Saturday nights....

Last Sunday night, January 29th, The Englishman and I stayed up past our normal bedtime in order to watch the SAG awards.  Not for the glitz and glamour.  But to see this remarkable woman honored with The Life Achievement Award.  

Mary Tyler Moore

I started watching Mary when I was in grammar school and was home sick.  Her first series role was in The Dick Van Dyke Show, playing the part of his wife Laura Petrie. How fitting, then, that it was Dick Van Dyke who introduced her that night.  He said, "I know everyone loves her, but I mean, I'm serious about it. I saw her first." 

It is said that their performances as husband and wife were so convincing that for years viewers thought they were actually married.

Fast forward from the 60's.....

If you were a young woman from 1970 to 1977, the actors in this photo should be quite familiar to you. They were the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  If my memory serves me, the show aired on Saturday nights, on CBS, at 9pm eastern time.  While I was in college, my roommates and I refused to leave our dorm room until we had watched her show.  Seriously. I think each of us wanted someday to be Mary.  We dreamed that we too might soon have apartments of our own, a career, and a chance to be independent.  And if by choice or chance we were like Mary, still single in our 30's, she showed us that we too "would be happy after all".

And then there was the apartment.  It was in a Victorian house in Minneapolis, with a large bay window, perfectly decorated right down to the large letter M hanging on Mary's wall.  I don't know about anyone else, but I cried when Mary left that house to move to a modern day apartment.  I felt it lacked the warmth and coziness of the first.  There was no longer a "window" to pull down and separate the kitchen from the living space.  Sad to say, my first apartment was in the basement of an apartment building, just outside Boston, but that's a whole other blog.

If you are not familiar with Mary Tyler Moore, it is well worth your time and effort to find re-runs.  For those of us who know and love her, to watch these shows again is like visiting with an old friend.  

Congratulations to Mary Tyler Moore for the Life Achievement Award!

You are still "turning the world on with your smile"!

 Thank you!