Carolyn Stoddard: The High School Years

[Bob_the_Bartender]

I might've told this tale here, so bear with me if I did.  The first in our neighborhood - I believe it was in '66, give or take a year - to get a color TV were our next door neighbors.  Now, in our gathering of folk on Polish Hill, only the kind of people who lived "on da nor't side," particularly the part of Waldo Boulevard close to Lake Michigan, had the price and prestige to own one.  It was simply unheard of in our community with things like Pulaski Park and Polish Phil's Bar.  As my dad would say, stuff like color TV's, dishwashers, automatic clothes washers (not to mention dryers), power lawn-mowers, snow-blowers and any type of air-conditioning was for "da fancy people."  So when our neighbors: grandpa; grandma; son; daughter-in-law; their daughter, and their son (my best friend at that time, also a lover of spooky movies and shows) purchased one, it was the most talked-about news until the moon landing about three years later.

There was a reason for the purchase.  As expected in a neighborhood comprised primarily of people of Polish, Galician, and Czech ("Bohemian") people with last names that looked like a line on an eye chart, the vast majority were of the Catholic religion.  The massive, two-steepled-with-onion-dome-tops church along with its
campus of school, convent and rectory dominated half-a-block.  On TV that year, it was announced that the
classic film, The Song of Bernadette, would be aired for the first time.  The older, pre-boomer generation
all remembered seeing it in the theater 20-or-so-years earlier and recalled with pride that Jennifer Jones, who
played the visionary, won the Oscar.  In the mid-seventies, she would be remember for dancing with Fred
Astaire before plunging over 1,000 feet to her death in The Towering Inferno.  Now it was going to be on
TV in all its 20th-Century-Fox glory.  Even a visit by the pope wouldn't have caused such an uproar.  So, just
because of that occasion, the neighbors bought a set and invited everyone within a multi-block radius to come
over (everyone brought something - that potluck thing, you know), and the party began.  The time of the airing
 arrived, everyone settled down to watch this ultimate Catholic classic on color television until it started...

...and all the original viewers had forgot that it was filmed in black-and-white.  Well, a good time was had by all.  Being an epic, it took three hours for it to air and we kids who had to be in bed long before nine on a school
 night got to stay up until ten. 

That set did get good use, though.  We'd be invited over to watch something in color and I even got to see - are you ready for this, MB? - Lost In Space in color in the second and third seasons.  The big thing to watch
was Disney's Wonderful World of Color. One that stood out was Pablo and the Dancing Chihuahua. 
After awhile, the novelty wore off.  It would be another ten years before my dad capitulated even to the
demands of my mom and we became one of "da fancy people" and got our first set in 1976.  The reason why
(and my mom's primary insistence)?  Gone With the Wind was going to air for the first time on TV.
And this time we knew it was in color.

Gerard

Oh, Gerard, I don’t know where to start; what a wonderful remembrance of life during the halcyon days of the long-ago 1960s!

I loved your description of the town you grew up in in Wisconsin. I went to high school in Bayonne, NJ, which has a large Polish-American community. Many of my classmates at Marist High School had surnames like Januska, Pietrowski, Polakowski, Radomski and Kowalski (who claimed that the world-renowned wrestling champion, “Killer” Kowalski, was his uncle!). And, Bayonne also had Kosakowski’s Corral, possibly the only Polish-American country-western bar/tavern, east of Chicago, Illinois.

I got a big kick out of your description of people’s surnames that looked like a line on an eye chart. In fact, there was a major league catcher for the San Diego Padres named Doug Gwosdz, whose baseball nickname was, quite understandably, “Eye-Chart”!

Perhaps you’re familiar with Jean Shepherd, the late great humorist, writer, radio host and raconteur? Mr. Shepherd grew up in a steel mill town in Indiana on Lake Michigan, not far from Chicago. In one of his short stories/remembrances, he wrote about a Polish-American family and their beautiful teenaged daughter who moved right next door to his family’s house.

To say that Jean Shepherd was smitten with this lovely young girl would be an understatement; he was struck by the thunderbolt” when he first met her!  His awkward, teenaged pursuit of her is chronicled in Mr. Shepherd’s amusing and bittersweet short story, “The Star-crossed Romance of Josephine Gosnowski.”

As a young kid during the 1960s, I always enjoyed listening to  Jean Shepherd on WOR-710 AM in New York City every week night at 10:00 PM. Mr. Shepherd, with his keen and acerbic wit, was an absolutely wonderful
storyteller. The late Raineypark and I would often exchange recollections of listening to Mr. Shepherd on the radio way back then. I suppose Jean Shepherd is best known for the 1983 film comedy based on his short story, “A Christmas Story,” which just had a sequel made, starring Peter Billingsley, the original “Ralphie” in the first
film.

