Fiddlin' Around

 

January 13, 2021



by Tena Gibson

I love old movies. Turner Classic Movies is my first check when the TV comes on.

Recently I watched an oldie that had lessons for us now.

The setting was shortly after the Civil War in Missouri. Some residents of the area were pro-south and some were pro-north.

Thomas Mitchell the father of the family (he played Scarlett O’Hara’s father in Gone in the Wind) was on the southern side. He wanted to know the color of a man’s pants (gray or blue) before he got to know you.

A big money northerner was burning homes and barns in hopes of taking over the land.

The northern gang started a fire in Mitchell’s barn. They were able to put it out before it was destroyed. The owner was livid, of course. His wife asked him what made him so angry. He said they are taking my crops, they are taking my land. “All I have left is my hate,” he said.

To me that line could be used by many right now.

Van Johnson, a likeable actor in many old movies, came to their farm and helped fix the barn and helped around the farm. He was there with a mission. He wanted to unite the people and stop the fighting. Turns out he was a northerner. But you couldn’t tell by his striped pants. Earlier on his way to the battlefield near the end of the war, he met Thomas Mitchell’s son, who was on his way to the southern side. They became friends before they reached the battlefield.

After his allegiance was discovered Van Johnson built a school for all the students of the area. And he helped heal the hate in the area. (Of course he also was going to marry the daughter of the feature family — played by a young Janet Leigh.) All the folks, southern and northern, united to run the greedy man out of the area.

If only that would work in the United States now - to find a way to stop the hate and unite.

If you are interested — the movie was “The Romance of Rosy Ridge” made in 1947.

 

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