A Long Windy Ride

My first errand-run of the day was to the Acme for my paycheck, groceries, and to get my prescription for stronger Motrim filled. I didn't need a huge order. I took advantage of a good sale on shrimp and chicken pieces to do a meat restock. Also grabbed a lot of things on clearance - Acme's generic organic sesame seed flat bread, two flavors of sugar-free Jello they're no longer carrying (strawberry-banana and peach), and two containers of pear juice concentrate and a pear-peach-apple juice blend concentrate.

I'm glad I did wait to get the prescription filled today, too. I forgot to buy laundry detergent with the rest of my order. Grabbed that while the prescription was being filled.

I ran another spooky TV show episode as I ate lunch and put everything away. In the second season Greatest American Hero show "The Beast In Black," teacher and reluctant superhero Ralph Hinkley discovers he can cross into the Fourth Dimension when he sees a room in an old house slated for demolition that no one else sees. Trouble is, the room is guarded by a raging beast, and the ghost of a greedy real estate saleswoman who lives in the house wants possession of his friend Bill Maxwell's body so she can survive the house's destruction. Ralph is frightened to use the suit at first, but it turns out to be the only way he can save Bill before the house comes down.

Went right back out after the episode was over. I stopped at the bank first to deposit my paycheck, then had a windy, cold bike ride up to Haddon Imaging in Haddon Heights to get my foot X-rayed. The wind was brisk and the air was chilly - the sign at Beneficial Bank in Audubon said it was 57 degrees at 3PM - but it really felt like fall, and it made for a very energetic ride.

When I finally found the brown glass and brick building for Haddon Imaging, it turned out they didn't take my health care program. I couldn't have my foot looked at there. They gave me suggestions, but I was disappointed and a little embarrassed. Why didn't the women at the Foot & Ankle Center tell me that and save me a long ride?

I stopped by the Foot & Ankle Center to tell them what happened and ask them what to do now. It turned out that Dr. Berlin and Caroline didn't know that Haddon Imaging doesn't accept AmeriHealth. They gave me a list of branches for South Jersey Radiology, which apparently has branches all over the area. Oh well. At least I got a nice ride in today.

I made a quick stop at WaWa across the street to treat myself to a soft pretzel and a cappuccino to cheer myself up, then rode home. Spent the next hour and a half working on the Holiday Music Inventory. Around 5:30, I started chicken meatloaf and ran I Remember Mama.

Based on the real Kathryn Forbes' account of growing up in San Francisco in the early 1900s, Mama is the story of a Norwegian immigrant family headed by strong-willed and kind-hearted Martha (Irene Dunne) and her quiet, hard-working husband Lars (Philip Dorn). Oldest daughter Kathryn (Barbara Bel Geddes), who hopes to become a writer someday, watches as life changes from one season to the next, from the near-loss of a pet to her graduation, from sneaking Mama in to see her little sister Dagmar in the hospital to the arrival of her noisy, overbearing Uncle Chris (Oscar Holmoka). Through it all, it's the memory of Mama counting out their weekly earnings that finally inspires Kathryn to write a story worth publishing.

I found this to be one of the most charming and gentle tales of growing up I've ever seen. A wonderful collection of character actors brings Kathryn's story to life. Ellen Corby (of The Waltons) is lovely as a timid aunt. Real-life son of Norwegians Edgar Bergen is equally good as her soft-spoken fiancee. Another radio veteran, Rudy Vallee, turns up briefly as the doctor who argues with Mama and Uncle Chris over Dagmar's hospital care, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke plays a penniless boarder who reads to the children as payment for his room early on. If you love tales of girls growing up in the last century or plotless but atmospheric family tales, you'll love to remember Mama, too.