From the Vaults #9

It's TBT time! Earlier this week I saw a meme on Facebook claiming that it was "Back to the Future Day!!" - it wasn't, but in Marty McFly's honor, here's a postcard from My Awesome Sister dated March 1985:

Erastus Salisbury Field, The Garden of Eden ca. 1860

"Dear J,    Thanks so much for your letter! Glad to hear you're playing I.M. Tennis instead of track. It has been physiologically proven that some people are born sprinters and some are born long-distance runners. It has to do with the % of 2 types of muscle tissue that you have. I know I cannot run more than 2 miles max. Maybe you're a sprinter too.
      "I went to see a great exhibit at the Boston Art Museum last weekend. This was one of the paintings there. Go see 'Private Function' or 'Stranger Than Paradise' if you go to the movies soon. I saw both this past week. 'Amadeus' is pretty good too...I'll be seeing you on Long Island soon. Bring your jelly beans!
lots of love, A"

Fact: I am neither a sprinter nor a long-distance runner. I loathe running. My high school had no gym classes, so we were required to participate in after school sports. There were a certain number of quarters that you had to do competitive team sports, and others where you could be more casual about it. Sometimes you would have to try to be sporty and only after sucking very, very badly at everything were you allowed to go do what you wanted. That spring, I had to try out for the lacrosse team (long sticks and hard rubber balls constantly flying at your face = frightening!), then I had to try track and field, which made my teeth hurt after about 25 yards. Eventually I was released into the luxury of "Intramural Tennis", which involved carrying a tennis racquet and calling each other Muffy while chasing down all the balls that we let slip past.

This isn't to say that I dislike exercise, or being athletic. I mean, NOW I don't dislike it. As a teenager? Sports were supremely uncool. And running still sux.

I know I've seen Amadeus (impossible to avoid in the '80s), And I might have seen Stranger Than Paradise - although now that I think about it, I think I'm confusing it with Down By Law - but I am positive I never saw A Private Function.

Coincidentally, I'll be seeing My Awesome Sister on Long Island in just two weeks. Her note on the front of the postcard refers to the trip she was to take later that summer to Kenya to study rhinoceroseseses (rhinoceri?).