Que Sera, Sera!

Somehow, I think that after Barnabas put a couple of quarters into the juke box (unlike the single 25 cent charge to play a song in 1970), and heard, say, the unfamiliar sounds of Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" or Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," Barnabas would turn to Dr. Hoffman, seated at a nearby table and remarked: "Why, Julia, I'm dismayed to learn that people listen to such cacophonous claptrap in 1995."

Bob, these were hysterical!! Im still laughing!
And along with the music could you imagine what he would have thought of the clothes in 1995?!

One final "haunt" that I wish that Barnabas and Julia had visited in 1995, was the always popular Collinsport Cinema.  Can you imagine, if in an attempt to familiarize themselves with the culture and mores of 1995, Mr. B. and Dr. H. just happened to attend an extremely early (and, I mean eight years early) sneak preview of the smash hit "Gigli," starring the beautiful Jennifer Lopez and the dashing Ben Affleck?

Somehow, after seeing just ten minutes of the film, I think Barnabas would have turned to Dr. Hoffman in the theater, and said: "My God, Julia,  this is excrutiatingly bad!  No wonder why everyone is so positively messed up in 1995!"

ROTFL!!!  And just think,  he hasn't even seen half of it yet!!!


(And you know, I thought that desk clerk reminded me of someone!!  Thanks for reminding me Bob!)


Cassandra

Hey! I was forced to read Hemingway in high school, along with the Great Gatsby. Not Hemingway either but both so mind-numbingly boring in my opinion, that I wanted to throttle my English teacher.

As for Sherrif Patterson's youthful replacement, what the hell was he doing with his pencil the whole time he was questioning Julia and Barnabas? That was driving me crazy!

And where were the computers?

~Arashi

Well, at least "Papa" is a better read than, say, Erich Segal, Danielle Steele or even William Hollingshead Loomis!

Well....I wouldn't know.  I've never read anything by any of them.  But if someone happens to have a copy of Mr. Loomis' biography of Barnabas Collins.....I'd love to borrow it! 

Raineypark,

Well, maybe while PT Quentin is sifting through the wreckage in Angelique's burned-out room, he'll just happen to pick-up that torn (and now singed) copy of "The Life and Death of Barnabas Collins," and, in his normal ticked off, "reactionary" frame of mind, the Q-Man will toss the book violently into the corridor, just as the barrier between the two time bands disappears momentarily.  That'll be your chance to grab a copy of W.H.L.'s tome!

Bob the Bartender, who wonders if they have a Cliff Notes "edition" (or, better yet, a Classics' Illustrated version) of W. H. Loomis' epic work?

I'll be keeping an eye out for it in the local Used Book stores, Bob.  You let me know if you ever come across it. 

I'll be keeping an eye out for it in the local Used Book stores, Bob.  You let me know if you ever come across it. 

I'll look for it in the world famous "Book Bin" store in beautiful Point Pleasant, NJ.  This charming, old-fashioned  bookstore has tons of fascinating, out-of-print, hard-to-locate books by many wonderful authors such as Clifford Irving, Julia Hoffman, M.D. and, your favorite and mine, Ernest "Papa " Hemingway!!!

I understand that Mrs. Stoddard had an account with this "procurer" of rare and eclectic works during her self-imposed 18-year-exile in the great house of Collinwood.

Hmmmm....wonder what else might have been "procured" for her over all those years?

And where were the computers?

Good question.   And the Beepers, cell phones, pagers, etc...?

Cassandra

Good question.   And the Beepers, cell phones, pagers, etc...?

You know I was wondering the same thing Cassandra!!  Here it is 1995 for goodness sakes, and you mean to tell me that the sheriff of Collinsport doesn't even use a cellular phone yet???   Come on!


Deb

You know I was wondering the same thing Cassandra!!  Here it is 1995 for goodness sakes, and you mean to tell me that the sheriff of Collinsport doesn't even use a cellular phone yet???   Come on!

