Chapter 59

The next morning as was tradition, we all got up early and headed on down to the Big House. I exchanged hugs with all of the Littlebucks, even Dave and Darlene were there. Grace gave me a hug and kissed my cheek, and asked if we could go for a walk later on. I told her that was no problem, and we all settled in for breakfast.

This was largely the tradition we did every year. A big breakfast with everybody in the clan, then the women all started cooking. And as we were eating, I asked Mandy if I could borrow the movie we had talked about the day before. She gave me a puzzled look, until I reminded her it was the one about the Russian invasion.

She started laughing at that, and nodded. “Sure, George. So you all know, he’s talking about ‘Red Dawn’. It came up in a conversation the other day, and apparently he’d never seen it.” And I was not real surprised when all of the adults admitted to having seen it, and it was quite good.

“It’s a bit more violent than I typically care for, but it was not done in a bad way” Darlene said. “It comes off less like say Rambo or one of those action movies, and more like ‘Saving Private Ryan’. Like it is a documentary movie based on real events.” And even dad said he had liked it, it was one of the few movies of that type he liked.

I raised my eyebrow at that, and Pete nodded. “I remember it, but actually saw it on videotape a year or so later. I was on Okinawa when it came out, so got a bootleg video of it for five bucks the next year.” He looked at the others, and smiled. “While the ladies are cooking, I can run over and get my copy.”

Mandy shook her head. “Oh, you do that right away then, buddy! I like that movie too, and I ain’t gonna be stuck in the kitchen while you all are enjoying it!”

Everybody laughed at that, and shortly after we finished and put the dishes in the dishwasher, Pete and I headed across the drive. And I saw that most of his VHS tapes were now gone, and replaced by DVDs. I asked him what he was doing with the old tapes, and he smiled. “Oh, we had so many of them now, when I wanted to put up another shelf Mandy put her foot down. So we boxed up all the extras and donated them to the MWR teen facility at Mountain Home. The more adult ones were donated to the Mountain Home base library. Now we only have tapes if they are not on DVD, or if they are special.”

And at that, he actually walked over to one of the shelves. And he quickly sorted through them, then pulled one out and handed it to me. And sure enough, it was “Red Dawn”, but also different. The side label was in color, and looked and felt like a photograph of the box cover. And the one on the front of the tape was the same, like it was a photograph of the videotape box and not photo copied or printed.

“Here, these were what the tapes were like when I was on Okinawa. These are actually bootlegs, there were several stores there that sold them. They were five dollars each, or five for twenty dollars.”

“Wow, that’s actually not bad. What’s the quality like?”

He chuckled, and put it back. “Well, most were just first generation copies so not bad. Some were absolute garbage though. Like fifth or sixth generation copies and it showed. But the only movie theaters we had that showed movies in English were on base, and that was mostly crap movies a year or two after they came out. And videotapes back then were expensive, like eighty dollars each. So our only choice really was getting bootlegs out in town.”

As he finished saying that, he pulled out a DVD and handed it to me. On the cover was Patrick Swayzee, and a very young Charlie Sheen holding an AK-47. And together we went back over to the Big House. I saw the old carafe filled with coffee was on the table, as well as one of orange juice. I got a cup of coffee and sat down, and smiled at Grace when she sat next to me. Right as Pete hit play, the gals all joined us. And I was a bit surprised when Mandy told the youngest kids to head on downstairs to the other TV room.

“This is a tad violent for the youngest kids, this is actually the first movie that was rated PG-13. And this would likely be an R today, the ratings have shifted a bit since then.”

And when the movie started, I was not sure what to expect. But the opening title crawl explained that basically NATO had dissolved, and the US was now alone. And then an almost peaceful view of a small town in the Rocky Mountains, as parachutes came down from the sky.

And many of them landed in a school yard, where a teacher walked up and asked them if they were lost. But not even I expected the soldiers that were now everywhere to just shoot the teacher! Then start firing a machinegun indiscriminately at the students at the window! Holy shit, they were not kidding! Just a couple of minutes in, and they were shooting up kids!

Then Patrick showing up in a truck, and picking up several kids from the school and heading out of town. Running a gauntlet to avoid the soldiers taking over the town. And within fifteen minutes, I could tell everybody was right. This was more like a war movie about a real battle, and less like one from Schwarzenegger or Stallone.

And soon it is six kids, all in high school except for Patrick as an older brother who are hiding in the woods. And teaching the others how to hunt, and surviving in the mountains. Then after a visit to town where they find out the Russians now occupy it, they are told to get away because there had been attacks that they were being blamed for.

