Hamlin Report...and a short review of parts of "Cinderella Man"

Here we are yet again, ladies and gentlemen -- another re-enactment report! I have decided I will give you the Hamlin Report now and a much-abbreviated Mumford Report later. I would have saved myself so much grief by just typing out the Mumford Report when I should have! LOL!

First, may I just say that the weather for our re-enactment at Hamlin Beach State Park was absolutely lovely! Compared to nearly-freezing-cold Letchworth and blazing-hot Mumford, Hamlin and Tinker were great. Well, Tinker was a little warm, but Hamlin was perfect.

Set-up and take-down went so smoothly, it was almost unbelievable. We had lots of help from the relatives of the people with whom we re-enact. It was really nice.

Once again I did not do hair, except for a select few people. We had our larger fly up over the Christian Commission tent, giving us lots of extra room.

For once I had some extra time, so every couple of hours or so my niece Hattie would beg me to go down to the beach with her. We'd walk through the sand, collecting rocks, shells, and sea glass (well, it was actually lake glass -- but that just doesn't have the same ring to it). There was an almost-constant breeze blowing, and the waves of the lake sounded so soothing and peaceful as they washed up onto the shore. I'll include a picture a little later. Hattie gathered so many pieces of sea glass, I think she could reconstruct most of an entire bottle of green polished glass! She had a wonderful time running about on the beach, saying every few ticks, "Oh, look, there's another one! And over there! Look, here's a tiny piece, and oh, there's two more! It's everywhere!"

We got to spend time with some friends of ours, Mack and Ilaria, and their parents. That was really nice because we only get to see them a few times a year. They're so much fun! Mack dominates every convo he's in -- he's so incredibly funny and animated! And Ilaria, being a lot quieter than he is but still maintaining a great sense of humour, is a perfect foil for him. They're great.

The only drawbacks to the whole weekend were the following: some of the people we camped with or near were, as usual, annoying; my camera didn't take very focussed piccies of the cavalry during the battle; and there were lots of dead fish on the beach.

Actually, though, the dead fish weren't that much of a put-off; I found them rather interesting, as a matter of fact. There was a cluster of dead and decaying bass or trout in a pile just under a sand dune, and a dead but not seriously decayed catfish right next to them. I spent a few mintutes hovering over the fish and wondering why the catfish did not decay at the same rate as the bass, if indeed it was washed up on the shore at the same time as they. It was a puzzling question, and is one that still plagues me.

At times I wonder whether or not I am in the right major in college. I love editing and I believe it to be my one true strength, but at the same time I am intensely interested in forensics, particularly pathology. As you may have noticed in my profile, I list Egyptology, archaeology, and paleopathology as some of my interests. Modern pathology interests me too, though I cannot for the life of me explain why.

But I am getting sidetracked! I was supposed to be giving you the Hamlin (or as Hattie says, Hamlind) Report. Hmmm...well, I suppose there is not all that much more to tell you at this point.

Weather good, annoyances minimal, friends present and very entertaining...the only thing that was missing was my Jessie girl. Pretty much the whole weekend, everybody (me included) kept whining, "I miss Jessica 2! I wish she was here! It's not the same without her!"

True, true, very true. When one is used to having Jess around, one cannot get used to suddenly not having her around. *pouty lip* I want my Jessie back!

Oh well. She'll be back. In half a year. *pouty lip and puppy-dog eyes*

Right before she left, she and I went to dinner and then out to see Cinderella Man (for her, the first time -- for me, the second time). It was AWESOME! Every time I see it, I just want to see it again and again. I don't like the language; that was entirely unnecessary. But the rest of it is so good! The scene where Jim Braddock has to go to the boxing commission guys to beg for some money to pay his electric bill so he can get his kids back home with him...oh my goodness. So moving, so well done. I can see the tears in his eyes and it makes me cry every time.

And I love the part where, after several years and the loss of most of their money, he wakes up in the morning and walks out to the kitchen to ask Mae where his socks are. She shushes him, but their little girl Rosie wakes up and comes to the kitchen table asking for breakfast. Mae gives it to her, and she starts eating.

Jim chides her for eating with her fingers: "Rosie. Use your fork, please."

Then, after she devours her slice of ham, she begs, "Mama, I want some more."

"We have to save some for your brothers, baby," Mae says in a sorrowful tone.

Jim then proceeds to tell Rosie about a dream he had the night before, one in which he was dining at the Ritz and ate a thick, juicy steak.

"I can't eat another bite. I'm stuffed," he confides. "You wanna help me out?"

Rosie nods, eyes shining, and he slides his slice of ham onto her plate.

"Jim. Jim!" Mae calls to him as he walks toward the door. He just slides her his best "it'll be okay" grin and walks out to try to find work at the docks yet again.

AWWWWWWW!!!! How sweet! Sad, but sweet. That's what daddies should be like. That's what families should be like.

What a great movie. I really hope the whole phone-throwing incident won't prevent it from winning the awards it deserves.

Did I mention that Mr Crowe learned this amazing New Jersey accent for the part of Jim Braddock? It's amusing but so well done that I can't laugh. And they changed a lot of other things about him, too, not just his accent -- for instance, I watched the movie the first time wondering what in the world made him look so different, so un-Russell-Crowe-like.

I FINALLY figured it out a few days after I saw the movie. It was the ears! Not only did the makeup people make him look really pale and older than he normally looks, not only was his hair dyed almost black, not only did they put something on his nose to change the shape of it slightly, but...during his research, he noticed that the real Jim Braddock's ears stuck out more than his own do, so he asked Ron Howard if the makeup people could put paraffin or something behind his ears to make them stick out. So they did, and the result is what you see onscreen while viewing CM!

OK, I'll stop before I get too carried away (no, despite what you may think, this is NOT too carried away. Trust me, I can get more carried away than this when discussing Russell Crowe.). Suffice it to say, CM is an awesome movie and I'm asking for it for Chrissie!

Oh yes, and Hamlin was great fun.

But I still miss Jess.

That's all for now!