Now that I think of it I can understand the part about no cell phones and such because those things weren't even thought of back then, but computers?  Computers were around so you would expect to see at least one at the Town Hall.  It would have been great if we saw the clerk sitting there looking up records for Julia that day when she paid him a visit.  I guess the writers didn't put too much faith in their use back then.    Little did they know..


Cassandra

Of course, we got to get a quick look at the Collinsport Town Hall (which looked suspiciously like the lobby of the Collinsport Inn).

Perhaps the Collinsport Inn had been converted into the town hall by 1995, what with the innkeeper having been eaten by the werewolf and all (the real reason Chris Jennings had to leave town).

Was the cigarette machine still there in the more health conscious times of 1995?  (If it wasn't, I'll bet that Julia Hoffman, M.D., was really bummed out that she could not get a pack of butts!)

What I would have loved to see is the expression on Julia's face when she saw the price of cigarettes in 1995.

And, what would Barnabas and Julia have made of Bob Rooney's successor behind the bar?

I'd like to think that if they had gone into the Blue Whale, we'd see the exact same bartender that's always there regardless of whether it's 1967, 1795 or 1995. I think he's a Leviathan or something.

Can you imagine, if in an attempt to familiarize themselves with the culture and mores of 1995, Mr. B. and Dr. H. just happened to attend an extremely early (and, I mean eight years early) sneak preview of the smash hit "Gigli," starring the beautiful Jennifer Lopez and the dashing Ben Affleck?

Good Lord, Bob, even in Collinsport no one deserves a fate that grim.

Dr. Eric Lang,

You've made some very insightful observations on: (1) the conversion of the Collinsport Inn into the town hall and Mr. Wells' ultimate "fate," (2) the 1995 price of a pack of cigarettes vis-a-vis 1970, (3) the seeming ageless Blue Whale bartender, and (4) the unremitting "agony" of sitting through a Jennifer Lopez/Ben Affleck movie!

(1) As to the untimely demise of Mr. Wells, Ill bet that Chris Jennings would say that "Mr. Wells tasted even more dee-licious than a whole bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Yummy!"

(2) You're so right here about the high cost of tobacco.  (I'm glad that I never "acquired" the taste for cigarettes.)  However, what if Dr. Hoffman also got a look at the price of a gallon of gas at the local  Amoco station?  I tell you, she'd really flip!

(3) The "Dick Clark 'Lookalike' Saloon Keeper."  Maybe he's also got an original C. D. Tate portrait of himself hanging somewhere in the back room of the Blue Whale?

(4)  Yes, sitting through "Gigli," in its entirety, a fate truly worse than death!  But, what if it had been a 1995 Collinsport Cinema film festival,  featuring such classic, golden movie hits as "Ishtar," "Shangri La," "Waterworld," and any (and all) films starring Pauly Shore, Jim Belushi or Wesley Snipes?  (Heck, I think that Barnabas and Julia, after being subjected to all of that, would have desperately wanted either Stokes or Quentin to chain them BOTH up, inside of that coffin in the secret room of the Collins Mausoleum for the next 170 years!)

Bob the Bartender

(1) As to the untimely demise of Mr. Wells, Ill bet that Chris Jennings would say that "Mr. Wells tasted even more dee-licious than a whole bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Yummy!"

lolololol

(3) The "Dick Clark 'Lookalike' Saloon Keeper."  Maybe he's also got an original C. D. Tate portrait of himself hanging somewhere in the back room of the Blue Whale?

Give Bob a ceegar...what utter truth & insight!!

(4)  Yes, sitting through "Gigli," in its entirety, a fate truly worse than death!  (Heck, I think that Barnabas and Julia, after being subjected to all of that, would have desperately wanted either Stokes or Quentin to chain them BOTH up, inside of that coffin in the secret room of the Collins Mausoleum for the next 170 years!)

Well Bob...at least ONE of them  would've liked that

Patti