My sister's boys have been participating in the 1000 Hours Outside challenge, in which kids pledge to spend one thousand hours outside during the calendar year. As you can see by their chart, they are well on their way to accomplishing this goal. They added a couple more hours to the chart on Sunday afternoon, at my parents' place where typically a bunch of us gather for dinner after church. We set up the archery target and had a tournament... we were all soundly defeated by my 12 year old nephew, who actually practices. Speaking of archery tournaments, here's the one from the 1938 version of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn.
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This episode of Road To Avonlea harkens back to a first season episode, Malcolm and the Baby. In it, Hetty King and Rachel Lynde mended an old quarrel which dated back some thirty odd years, when they fought over a guy they both liked: Romney Penhallow. They've been quite good friends since, even finding themselves able to laugh over their old grudge. In Old Quarrels, Old Love we revisit this plotline when many of the Avonlea folk- including Hetty and Rachel- have gathered for the wedding of local girl Alice Hardy, who is marrying into the Penhallow family. Hetty is shocked when Romney, now a renowned artist, shows up for his nephew's wedding as he hasn't been on the Island in years. She attempts to avoid him, but he has no intention of allowing her to do so and their rather adversarial reunion ends with Hetty falling in the river then pulling Romney in after her. Much to the delight of Rachel, Mrs. Potts, and the other gossips who are watching these goings-on avidly. Hetty's sense of humour gets the better of her, and the two reconcile, sort of. We also learn what exactly happened back in the day: Romney asked Rachel to a dance to make Hetty jealous. It worked too well, and a furious and humiliated Hetty was too proud to accept his apology when he offered it . Romney left the Island soon after, only now returning. The two attempt to make up for lost time, spending many hours together over the next few days and we see another side of Hetty as she and Romney tease each other and laugh together, run through the fields, and Romney sketches her smiling, sitting in the grass. At the end of a day spent together, Romney invites Hetty to have dinner with him the next day at the White Sands Hotel. Hetty gets all gussied up and waits- and waits- on the porch for him to pick her up, but he never does. Upset, Hetty goes back into the house, assuming that this was all some elaborate ruse of Romney's, to make a fool out of her once again. The truth is actually quite different. Alec comes across Dr. Blair on the road, his carriage axle broken. He tells Alec that he has to get to the White Sands right away, so Alec offers to take him there. His patient turns out to be Romney who has a neurological disorder and is slowly dying. He had come back to Avonlea to make his peace with Hetty and spend a few happy days in her company without her suspecting anything was wrong, but he's had a sudden bad episode which has left him weak, shaky, and unable to walk. Alec pleads with him to tell Hetty, but Romney insists on being transported to the train immediately, to return to his home in Montreal. He wants Hetty to remember him as he was. When Alec tells Hetty, she is grieved that she didn't know Romney was ill, that she believed the worst of him, and that she is losing him again, this time for good. She writes to him and they continue their relationship through letters until Romney dies a few months later. Hetty is, of course, saddened by his loss but comforted by the knowledge that they were at long last friends- and perhaps more- until the end. I've always found this episode of Road To Avonlea to be a little uneven, though it's definitely worth watching. There's lots of humour, especially in the first half; I've often mentioned the amusement I find in watching the reactions of the recurring townspeople- like Mrs. Potts, who is a gleefully malicious gem in every episode she's in. There're some great moments from Rachel as well. Of course, this is a Hetty-centric episode, and it's interesting to see the person Hetty might have been if Romney had been around to tease her out of her overly-fussy ways and keep her from being overbearing by balancing her forceful character with his equally strong one. My biggest criticism is that everything happens too quickly- the wedding, their squabbling and reconciliation, their time spent together, the reveal of Romney's fatal illness, and then he's gone. All of this doesn't have the impact it would have had if they had given the story more time to develop and breathe, maybe spread it over a couple of episodes. Oh yes, there's also a secondary plotline, about the Avonlea Chronicle being in danger of going under (it usually is) this time because several local advertisers have pulled their support. Olivia attempts- and eventually succeeds- to win these advertisers back. I didn't mention this before because frankly, it's pretty uninteresting and I forgot about it. Finally, Romney Penhallow is played by Peter Coyote which, come to think of it, may explain why everything had to be stuffed into one episode... they probably couldn't afford to pay him for more than that. I have to say though, that for a modest Canadian show Road To Avonlea did manage to pull in quite a few well known actors to guest star, including Christopher Lloyd, Stockard Channing, Bruce Greenwood, Michael York, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Reeve, and Ned Beatty... to name a few.
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About MeI'm a lover of good books, classic movies, and well-written shows (as well as some pretty cheesy ones, to be completely honest). Categories
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