Thursday, February 21, 2008

Crushes- the early years

I'm in the mood for complete and utter frivolity. Maybe it's the fact that it's 7 degrees and snowing AGAIN or just the fact that I have 5 boys running around the house and am in need of an escape.

While driving somewhere this past Monday, Todd and I made a list of all the men I've had crushes on over the years. These are not real people. They are actors. Totally different. Implausible and therefore completely harmless.

So here are the early years-like preschool through middle school:

1. Luke Skywalker, I mean, Mark Hamill. All the boys in my neighborhood and I constantly reenacted scenes from Star Wars, and my favorite boy was always Luke to my Leia. I was terribly disturbed to find out years later that they were related.





2. Carey Grant. Is any explanation needed? I watched Carey Grant movies obsessively as a child. Father Goose, Charade and Arsenic and Old Lace were my favorites then.




3. Alan Alda. Tall, dark, skinny, and goofy. What's not to like? And he can sing! And he was a NJ boy. I was stunned speechless when I saw him at the Newark airport baggage claim, irritated at his delayed luggage just like the rest of us. Possibly one of the highlights of my 12th year of life. (there wasn't much going on at the time.)


4. Danny Kaye. Also tall, skinny, and goofy. Plus, he could sing AND dance. Are you seeing a pattern here?



5. Robby Benson. Dark, floppy hair. I'm a sucker for it. And he was in Ice Castles, a movie that I nearly wore out watching when I was 4 and 5. (It was the edited for TV version, lest you think badly of my parents.) He wasn't tall, but I really liked his voice. Years after his 70s movie career was over and we went to see Beauty and the Beast, I almost jumped out of my seat when I recognized his voice as that of Beast. Nobody else seemed to share my enthusiasm.





6. The guy who played "Jake" in '16 Candles'. No idea what his name is. But he was nice to look at. Apparently at age 10, I had developed an appreciation for the concept of eye candy. Again with the dark hair.



7. The nice Canadian boy from a Canadian movie called "Toby McTeague". Who looks a little like the guy who played Jake in 16 Candles. (This is not what he looked like in 1986, but I can't find any pictures from then.)


8. River Phoenix...because didn't everybody have a crush on him? I think it was a requirement.



9. But the best of the best, the one that set my middle school heart racing, was the one who played Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables. I can still recite most of the dialogue from the movies and have read the complete series through twice with particular attention to book 3. *sigh* Another Canadian. Maybe I just can't resist the way they say "aboat" instead of "about". Or again, maybe it's the dark floppy hair. Really, though, I think it's just that Gilbert Blythe is to young girls what Mr. Darcy is to grown women.


Enough frivolity for today. Perhaps we'll move into the high school and college years next time. Hooray for a few moments diversion!

5 comments:

Tricia said...

Here's your Jake. I thought you would laugh about this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Schoeffling
I didn't have your same crushes, except for Gilbert.

Emilia said...

Oh my goodness! Did you read the link "Real Men Can't Hold a Candle to Jake Ryan.."

So funny!

Thanks for the link. =)

Jessica said...

You are so right about the Gilbert Blythe-Mr. Darcy connection. Of course I still have a thing for both of them.

Marcia Mickelson said...

Aaahh, Gilbert Blythe.

Anne Marie said...

Oh, friend, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about these, especially the last one! I remember the hours we would spend watching those Anne movies. Love, love them!