In All of Our Collective Consciousness:



Whilst in the midst of having a hectic day off running errands, tending to the piles of laundry, tightening-up the P-trap under the kitchen sink and general household zhoozhing, I halt my marching through the living room to watch a scene from a movie on one of the various classic movie channels that are constantly playing, mostly to entertain the dogs, and it’s, Andy Hardy!

“Well, Hello Andy Hardy,” I say aloud to the TV screen, “I kind of liked you Andy. Always such a sap with that, awe-shucks, hands-shoved-into-your-pockets, kicking-the-dirt-off-the-tires-of-your-old-jalopy, thing that you do..."

Mickey Rooney…I mutter to myself. Now that was a character, I continue on with my assessment of Mr. Rooney. Only just died recently too. Damn, he and his latest weird wife were just hawking something or another to the elderly crowd during commercial breaks for the Price Is Right. He lived a long time. A quick Wikki reveals 93 at his death last April. He spent his whole life on screen and there isn’t a time in my life that doesn’t include Mickey Rooney. Always present up until the day he died, always in our collective consciousness.

I found myself recalling Mickey Rooney moments, like the time I caught a late night TV screening when I was about 9 or 10 where he plays a wild Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, well worth watching, he and a young Elizabeth Taylor, another, ‘always in our collective consciousness,’ actress starring in National Velvet, and the one that stands out in my mind as I actually saw it at the movie theater, Black Stallion. This also starred Terri Garr, a rather quasi but again another, ‘collective consciousness,’ type personality, working as far back as Star Trek to more recently schilling Hanes underwear.

Several days later I’m reading an article where Drew Barrymore is expressing her idea of beauty and make-up, pushing her own line of beauty products and routine, giving her standard quirky faerie like observations of life and girlishness, when I’m struck by the comparisons of Drew and Mickey’s lives. Both driven and working from the age of 6, both having been in my memory as far back as it goes. She'll probably work until she dies like her grandparents.

Just how many people like this have we in our collective consciousness? People who were professional children and adults that are still working today, my list is populating rather quickly, Jodi Foster, Brooke Shields, Donny Osmond, Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick Jr, Michael Jackson.… What about you? Who are the people or personalities that stand out in your mind that embody this, ‘having always been in our collective consciousness,’ concept?

11 comments:

  1. Excellent observation!

    In no particular order: Ron Howard, Phyllis Diller, William Shatner, Wayne Newton, Annette Funicello, Bob Newhart, Debbie Reynolds, Bob Keeshan, and, of course, MJ!

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    1. I have two close friends that live miles away...both of whom I've known since the first and second grade. My family members and relatives are the only other people that I've known for my entire life. Then there are these people that we are familiar with almost as long. Is it peculiar that I felt as if Captain Kangaroo was a best friend?

      Shelly Fabares
      Dean Stockwell
      Shirley Temple

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  2. Being in the UK, stars ‘having always been in our collective consciousness’ include such survivors as Petula Clark, Dame Julie Andrews (both child prodigies), Ronnie Corbett, Bruce Forsyth, Lulu, Dames Shirley Bassey and Maggie Smith - all of whom started their careers aeons ago yet still raise a warm feeling of familiarity whenever they appear (and to some degree they all still do pop up on TV or in other media, some perhaps to a greater degree than others). The outpouring of grief for the recently departed Cilla Black demonstrates just how beloved such "light entertainment types" are - in a way that perhaps other long-serving Brit stars (from the pop world) such as Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger are not... Jx

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    1. I wasn't all that familiar with Cilla Black but watching the tributes and retrospectives I can see how she falls into this category. Sort of a Brenda Lee or most recently passing Leslie Gore was for the US.

      Hayley & Juliet Mills
      Veronica & Angela Cartwright

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  3. Not showbiz (quite), but definitely around since all of us were tots and long before: the Queen. It's really going to be quite odd when she goes.

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  4. I think anyone about whom you think "Aren't they dead?" and then google and find they're still on this side of the grass counts.

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  5. yes! pretty much everyone mentioned, except for ronnie corbett and bruce forsythe, being on this side of the pond, are part of my collective memory, too. and right now, i'm feeling every single one of my 65 years! thanks a lot, sweetpea! LOL xoxoxox

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  6. I want Ronnie Corbett to last forever.

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    1. "A cement mixer collided with a prison van on the Kingston Bypass. Motorists are asked to be on the lookout for sixteen hardened criminals" - Ronnie Corbett

      Timeless.

      Jx

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  7. Heino. Helmut Schmidt. The Queen.

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  8. Not familiar with Cilla Black? Aren't you the lucky one.

    Bonnie Langford as Lena in Bugsy Malone she sounds like a cat being gang raped by a pack of dogs. She's in a dreary soap opera now.









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