Tuesday, December 16, 1986

This year (2014) and 1986 have the same day and date correspondence (that is, the dates of both years fall on the same days of the week). And on this day/date in 1986 I came home from my freshman year in college to begin my three week Christmas break. 1986 was not a particularly good year for me, as some negative things had happened, but it was still a very significant year, as I turned 18, graduated from high school, went off to begin college, and learned how to drive and got my first lisence. But this three week vacation at the end of it (until January 6, when I went back to college) was very good and one of the best Christmases and times I had ever had. I had gone back to college after Thanksgiving break on Tuesday, December 2, 1986 and knew I'd be back home for this long Christmas break in exactly two weeks, and couldn't wait and was really looking forward to it and counting the days down. I went to college at a small private religious college in the North Carolina mountains, and lived in a house in a small country town in upstate South Carolina just south of Charlotte, NC (just over a 2 hour drive). On December 16 my mother came and got me and we drove home, and that night, around 11:00, after my mother, sister, and grandmother had gone to sleep, I put our VHS copy of King Kong into our VCR and watched it. I had actually seen it a number of times before then, on TV and on this tape in this VCR (see my other posting on this board, 80th Anniversary), but this was the first time I had seen it in over a year or two, but I still loved it as much as ever, and this was one of the best experiences of seeing a movie that I had ever had. This was also a great way to kick off this vacation for me, and ever since this viewing it has been a very good Christmas movie for me, I later watched it around Christmas a number of years.

The next day my mother and sister went to school (my mother taught fifth grade and my sister was in 11th grade and their Christmas break did not begin until the following Friday), but my grandmother and I went to a greenhouse in the nearby town to get a Christmas tree, where we had always gotten them. We then brought the tree back and left it on the porch until the following Friday night (December 19), when we put it up and decorated it, and put out all of our Christmas things in the living room. And that night on ABC Monday Night Football had a special Friday night edition of a game, the Los Angeles Rams playing the San Francisco 49ers in Candlestick Park in San Francisco. This kicked off the 16th and final weekend of the 1986 NFL season, the Rams were 10-5, the 49ers 9-5-1, and the winner of this game would win the NFC West and get a bye in the playoffs while the loser would be the second wild card and face having to play the next week and playing all of its playoff games on the road. So this was a very big game for both teams, and we had it on in our living room and watched it as we decorated. Then the next day, Saturday the 20th, the four of us went over to a mall in Spartanburg, SC and did some Christmas shopping and sightseeing for a few hours. Then on Monday, December 22nd my mother, sister and I went to a mall in Greenville, SC for a few hours, and on Tuesday, December 23rd went to the mall in Gastonia, NC for a few hours (my grandmother didn't go these days).

And on Monday night, December 22 ABC had its final MNF game of the year, and the final game of the 1986 NFL Season, when the New England Patriots played the Miami Dolphins in the Orange Bowl in Miami. Miami was 8-7 and out of the playoffs, but New England was 10-5 and would win the AFC East and get a playoff bye with a win. But if New England lost they would be out of the playoffs and the New York Jets, at 10-6, would win the AFC East and the Cincinatti Bengals, also at 10-6, would make the playoffs as the second wild card. So during this game some of the Cincinatti players (including Boomer Esiason) watched it from a place in northern Kentucky just outside Cincinatti, and the MNF crew had occasional interviews with them during it. And this was also the last pro football game ever played at the Orange Bowl, as the Dolphins would move to a new stadium in northern Dade County the following season. And during this game they showed significant plays from past pro games held in the Orange Bowl. As it turned out New England won this game and the AFC East, but I watched this whole game as well.

Then the following Thursday was Christmas Day and the four of us got up early and went to the living room and opened and got all of our presents, then ate Christmas dinner early that afternoon (the same thing we had for Thanksgiving dinner). And I mostly stayed at home and watched movies and sporting events the rest of this Christmas vacation, including the Fiesta Bowl on Friday night, January 2, 1987 on NBC, which pitted Miami and Penn State, both 11-0, in a winner take all national championship game. This was the first meeting of undefeated teams in a college bowl game since the 1940s, and it received a lot of hype and drew 70 million viewers that night (Penn State won 14-10 in a big upset). Then my mother and sister went back to school on Monday, January 5, and I myself went back to college to begin spring semester the following day, Tuesday, January 6. An older couple who were friends of my grandmother took me back, and my grandmother went with us, and when I got back to the college that afternoon I was very depressed and went back to my room and straight to bed, and I felt depressed for about a week or so afterwards, because I had been looking forward to this Christmas break so much, and it was so good. But it was this viewing of King Kong that kicked it off, 28 years ago tonight, and I have always remembered King Kong for that, and plan to watch it tonight in my apartment on my DVD player to mark this anniversary.


"I happen to be a vegetarian". Lex, from Jurrasic Park