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go greased lightning
Tuesday, March 31st, 2026 11:44 pmI have started rewatching the 1978 movie Grease.
I first watched it circa 1980 when I was 8 years old. I recall a friend being over (the daughter of my dad's friend); possibly even for a sleep-over. I don't recall having any other non-family sleepovers as a kid; just that one time if at all. I recall the friend being a big fan of the movie, and when she found out it was on TV and I hadn't seen it, insisted we watch it. I recall a small TV in my bedroom... but I also don't recall having a TV in the bedroom. It's odd. Memory is like that.
I like the movie but don't love it. I love the music, but not so much the lyrics. I don't relate much to the characters. I think I used to like Frenchy best. She's nice and sweet and had pretty colored hair. Beauty School Dropout, dah dahhh dah dah dah.
On my iPad, it's easy to skip back 10/20/30 seconds and to rewatch the same scene many times. I found myself doing that for the parking lot scene after the pep rally, where Sandy and Danny meet each other again. I noticed how Rizzo gives Danny a smug look after Sandy runs away, upset at Danny's feigned indifference to her. I skipped back to the cafeteria scene to find out if Rizzo and Danny had been a couple before. Yes that was mentioned/implied there. I rewatched the parking lot scene multiple times, focusing on the background characters' reactions. Frenchy and Rizzo seemed pleasantly surprised by Danny's initial happiness at seeing Sandy, and disappointed by his subsequent nonchalance.
One of the next scenes is the Pink Ladies' sleep-over at Frenchy's house. There's a little TV in the bedroom, like the one I maybe remember watching the movie on with the friend. Except surely we would have watched it on a color TV, not black and white? I don't remember us having a small color TV until some years later; my dad got me one as a monitor for my TRS-80 computer. So maybe we watched it on the big color TV down in the den instead. Maybe we only had the TV guide in the bedroom, and that's where we found out the movie was going to be on. TV guides, remember them?
We couldn't rewind movies and easily rewatch the same scene twenty times back then.
There are so many details in that sleep-over scene. So many things in the bedroom. There's a plush tiger which immediately caught my eye this time, as it is very similar to one I had as a child. There's a photo of it in the crib with me when I was a baby. I didn't realize it before, but in the photo it looks like it might have already been many years old; maybe it was someone else's used plush tiger that was given to the little baby me. That spurred me to look up about vintage plush tigers. One of this pair of tigers looks almost exactly like mine, except for the eyes. The listing, and other listings I found, mention them having been carnival fair prizes.
In the movie, the tiger gets tossed by one character at another, then falls to the floor. A bit later it is magically on the bed again. It keeps changing position.
The furniture seems to change position too, but I'm not certain. I'll have to watch it some more times to ascertain. I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by these details.
The bedroom has pretty wallpaper. The curtains seem to match the bedspread. There's a walk-in closet. My grandparents' home in California had walk-in closets. Maybe they were popular in CA before other places. Watching the movie, I had the impression it was set in California, because of the initial beach scene. But per Wikipedia the school is in Chicago or some suburb in that part of the country. That would better explain why Sandy and Danny are so surprised to see each other again, if the beach wasn't anywhere near the school.
I first watched it circa 1980 when I was 8 years old. I recall a friend being over (the daughter of my dad's friend); possibly even for a sleep-over. I don't recall having any other non-family sleepovers as a kid; just that one time if at all. I recall the friend being a big fan of the movie, and when she found out it was on TV and I hadn't seen it, insisted we watch it. I recall a small TV in my bedroom... but I also don't recall having a TV in the bedroom. It's odd. Memory is like that.
I like the movie but don't love it. I love the music, but not so much the lyrics. I don't relate much to the characters. I think I used to like Frenchy best. She's nice and sweet and had pretty colored hair. Beauty School Dropout, dah dahhh dah dah dah.
On my iPad, it's easy to skip back 10/20/30 seconds and to rewatch the same scene many times. I found myself doing that for the parking lot scene after the pep rally, where Sandy and Danny meet each other again. I noticed how Rizzo gives Danny a smug look after Sandy runs away, upset at Danny's feigned indifference to her. I skipped back to the cafeteria scene to find out if Rizzo and Danny had been a couple before. Yes that was mentioned/implied there. I rewatched the parking lot scene multiple times, focusing on the background characters' reactions. Frenchy and Rizzo seemed pleasantly surprised by Danny's initial happiness at seeing Sandy, and disappointed by his subsequent nonchalance.
One of the next scenes is the Pink Ladies' sleep-over at Frenchy's house. There's a little TV in the bedroom, like the one I maybe remember watching the movie on with the friend. Except surely we would have watched it on a color TV, not black and white? I don't remember us having a small color TV until some years later; my dad got me one as a monitor for my TRS-80 computer. So maybe we watched it on the big color TV down in the den instead. Maybe we only had the TV guide in the bedroom, and that's where we found out the movie was going to be on. TV guides, remember them?
We couldn't rewind movies and easily rewatch the same scene twenty times back then.
There are so many details in that sleep-over scene. So many things in the bedroom. There's a plush tiger which immediately caught my eye this time, as it is very similar to one I had as a child. There's a photo of it in the crib with me when I was a baby. I didn't realize it before, but in the photo it looks like it might have already been many years old; maybe it was someone else's used plush tiger that was given to the little baby me. That spurred me to look up about vintage plush tigers. One of this pair of tigers looks almost exactly like mine, except for the eyes. The listing, and other listings I found, mention them having been carnival fair prizes.
In the movie, the tiger gets tossed by one character at another, then falls to the floor. A bit later it is magically on the bed again. It keeps changing position.
The furniture seems to change position too, but I'm not certain. I'll have to watch it some more times to ascertain. I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by these details.
The bedroom has pretty wallpaper. The curtains seem to match the bedspread. There's a walk-in closet. My grandparents' home in California had walk-in closets. Maybe they were popular in CA before other places. Watching the movie, I had the impression it was set in California, because of the initial beach scene. But per Wikipedia the school is in Chicago or some suburb in that part of the country. That would better explain why Sandy and Danny are so surprised to see each other again, if the beach wasn't anywhere near the school.
