I have always been attracted to the Scottish accent. I had a Scottish professor with a heavy accent and while he was a homely man, every girl n the class had a crush on him. All he had to do was speak.
    I am sad that a lot of my everyday activities are no longer likely to occur like gardening. Sigh.

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  5. Jenny and I have been all over the world, but there are still plenty of places in the US we'd like to visit - like the Grand Canyon. Seeing all those other places certainly cures you of the idea that Britain is the centre of the universe.

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  6. I feel like it's all a trade-off. I used to pine for faraway travel, but we bought a vacation property on a beautiful private lake. Like you, I can still see lots of the places I wanted to go to by "visiting" them via other outlets. I've seen a great deal of the US and several provinces of Canada. I've gotten to be friends with many people in many places.

    I'm happy and grateful. But one never knows--there may still be opportunity.

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  7. We traveled all around the US with the kids when they were young. As they got older, we took them to England (English speaking) and then to Rome. We've traveled to different parts of the world and our kids have gone even farther.

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  8. I love Europe, though I have not seen much of it. I've been to London once, Amsterdam once, and Paris twice. I would love to go back to Paris, I love it so much. I would also love to go to Scotland and Ireland, and see more of England than just London. And see London again. Not sure how much of this travel will happen, but I'm hopeful. My husband wants to go to Japan, and I confess to not being as interested in that trip. He's thinking of going with a friend, which I think would be a fabulous idea.

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  9. I had been to Scotland 4 years ago and was lucky to see the Military Tattoo.

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  10. Yes, I would dearly like to tour the National Trust houses in England. I would love to go to Scotland and Wales, but more importantly I'd love to tour houses and parks here.

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