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Learning not only about acceptance, but also the words to the Bonanza theme songDec 13 '00 (Updated Jan 26 '01) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Learning acceptance I’ve had many roommates over the years, having gone to 3 universities and a few years gone by since then. I’ve roomed with Christians and Jews, Blacks and Whites, serious students and those who scheduled their classes around the soaps. I once had a roommate who was in a band and was engaged to one member of the band, yet she was having a fling with the 3rd band member. Another year I roomed with my best friend (and unlike those stories of ruined friendships, we’re still close). A few years earlier I shared an apartment with a woman who didn’t mention to me for several months that she is gay (we’re also still really good friends). My senior year of undergrad my roommate was the Resident Assistant…and apparently also the drug dealer for the apartment (not that anyone told me!) One woman I roomed with used to get a kick out of “hanging” my stuffed lamb with a noose. My first roommate in college only stayed a month when she dropped out to go back home with her boyfriend. It was quite an education for me--the drug-free virgin from a town whose population was smaller than that of the college. With all of that diversity, though, the roommate that I learned the most about open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance of others was a WASP. I’m going to use her real name in case anyone knows her because I’d love to get in touch with her after all these years. This took place in the mid-70s at UCLA. Sue moved in to my dorm room after my first roommate dropped out. She had very long and very red hair. She came in with her albums and posters and her TV. I had no idea what I was in store for in those first hours. I did notice that with only one or two exceptions all of her albums were Beatles records. Her posters were also of the Fab Four and that was okay with me. I wasn’t very worldly but I knew who the Beatles were and liked their music just fine. Over that year I came to truly appreciate their humor and music, and was proud of the fact that I eventually could distinguish the voices of each (big deal!). Sue would go anywhere that she’d heard there might possibly be a sighting or a movie. This was saying a lot because none of us had a car, so it involved many a multi-hour bus ride through Los Angeles County. I was never the full-fledged Beatle Freak that Sue was, but I did go along to many Beatles movies and now I do own just about every album of John, Paul, George and Ringo. I do have most of George’s solo albums (or as Sue called him: Harry Georgeson). He was her favorite so I learned to appreciate his guitar work and songwriting. But it wasn’t only Sue’s being a self-admitted Beatle Freak that taught me to accept the uniqueness of others. She was also a Bonanza Freak. Yes, Bonanza! the popular show of the ‘60s (actually started in 1959 for 14 years!) starring Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker and (Sue’s favorite) Michael Landon. (I have to tell you that I didn’t even have to look up their names!) Sue not only watched this show; she watched it religiously. She’d already seen each episode several times. (It was already in reruns by this point.) But she didn’t miss it…EVER! She was fascinated with every aspect of the show. She watched it and took notes. (No, I’m not kidding or exaggerating. She really took notes.) I never did read through her very thick notebook where she kept her notes. (I’m not sure why I didn’t.) I believe she wrote details about the sets, dialogue, cast, credits, and wardrobe, but I may have just assumed it, or maybe I asked her. I think she fantasized about writing a script but I don’t know if she ever pursued it seriously. Sue also watched Little House on the Prairie, which was not yet in reruns at the time. She took notes on Little House too, but not with quite the zeal she had for Bonanza. As you can imagine, I thought this was the weirdest thing I’d ever seen. At first when Sue moved in I would go down the hall and talk to my friends about how strange she was. (Funny, because another one of our dorm mates quit school that quarter to follow the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. And I thought that my situation was unusual!) Eventually I came to enjoy the fact that Sue had passion for something. It was more than I could say for myself at the time. I hadn’t even decided on a major. Once I thought about the fact that these were harmless interests and sort of fun to talk about, I embraced the idea that I had an interesting roommate. I didn’t realize at the time that she indirectly helped me to be accepting of some of the much more unusual things to come along later in my life (like the roommates I had yet to meet, and the co-workers and patients I’ve worked with since then). Unfortunately, Sue and I lost touch after a couple of years. We probably didn’t really have much in common when I think about it. But maybe it is a combination of experiences in our lives that make us what we eventually become. It’s likely that my open-mindedness might have been there all along, but I like to think that rooming with probably the world’s only Beatle/Bonanza Freak when I was so naïve might have helped me to be open to some of the people and experiences I’ve known since then. Footnote: Sue really did teach me the words to the Bonanza theme song. (One of her 2 non-Beatles albums had the actual song.) Apparently on the first (or one of the first) episodes of Bonanza the 4 men rode up on their horses singing the words. It seems the creators or producers of the show thought better of the idea and decided that an instrumental theme song might be a better plan. But for you trivia buffs, here goes: “We’ve got a right to pick a little fight…Bonanza!” “If anyone fights anyone of us, he’s gotta fight with me!” …bet you didn’t believe me. (P.S. If anyone knows someone fitting this description, please give her my email address.)  |
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