To say that I grew up in a house where movies were the main activity is somewhat of an understatement. On any given weekend, you could find my entire family on the couch watching movies, eating popcorn and making bets to see how long it would take my mom to fall asleep. Because my mom was likely to be unconscious approximately seven minutes in, I don't have to tell you that we probably developed our love of movies from my father. He introduced us to classics like American Graffiti and Diner and loved watching teen comedies like Pretty in Pink, Can't Buy Me Love, and the Breakfast club probably as much as we did. In my mind, these were the good old days. Yes, it was the beginning of the end, when technology began to stifle children from going outside (thanks, laser disk), but in my family, it's always been what has brought us together. The only exception being Back to the Future, which at times, nearly tore my family apart.
When I was born, Back to the Future had already been out for three months in the theaters. So by my calculations, there was never a moment in time when I wasn't subjected to the wrath that is time travel. While most people love this movie, when you are forced to watch it by your older brother for your entire childhood, you develop somewhat of a resentment for the beloved characters (and their purple Calvin Klein underpants). But through the years, my opinion has softened and I've begun to realize why this movie was so important to my brother. To be able to go back and redo what we've done, see who our parents really were and dump manure on the town bully are dreams that we all have. But, of course, in real life time travel isn't possible (yet) and we just have to hope that we've made the right decisions, accept our parents for who they are and who they said they were, and laugh at the kids in my prep school who thought fashion was for idiots, not realizing that handbag sales would increase 3.6% every year of the recession becoming a $9.5 billion industry. Eh, that's life I guess.
Dedicated to my brother, Paul Germain, who spent his bar mitzvah money buying Marty's hot pink hoverboard from Planet Hollywood.
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