Last night we saw the last Harry Potter movie. We went, as we had done with the previous movies, as a family. Eldest sat with some of her school friends who wanted to mark the end together. We sat with one of youngest's old friends and her parents.
The girls were twelve and fourteen when the first movie came out in 2001. They came to the books a little later than some of their friends, but became addicted and (as so often happened) introduced their parents to the books.
The Wikipedia entry on the books points to some of the varying views held about them as literature. It really doesn't matter; the books and then films were a cultural phenomenon that established a special place in the life of children and parents alike. As eldest said last night, she felt that this last movie in some way marked the end of her childhood, the ending of an era.
When that first film came out, Aunt Kay was still alive. After Mum's death, she really became a replacement mum to me and grandparent to the girls.
We left Armidale for Sydney early in 1996 when Dee took a job as CEO of a firm of patent attorneys. In the following years we returned to Armidale many times to to stay with Kay. We must have been in Armidale for Christmas in 2001, for the movie was still on and the girls insisted that Kay see it. She enjoyed it, but was a trifle bemused by all the fuss!
As I watched the movie and then talked to people afterwards, I couldn't help feeling a little nostalgic.
After we came down to Sydney I took on the main child care role, something that I have written about before. I felt it as the girls moved from school to university because it changed my world.
Like most of us, I tend to go with the flow of life. On a day to day basis, the rhythms of life seem fixed, unchanging. It's only when they do suddenly change that you realise that the apparent stability was an illusion, just another phase in passage. You also realise that you had forgotten to record things, to note things, that you should have done so to record the passage.
Well, Harry and friends, I am going to miss you as you, too, fade into the past. You have given us all a lot of pleasure. For that I thank you.
Postscript
I couldn't resist this one from eldest's Facebook page:
7 Books, 8 Films and 14 years of my life. In essense, my childhood.
Kind of says it all!
2 comments:
Hi Jim
Was going to ask you if your daughters had ever expressed opinions about Twilight - my early to mid-teen nieces are hooked. But then I just read Stephen King's comment:
"Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend."
- and don't think I'll invite their sarcasm :)
kvd
Hi KVD. Eldest who is also the strongest HP fan loved the Twilight books. Youngest took an opposite view. I read the T books, enjoyed them, but was not really impressed.
And on those comments, SK is a ponce!
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