Robert Redford died today

 I remember Robert Redford from the first movie I had watched with him acting in 1969 or 1970.  I had gone to the Tower Theater at 8th street and around 15th ave.  This was around 5 years after I arrived from the old country so my English was not all that strong.  I particularly remember two scenes.  One was when Robert Reford and Paul Newman jump off a cliff to avoid being captured and said one word on the way down.  I think the word was Bullshit!  or something like that.  I do not remember many other scenes except Paul Newman and Katherine Ross riding a horse while "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head"  was playing.  I remember another scene with Katherine Ross.  

I watched the movie with Robert my brother.  I am not sure if my other brothers or sisters were present or not.  Robert would explain sometimes what was going on.  For example I did not know what the work bullshit meant or why it was bleeped out.  He told me what it was. 

While I was in high school I also worked at the Hotels with my dad.  I would normally work on Saturday and would pull two shifts.  One was from 8am- 2pm and the other from 6pm-10pm, approximately.  Between 2pm and 6pm I had time to myself.  I would normally take a bus to Lincoln Road and watch a move.  I saw Redford again in 1973 when I saw the Way We Were with Barbara Streisand.  This was the first movie I saw with Barbara Streisand.  There was only one scene which I remember.  She finally gets him to go to bed with her and he falls asleep in the process.  To myself I was thinking how is this possible?  

I did not watch much with Robert Redford after that.  I thought of watching "The Sting" but I still have not seen it.  I know my dad loved it.  I did watch "Ordinary People".  This one he got the Oscar for best Director.  I loved the movie.  I particularly liked the way Mary Tyler Moore acted in it and was disappointed when she did not get the academy award.  I thought she did a great job.  

I am getting old now. I am surprised I remember more about those actors from the past than actors that are still with us.  The only living persons I wrote about are Katherine Ross and Barbara Streisand. 

Lourdes and I got married 45 years ago.

 

Elena was married yesterday.  I and Lourdes went to the ceremony at the Coral Gables Courthouse.  It was a rather simple place and it reminded me of when Lourdes and I were first married.  I actually married her twice.  

It was 1981, a few days before our official wedding date of 8/1/1981.  Seems like such a long time ago.  At the University of Miami dorms we would be given an apartment at married housing.  There was one problem.  We had to be married to get the apartment.  We were set to get married on that Saturday.  But to qualify for married housing, you had to be married.  We were now in a quandary.  The University would not allow us to get the apartment until we were married.  The church at that time was tightening the rules and we could not get married prior to the ceremony at the church.  That morning, Lourdes and I went to see Father O'Farril to speak to him, we told him about the problem, and he immediately told us to just get married by the state.  That is all the University cared about.  We knew that but we did not expect the church be so agreable.   

All we had to do now is find two witnesses to be able to speak to our marriage.  Luckily we went back to my house, mom's house and Turi and Pepe Blanco had come back from playing something somewhere.  We approached them about being the witnesses to the wedding. They were happy to do so. There was only one problem, we needed to be there before 1 hour had passed.  I do not fully remember why one hour but that was the time we had.  We then went to get married.  We drove from our house to the courthouse and we asked to be married.  There was this beautiful young lady who was going to carry out the ceremony.  We looked horrible.  I and Lourdes, and Pepe and Turi, who were still dressed as if they had just played basketball.  For around a minute I thought of calling Rocky, who I know could have and would have loved to marry us.  It would have been great for him to marry us. I did not call him since I believe he may have been working. And we only had one hour.  When I told him about it later, he told me he would have loved to do it. 

The ceremony was actually very nice.  The lady took her job very seriously.  All of us gathered in a room.  Me, Lourdes, Pepe, and Turi participated in the ceremony.  Turi and Pepe served as the witnesses. The ceremony was carried out and Lourdes and I were married.  I believe the young lady was more appreciative than we were.  We were just trying to work the system to be able to be married according to the University rules.  She really took her job seriously.  I frankly was impressed by the civil ceremony.  But, I cannot remember what was said, except that I thought the ceremony was more religious than I expected.  I was happy about that.  By that I mean that God was invoked in the ceremony several times.  

We did not take pictures, we could not get a camera in time.  I do not remember who the lady was.  If I saw her now I would not recognize her.  I think it was in el Cielito lindo, but I am not even sure of that. To me it really did not count at the time.  I do not remember what day it was.  I think it may have been the Monday or Tuesday before August 1st.   That would mean it was July 27 I guess. I probably have that marriage license somewhere.  But it may have been replaced by the one I received on August 1, 1981.  I will look for it.  

It is kind of nice however to have two wedding days instead of one.  In the first one we were accompanied by our witnesses, Turi and Pepe.  They looked horrible since they had just come back from playing football or basketball somewhere. In the other we were surrounded by family and other friends.  Halfway through the real ceremony, Turi asked me for my keys to the apartment.  He did not tell me why he needed it, I just gave him the keys

On 8/1/1981 Lourdes and I were actually married.  After the ceremony, we drove back to my parents house.  We drove Teresa's car, which we had borrowed, to behind my parents house.  There I drove my own car to our new apartment at Married Student at 1270 South Alhambra Circle.  Lourdes and I went into the room and Pepe and Turi and I heard later Noemi, had done a great job decorating our room. I may be wrong about Noemi but I know she helped somehow.  There was champagne in the freezer.  The refrigerator did not work so we used the freezer to cool it down instead.   It was cool. I do not know when the following happenned but I remember when I was about to leave to my new apartment, mom went to see me in my car.  Just thinking about this makes me cry a little.  Mom wanted to make sure I was okay and she just said good bye.  I wish now I would have acknowledge the effort better. 

I just found out as I was looking things up that 8/1/1981 was the day that MTV was launched.