My Merry Month of May Movies

A fellow genealogy blogger, Pauline Cass at Family History Across the Seas asked us to share our movie memories by answering a list of questions. Sounds like fun and I am up for the challenge - and believe me the first few questions are a challenge to my memory!
Here are my answers...

1. What’s the earliest movie you can remember:  We only watched on TV until I was a teen. All Disney movies.
2. Where did you go to the movies (place or type of venue): The Film Box
3. Did you buy movie programs: No, we didn't have them.
4. Did you take in food and drink (and what did you like): We snuck in some candy
5. Movies of your teenage years: Wait Until Dark, any Elvis, The Birds, The Great Escape, The Miracle Worker, To Sir With Love
6. Do you remember how old you were when you went unsupervised: About 15, my Dad dropped us off and picked us up. 
7. Mischief you got up to in the movies:  No mischief, I was Miss goody two shoes
8. Did you watch movies at home: Yes on TV - my grandparents liked Lon Chaney and James Cagney and I would watch with them. Later I rented many movies with my kids.
9. What was your favourite movie to watch at home: Sleepless in Seattle, any Bette Davis, Davy Crockett 
10. Do you prefer to watch movies at home or at the cinema: At home - cinema is too loud.
11. Does your family have a special movie memory: Oliver! We still break out in song from the movie when we get together
12. Movies you fell in love to/with: um, none that I recall
13. Favourite romantic movie theme music: Everything I do (Robin Hood)
14. Favourite musical movie: (all of them) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Helen Morgan Story (love all the songs in this movie!!!)
15. Which movies made you want to dance/sing: 42nd Street, Momma Mia (who can sit still to the music of Abba?), Saturday Night Fever, Dirty Dancing
16. Do you watch re-runs or DVDs of old movies: Yes- I love the old movies I have tons at home onVHS - will never get rid of my VCR
17. Do your children/family enjoy the same movies: My grandkids like to watch my Shirley Temple movies when they come to my house
18. What’s your favourite movie genre now: action/mystery or drama - We watched the Millenium Trilogy of Movies in Swedish with English subtiles - it was awesome!
19. Did you read the book before or after the movie: Definitely before!
20. Which did you enjoy more, the book or the movie: They both have their attributes.
21. What’s the silliest movie you’ve seen (silly funny or silly annoying): It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
22. Pet hate in movies:  When music is louder than the actors speaking. 
23. A movie that captures family history for you: (really a TV mini series..) Pillars of the Earth - takes place in Devon where my ancestors were from, and I have 2 ancestors that were involved in building a church (not exactly a Cathedral, but...
24. If you could only play 5 movies for the rest of your life, what would they be: A Stolen Life, The Dirty Dozen, Fiddler on the Roof, Gone With the Wind, The Shawshank Redemption (sorry I have to sneak in another - Shogun!)
25. Favourite movie stars (go ahead and list as many as you like):  Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Morgan Freeman, Patrick Swayse, Charles Bronson, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Kevin Costner, Sidney Poitier, Richard Widmark, June Allyson, Ed Harris, Helen Hunt, Gene Hackman, Cary Grant, Liam Neeson, Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts, Sissy Spacek and many more....

My Related Posts:   Classic Cinema

                             Listen to the Music (Helen Morgan Story soundtrack)

                            

         

A - Z Challenge - My Reflections

We are asked to write our reflections on doing the A to Z Challenge in April.

It was my first year doing this challenge that started in 2010. There were over 2000 participants and a wide variety of subjects. I came late to the party, only hearing about it a few days before the start, so I missed the reveal and far-head planning some more experienced tended to do. 

Without a dedicated category for Genealogy I tried to find as many obvious bloggers of genealogy and family history as I could and made a list for me and other genealogists to follow. I missed quite a few, and found some half way through the month.

Since I usually post only once a week, maybe twice, I found the pace of posting every day a little hectic. But I soon found myself hating Sundays when there was no posting or commenting!  There were a few of us that kept up together the whole month, reading and commenting on each other's posts and I am so pleased to add these wonderful people to my reading list.  
We Survived!!

I did tweet my posts, but wish I had more time to follow more on twitter and participate in #AtoZChat. I did find a few non-genealogy AtoZ-ers via twitter that were very interesting and I also added to my feed.

I found some bloggers' posts were too long for the amount of posts I wanted to read, which was a shame because they were interesting and at any other time would have loved to read them.  I tried to keep my posts medium-short with images and I think they were well received. (Although now I am getting long-winded hahaha). I enjoyed the challenge of coming up with subjects for each letter and surprised myself that I was able to write unusual posts for Q and Z!!

Will I participate again?  Heck yes!!  I can see now that the trick is to have your theme figured out before hand and some if not all posts ready to roll ahead of time, with perhaps a little tweeking to do. That would leave time to read and comment on more blogs and enjoy the month stress-free.  

Thank you all for giving me a wonderful month of socializing and learning and a great experience.