It was an ordinary day. 7:00 am and I'm sitting in a car dealership waiting to have the oil changed in my Mountaineer. Bought the car in 2006 at the dealership and with the car came free car washes whenever I wanted, free oil changes when they were due and free state inspections. All this for as long as I own the car and they are still in business. Scared me a few years ago when Mercury stopped making cars, but the dealer changed to Mitsubishi and still offers the same freebie deals on those cars. As I'm waiting, I picked up a copy of Reminisce, the magazine for us older folks who enjoy reminiscing about the good old times. There on page 63, I know that's the page since I have it in front of me, is a story about "Hitchcock & Spielberg". No celebration of Universal Pictures would be complete without the contributions of these two. In 1963, The Birds attacked and in 1975 Jaws scared the crap out everyone. I remember The Birds, which was in black and white, as being exciting and scary, but I remember in full color the panic that was created by Jaws. For years I was half-afraid to go in the water when we ventured to the Chesapeake for vacation in the summer. My wife tried to assure me that there were no great white sharks in the Chesapeake. But when we started traveling to Hawaii and the Caribbean it was a another story. I still scan the water for fins every time I head in for a dip when we are on vacation at one of the islands in the Caribbean. I know the chances are pretty slim that there could be a great white shark in the water, but we do see other species of sharks when we snorkel, but I am still on the lookout for bigger fins. It wasn't long after I read Peter Benchley's novel of the same name that I went to see Steven Spielberg's production of Jaws. A giant human-eating great white shark was attacking beach goers on Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town in New England. The local police chief, Roy Scheider, enlisted the help of marine biologist, Richard Dreyfuss, and local shark hunter, Robert Shaw, to find the great white. The movie was shot mostly on location on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts and I'm sure after seeing the movie, the residents of that island had to be scared s#*tless when they went to the beach featured in the movie. I'll bet there are still some people, even after 38 years, who won't venture far into the water. I know I wouldn't. Even hearing the music still send chills and shivers down my spine! The scene where Scheider kills the great white is one of my all-time favorite movie scenes. Jaws became the highest-grossing film in history at the time. I know I was certainly grossed out by it in a few of the scenes. It won several awards for its soundtrack and editing, and it is often cited as one of the greatest films of all time. I later saw a documentary on how they made the mechanical shark and made it look so realistic. Even watching the documentary was kinda frightening, but then again I fear most all fish that try to eat me. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - There were a few other pages missing in the Reminisce magazine before I even took it out of the rack! Also, click on the link to see some scary scenes from the movie ....... http://youtu.be/0zkYRD51I34
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