I loved your recollection of everyone getting psyched-up to see the wonderful Jennifer Jones in “The Song of Bernadette.” What a bummer to find out that that classic film had been filmed in black and white! Heck, I think I was into my twenties, before I found out that “The Wizard of Oz” had been filmed in both color and black and white after all those years of watching that film classic on a black and white tv! 

Regarding “The Song of Bernadette,” wasn’t the late, great Vincent Price terrific in it as Vital Dutour, the cynical and off-putting imperial prosecutor, who gives poor Bernadette such a hard time? Perhaps that role helped to give Mr. Price the opportunity to later become such an American horror film icon? And, wouldn’t the lovely and breathtakingly beautiful Jennifer Jones have been a wonderful Victoria Winters on “Dark Shadows”?

[McTrooper]

I think Carolyn was both spoiled and able to be pitied. 
She might have been both outcast and top of the heap at school with no or few true friends. 
Toying with men out of boredom and feeling like close relationships weren’t possible so it didn’t matter what she did.

That might explain why Jeb didn’t creep her out.  His desire for only her might’ve come across as loyalty that a real relationship could be built on. 

Great topic Bob ^_^

——
I don’t have any black and white to color stories, but our color TV didn’t have cable for years and the channel had to be changed by hand until years later we got a VCR (I think it it could work that way). 

That old tv worked for years even after it got replaced. 

[Bob_the_Bartender]

McTrooper,

That’s a very interesting and insightful point you made about Carolyn’s burgeoning romance with the bumptious and cocky Jeb Hawkes. I couldn’t see either Vicky or Maggie showing any interest in the self-absorbed Leviathan leader. But, then again, I was surprised that Maggie fell for the warlock, Nicholas Blair. With his urbane manners, trademark three-piece gray suit and his all-too-easy and unctuous smile, Nicholas Blair always impressed me as being an insincere “fancy dancer” (to borrow a phrase from the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens in his song, “Hard Headed Woman”). Maggie just seemed to be too practical and well-grounded to fall for an oily character like Nicholas Blair.

If Sam Evans had not died after losing his sight (way to go, Barnabas!)
and suffering that, ultimately, fatal shot to the head from Adam (once again, “thank you, very much,”
Barnabas), I don’t think that Sam would have liked the flashy Nicholas Blair at all and would have advised his beloved daughter to ditch the smarmy creep, resulting in Nicholas dispatching the vampire, Tom Jennings, to “take care” of Sam like he tried to “take care” of Vicky after Vicky objected to Nicholas marrying Maggie.

I like to think that Maggie and Joe Haskell eventually reunited after several years and that they married and had a long and very happy life together, something, admittedly, rarely seen on “Dark Shadows.” But, I’m a hopeless romantic, just like Sarah Johnson and Matthew Morgan.

[McTrooper]

I’ve often thought Carolyn’s life wasn’t super happy even though she’s rich, but only because of this discussion did I think of the Jeb Hawkes part. 

It helps me to excuse Carolyn’s acceptance of Jeb. 
After all he doesn’t come across as a dashing photographer adventure. 

Yeah Maggie and Nicholas was an odd couple.  I understand Nicholas‘s fascination, but I can’t picture Maggie being interested without magical persuasion.

I enjoyed Maggie and Joe and it would have been nice even if it was just dialogue to give those characters a reunion. 
Maybe Elisabeth could have said they’d be at the (whatever the event was) together to see Rodger’s speech.  It wouldn’t have cost Dan any money or require the actors to return.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Carolyn always had terrible luck in the romance department. And it didn't really matter if the men were basically good guys like Tony Peterson and Chris Jennings or those with a dark side like Burke Devlin and Jeb Hawkes. In fact, a dark side seemed to attract her more! But my main problem with her relationship with Jeb is that she was not only frequently confronted with the fact that Jeb was hardly a good guy but that he had in fact killed her father. She was repeatedly confronted with the latter but she always chose to ignore it and that was way out of character for Carolyn.

As for Maggie and Joe, sure, it would have been nice if they'd gotten back together. But we have to remember that so far as Maggie knows, Joe cheated on her and for most women that is unforgivable. And it's not like she didn't try to get Joe to explain his behavior - but of course he was incapable of doing so - so in the end Maggie felt she had no choice but to accept Joe wasn't the guy for her. Now, could she have eventually forgiven his "cheating" without an explanation for why he had? Who knows? But that whole situation in their relationship seems like it might have been an obstacle to them ever getting back together and certainly getting back to the place they'd been before Angelique ruined everything for them. Their situation is quite tragic - but at its heart DS is a Gothic story - and very rarely in Gothic stories does true romance work out in the end...

