Explanation/Thought Sharing #1

So!

YES, a new Bobby pic, thanks to my girl over at www.bobbydriscoll.com. I am actually thinking these two pics were taken at the same time during the same interview! What do y'all think?

Anyway, to explain my salty remarks in the previous post...

I've always been one of "those" people that I'm sure can be slightly annoying with how accommodating they always are. Being a nice southern gal, I've done this whole "Thanks for tolerating my existence!" and "Am I in your way?! Oh I'm sorry, I'll go shoot myself now. You go ahead, you're more important! And by the way, totally out of line for me to have my own opinion" thing for so long as I can remember. And when I started blogging, I just assumed people would always be kind and respectful and let me know in a calm and cool way if I upset or offended them in some way. 

Well, not so much, Folks. 

I'm coming to learn that you can't just be nice and necessarily expect other people to be nice too. Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and point out something you feel is unfair. And it's frustrating. I've had to learn in the past year, actually, the very same lesson at my job. So I was a little put out by a comment someone made/action they took just because of an opinion I held. Hence my comments. I want to be completely honest here without disrespecting anyone in Bobby's family, but about six years ago I was raked over the coals by one of his relatives who lashed out in a serious kind of way after I asked a simple question I didn't feel was out of line, and let me tell you, I cried for DAYS. This also happened right before my New York trip to visit his grave, and it almost entirely ruined it. So, siiiigghhh, this whole "don't take it personally" thing has been a work in progress for years. Occasionally I just snap.

Okay, onto other things. 

Guys, please know I still love Bobby like a fool, and I still want to blog. I think it's just that lately, not only have other aspects of life crowded in like they're wont to do, this space is starting to feel a little irrelevant in light of the Bobby social media accounts we now have. They do a whole heck of a better job of conveying admiration and appreciation for Bobby through that medium than I could ever do here. And I'm glad for them. They're very much a great way to pull Gen Z into the fandom. But I'm a tired old millennial, and I have tired old millennial ways I guess. So if you still stick with this blog, believe me, I appreciate it and thank you!

So the first thing I want to say is, we FINALLY have access to the Trackdown "Blind Alley" episode on YouTube! Go to the Bobby Driscoll Archive, and you'll find it there. It was a pretty good role, even though Bobby didn't have as many lines as I wish he did. And don't get me started on how dang much I was hoping for an onscreen kiss between him and his romantic lead at the end. But no. A stupid, chaste hug. 😉😉😉

Haha, but kind of expected in light of the times for television. So in trying to think of good things to blog about next, I came to the decision that I would share my Bobby journals. Well, parts of them. And if you're judging, go ahead with it, 'cause yes I have journals I've kept through the years of Bobby info and letters I would have sent to him and no I'm not gonna feel like a complete idiot over it. Or, okay, I often do, but I shouldn't. It's just my jam. Anyway, I do this in order to maybe stimulate some thoughts and conversation from other fans! As in, what of this do you relate to? What did you not know about him fact-wise? Do you have more to add to my lists? I began this, by the way, at the height of the bullet journaling craze, so lots and lots of lists.

This was my first journal, started in 2016 and finished the very next year. Y'all, holy cow. And now let me tell you, it's not exactly the style I would have picked for a Bobby Driscoll journal, but it was a journal I'd bought recently on the Cato's clearance rack. So it kind of had to do. 

When you open this up--and let me go ahead and say, some of this material I copied over into my very earliest blog entries, so it may be familiar to some of you who have followed me for a long time. For instance, you've probably seen this silhouette I custom ordered on Etsy back in the day. Across from it I pasted a scrapbook paper passage (say that five times fast). Just showing a little creativity here, which is nothing stellar, but has been a big outlet for me to express my feelings about Bobby. 

The next page contains a cutting from a Krispy Kreme coffee cup stating the year of Bobby's birth as the year it was founded, and just a comment about his endearing appearance. BUT. Notice I referred to his eyes as being light brown, though I have since learned they were green--my favorite eye shade. 

The next thing I wrote contained some personal feelings about the song that was chart-topping then by Ruth B., "Lost Boy." Some people found the song super sappy, and while I do kind of find the romanticizing of the Peter Pan story mystifying (despite it being one of my own very favorite tales), I loved the melody and the first verse. Because the first few lyrics reminded me so much of Bobby himself, and how I can see him responding to a lonely girl versus how the character of Peter Pan would. PP was, after all, a narcissistic figure who seemed to either not possess the ability or was too young to love. But Bobby, by all accounts, had just about enough love for everybody, particularly underdogs. 

There was a time when I was alone
Nowhere to go and no place to call home
My only friend was the man in the Moon
And even, sometimes, he would go away, too

Then one night, as I closed my eyes
I saw a shadow flying high
He came to me with the sweetest smile
Told me he wanted to talk for a while
He said, "Peter Pan, that's what they call me
I promise that you'll never be lonely"

Who remembers this song? Does anyone echo my thoughts about it, or feel differently? 

I'm going to try to make journal content a whole series, so stay tune for my next "installment"!