Gremlins

BudLiteGood morning, y’all. Another gorgeous day in the mountains. I believe the temp will rise to as high as the 70’s this weekend. It’s like we’re having Miami type weather in the mountains of North Georgia. Like I said, I’m not sure about Global Warming, but I’m dang sure about Georgia Warming. It’s real, I’ve got the dead pine trees to prove it.

Why I bring up dead pine trees is because of a plague we didn’t even know we had before “Georgia Warming”. Seems there’s these little beetles that burrow under the bark of pine trees and damage the trees from inside. In days long gone by, the weather got cold enough to freeze the little buggers to death, and their destruction was kept to a minimum. Not anymore. Now the little devastators just eat year round and cause the bark to fall from the tree, which of course, kills the tree. Apparently the only solution is to cut down the infected tree and everything around it for fifty feet or so. A major pain in the rear caused by an itty-bitty little critter.

Speaking of little critters that cause major havoc, I chose “Gremlins” as our date night movie this week. I was looking for a fun movie, kind of Christmasy, and something that didn’t require a lot of thought to cypher out. I was looking through my extensive Betamax collection, and “Gremlins” just jumped out at me. Turns out, it was just the ticket for entertaining some guests that I didn’t know I was going to be entertaining.

Mulva invited the Bread brood to our date night. Well, I guess invited is not the right phrase. Alva Bread asked Mulva to keep the kids while she and her husband, the Right Reverend Dale E. Bread tried to straighten things out. In the spirit of Christian charity, and getting paid back the money they owe me, I agreed to provide entertainment for the little hellions while the parents tried to plot a course that would, I hoped, take them out of my life.

Popcorn was popped, juice boxes provided, and the little monsters were arrayed in front of the big screen in the Rec room. From the opening credits, we knew we had a hit with the kids. I’m guessing the deep voice of Hoyt Axton reminded the kids of their own dad, and so they watched the movie with rapt attention. Let’s face it, the little Mogwais kept the Bread brood glued to the screen. Even an old timer like me is fascinated with the workings of the Mogwais, and everybody loved the relationship between Billy and Gizmo, the good Gremlin.

By the time we discovered there were “good” Gremlins and “bad” Gremlins, the youngest of the Bread bunch had nodded off. The oldest three Breads made it to the final scene, and thankfully, they managed to make it without asking questions every six seconds. In fact, Devin, the oldest, seemed to be making notes. I don’t know whether to be concerned that Devin views “Stripe”, the leader of the bad gremlins, as a role model or not. As I’ve previously pointed out, Devin should be under constant surveillance. I’m just glad we don’t have any stair case elevator chairs in TackyToo. I can see a real potential liability there.

“Gremlins” came out in 1984, and was produced by Stephen Spielberg. The film’s main stars were Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates. Comedian and all around crazy guy, Howie Mandel, was the voice of Gizmo. Look close and you see one of the Coreys. The movie was an hour and a half or so of non-stop action. It was a great warm up to the Christmas season, and I’m not talking about the fire in the bar.

We happily turned the little monsters back in to their mother without any conversation. I’m guessing the Right Reverend is going to lay low for awhile, which suits me just fine. I’ve got all I can do to keep up with his demon seed, Damian, I mean Devin. I guess I’ll be spending the next couple of hours making sure all of our insurance policies are up to date.

“Gremlins”, check it out, it’ll put you in the Christmas spirit.

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