The Way We Were

This weekend, I had occasion to watch the Hallmark Channel's Home and Family All My Children memorial reel, put together as part of their All My Children reunion show. It took me back--not just to my soap career, but to the years before, when I was simply a soap fan, possibly dreaming of a career, but mostly just enjoying the daily stories. Every face there was a face from my younger life, and it was hard to believe that they were all gone, some for many years, some only recently. As it was All My Children, not One Life to Live, I hadn't worked with most of them personally, but I couldn't help feeling as though they had been a part of my life.

I was struck by how powerful the short montage was. I suppose we are all affected by an emotional song, and it had that. And given the number of years I was immersed in the genre, I suppose sentimentality is not surprising. But I guess what really struck me was how vividly I remembered the stories--not just my working in the genre, but the stories the genre told. They were immersive, and inviting, both when I was a viewer, and when telling those stories was my daily work. It was a reminder that the work was not just work. It was a reminder that I really did get to live out a childhood dream.

Some days, memories feel like just memories--snippets of time long past. And some days, they bring back the feelings that once accompanied them--time with family or friends, a sense of belonging, the ambition and aspiration that can't help but change as we get older. So, maybe the song for the montage was not simply a piece of music moving me--it was exactly what it said--a small, and very welcome, glimpse of "the way we were."