[Uncle Roger]

The dream sequence that Carolyn had shortly before the wedding shows that at least subconsciously she does know that Jeb killed her father. While she never acted on this knowledge, it could come to the surface at a later time.

[Gerard]

Ironically, didn't Joe and Maggie both end up at Wyndcliffe, the hoo-hoo hotel where everyone traumatized by things that go bump in the night in the proximity of Collinwood were shipped off to?  Was Joe still there, blabbering about wolves, when Maggie arrived blabbering about bats?  If they did reunite over a bowl of tapioca pudding (with their meds crushed inside), maybe their past romance could've been rekindled.  Of course, they'd end up looking like Herman and Lilly or Gomez and Morticia.  Since Maggie had holidayed there once before, she could fill Joe in on what to know, like who does what for cigarettes.

Gerard

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Great points everyone is making about the interpersonal relationships of the characters on DS! I believe that author Dale Clark did have Maggie and Joe reuniting in his excellent series of DS novels. (Dale also had Maggie finally remembering all that Barnabas had done to her right after he showed up unexpectedly in town, but that’s for another discussion.)

The late Joel Crothers was outstanding in his heartbreaking portrayal of Joe Haskell, during his final months on DS. To say that Joe’s life was a series of one awful experience right after the other would be an understatement; first, Joe gets severely manhandled by the brutish Adam, necessitating  a prolonged stay in the hospital, then Joe makes the unfortunate mistake of making Angelique’s “acquaintance” in the House-by-the-Sea, which results in Joe eventually losing his job at the cannery, the love of his fiancée and finally his own self-respect, resulting in both a failed (thankfully) suicide attempt and a failed strangling of Barnabas, Joe’s “rival” for Angelique’s “affection/attention.”

Finally, after being manhandled by his cousin, Chris Jennings (whom Joe suspected of hiding some particularly horrible secret) and the knowledge (from personal experience) of what had really happened to Joe’s other cousin, Tom Jennings, caused Joe to finally go “round-the_bend” (as they say in England) and, almost pathetically, for Joe to attempt to abduct his young cousin, Amy Jennings, from Amy’s two older and “evil” brothers. A sad end for one of DS’s most decent and likable characters.

[McTrooper]

Great point about Mysterious Benefactor I forgot about her knowing what Jeb did and also about Maggie.

Lol Gerard ^_^
“ . . . reunite over a bowl of tapioca pudding  . . .”  The whole picture you painted really makes me smile.

Bob_the_Bartender
It really was quite a sad series of experiences for Joe I’d even include dating Carolyn in that progression of sad experiences.  His relationship with Maggie falling apart was a bit hard to watch. 

[Bob_the_Bartender]

I’ve often thought Carolyn’s life wasn’t super happy even though she’s rich, but only because of this discussion did I think of the Jeb Hawkes part. 

It helps me to excuse Carolyn’s acceptance of Jeb. 
After all he doesn’t come across as a dashing photographer adventure. 

Yeah Maggie and Nicholas was an odd couple.  I understand Nicholas‘s fascination, but I can’t picture Maggie being interested without magical persuasion.

I enjoyed Maggie and Joe and it would have been nice even if it was just dialogue to give those characters a
reunion. 
Maybe Elisabeth could have said they’d be at the (whatever the event was) together to see Rodger’s speech.  It wouldn’t have cost Dan any money or require the actors to return.

McTrooper,

That would have been great if Dan Curtis and the DS writers had Elizabeth telling Barnabas, Julia and Professor Stokes that Joe and Maggie Haskell would be in attendance for Roger’s speech at the opening of the Collinsport Historical Society, along with Carolyn, David and Quentin.

Julia could than remark how happy she was that both Maggie and Joe had recovered fully during their time at Windcliff and how delighted Julia was that the young couple had decided to marry, thus giving us all a satisfying conclusion to that part of the DS storyline.

Dan Curtis and the DS writers did provide a similar type of explanation on the show, when Quentin remarked to Julia that he was sorry to see Chris Jennings, Chris’s fiancee Sabrina Stuart and Chris’s younger sister, Amy leave Collinsport suddenly and unexpectedly while Julia and Barnabas were in Parallel Time and also in 1995. (Although, we never found out if the unfailingly “congenial” Ned Stuart had tagged along with his sister, Sabrina, and her new family.)   

And, as you point out, it wouldn’t have cost the frugally-minded Dan Curtis a dime to let us know that things had turned out very well for Maggie and Joe.