Footloose

 

I'm not sure when I first saw the movie Footloose, but it made an impression on me. Especially the "chicken" scene on the tractors where as farm kids riding to school on the bus, we debated the outcome endlessly. Those of us with farms using John Deere tractors were happy with the outcome while those kids from International using farms vowed their tractor would have one had they made it to head on head, or scoop on scoop as it might be.

Sometimes when my parents were gone on a weekend, we ended up at a local babysitter across town who would keep us over the weekend. One Sunday after we attended her church, she picked up her grandson, my age, and we drove to the county seat and to a corner pizza shop called "Diamonds" where they cut their pizza into diamond shaped slices. In the corner was a jukebox and on this particular Sunday, the babysitter's grandson said he had a quarter to put into the machine and we were excused to go make a selection. Only when we were over there did he show me that his mom had actually given him an entire roll of quarters. We plugged in that entire roll and chose the song "Footloose" over and over. Three songs later, the first playing of Footloose came on. By the third playing, the babysitter was onto us. By the sixth or seventh, others around the joint were starting to notice as the babysitter ushered us quickly out of the shop with our leftover pizza boxed up.

During high school dances, "Almost Paradise" was a staple, still, after all those years. Slow dancing to the song made everything else in life disappear, at least for the next three minutes and forty-six seconds. 

Sometime in my last couple years of college, I was hit with the urge to relive that movie during their Saturday 24 hour 12 for $10 movie rental deal at my local "blockbuster" like store. I don't remember what it was called but it had thousands upon thousands of movies all on VHS tapes on shelves five or six rows high all throughout the store. I searched for Footloose in the "Old Releases" section arranged in alphabetical order but couldn't located it. I checked the "Romance" section and even a couple other specialized groups but couldn't find it. I finally asked the young teen manning the register if they carried it. He said he had never hear of it but typed it into the computer and told me they did. There was one copy in the "Musical" section. Yes it has music like all movies and there was the two famous dancing scenes, one in the abandoned factory and the other the final prom scene but musical? Sure enough I found it and relived the tractor seen once again.

Not many years ago, sometime before Covid, I was channel surfing and came across a movie and started watching it. A young kid unfamiliar to me was trying to get the local community to relent and allow them dance at their prom. Something sparked inside and I suddenly was wondering if someone had the audacity to remake a classic like Footloose? Sure enough, google told me they did. I finished it to the end but it was never as good as the original.

Even to this day, those songs stay with me and are even on my iPhone's playlist. I can sing every word of every song and can nearly close my eyes and see the scene from that movie they played in. I always feel a bit footloose whenever one of them plays.