As they head out they stop by a friend’s house, who reveals that he wants them to take his granddaughters with them. And I was surprised, as it was Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey. As they were all riding away on horses, Mandy said this was the first movie for most of the cast. “Lea would not do Back to the Future until the next year. For Jennifer, it was the next year in Dirty Dancing.”

Grace actually sighed, and said she loved that movie. And all of the gals nodded. Kim even adding that Patrick was hot in that. Jeff asked her if he was not hot, and she smiled and kissed his cheek. “Baby, you’re hot. But you’re also no Patrick Swayzee.”

And as the movie went on, the kids changed from just hiding in the woods and trying to avoid the soldiers, to actively hunting them down. And interspaced with scenes of a prison camp and books being burned were them setting ambushes and killing soldiers. Sometimes even saving citizens from being executed. And I could indeed see why they sent the kids down. 85% of the movie would have been fine for them, but the 15% that was not was bloody and brutal indeed.

Even executing one of their own when they discovered he was a traitor to them and had a tracking beacon that led the soldiers to them in one scene.

And Grace grabbed my hand and held tight as they themselves are ambushed, and Jennifer Grey was shot in the chest by a helicopter machine gun. Pete even said “Hind” as that happened, but this part was really brutal. In that sequence two of them are killed, and their numbers had now been reduced from eight to five.

Now the ending was a bit more of a typical action movie, with Patrick and Charlie returning to town and causing mayhem, and both brothers dying after taking out the main Russian bad guy. And the movie left me feeling somewhat conflicted. It was very well made, and not at all like I had expected such a movie to be made. But it was also easy to see why all the adults loved it, even I had to admit I enjoyed it. And so had Grace, she had gripped my hand tight when one of the girls was shot, and let out a small whoop when she had placed a grenade under her that killed the soldier that checked her body out after it was found.

Grace and I took our walk after the movie ended, and she admitted that she was surprised also because she rarely liked movies like that. “But this one was different, as they did not start out as bad-asses. They grew into it because they really had no choice.”

We filled each other in on much of what we had been up to in the last month as we walked down to the river. Although at least for me, I fudged some of it. She knew I was working part time as a DJ at a club the last time we met, but I had not told her that it was a strip club. But I told her I had quit, as it was starting to take too much time away from my studies. “In fact, I’m taking some night classes next semester.

“What will that mean in the end?”

“Well, I think that can help me graduate maybe two semesters sooner. It will be a heavy classload, but I think I can handle it so long as I have no distractions.”

“What, like a girlfriend?” she said, and bumped into me.

“Well, I’ve not really had a girlfriend since Shawna and I broke up my Freshman year. Just a few gals I hooked up with on occasion. But they always seemed to move on after a while. So how about you and Robert?”

She corrected me that his name was Robin, and that she was still seeing him. That they were planning on going skiing the next day, and I was welcome to come along. I thanked her, but begged off as I did not really want to be a third wheel with her and her boyfriend.

After looking out over the river for a few minutes, she asked me if I had any smoke. I looked at her, and shook my head. “Actually, I’ve not touched it in almost a week now. In fact, I did not even bring any up with me.”

“Wow, I’m impressed. You are serious about that, ain’t cha?”

“Well, if I want to fly at least occasionally, that’s what I have to do.”

She nodded, and said it was alright. We walked around for about a half hour, but when it started to drizzle we headed back home.

During dinner, Mandy spent most of it talking about the air show at Fort Worth. “We even got some network news broadcasts covering it, it was great!” And Jack and Deb were there filming it, and that was going to be how the final episode closed out.

“We even got lucky on the way back” Pete said. “We heard about a thunderstorm rolling in, and we got a B-25 Mitchell that was there to take Jack up with one camera as Deb was in ours with another. And Jack said they got some killer shots of us flying right at and next to a huge thunderhead. He was afraid he would have to farm that out to a special effects firm, but on the last day he got the exact footage he wanted.”

Mandy nodded at that, smiling. Even saying that their fly-by of the crowd had been a huge hit. “And Dave, you should like this also. We gave out almost five thousand leaflets about Strevell and where it’s going to be parked. So that should get you a lot of attention there to check it out.”

“Great, now that big metal building and that hunk of junk can finally make us some real money!” We all laughed, as we were used to Dave saying things like that. But it was clear he was looking forward to it, as he had a huge grin on his face as he said it.