Soap Opera seems to be a dirty word these days. I don’t know too many people who watch them and if they do most don’t talk about it. I will not let this stop me from admitting I love Days of Our Lives.
My mother, brother and I spent most days watching a lineup of soap operas in between chores, naps and fun. Dark Shadows, Ryan’s Hope, The Edge of Night, and Another World lasted years but eventually they were taken off the air, or replaced by something new. But Day of Our Lives remained on the daily schedule as long as my mother lived and still marches on today.
I grew up eating lunch about the same time Tom and Alice Horton were helping solve the problems of family and friends. Many tears were shed, cookies ate and secrets revealed
at the Horton’s kitchen table and I witnessed most all of them.
My favorite romances took place right before my eyes daily, Marlena Evans and Roman Brady, Bo and Hope, Maggie and Mickey, Jennifer and Jack, Patch and Kayla then Marlena and John Black. There were as many break-ups and affairs as there were drinks sold at the Brady Pub.
The despised Stefano DiMera has been around for years. He has risen from the dead more times than I’ve changed hair color, so a lot, and today still reigns terror along with his son EJ over the people of Salem. The DiMera’s are notorious for burying people alive, shipwrecking them on unknown islands, putting people away in hidden prisons and replacing them with clones,
selling drugs and more often than not it’s all done to terrorize the Brady and Horton families.
My memories are full of days spent with my mom and this TV show. I also shared this bond with my mother-in-law Marie. She videotaped Days for years and years. We always caught up on the news every time I saw her. They are both gone now and I feel I carry on tradition by turning on my television and tuning in to our favorite soap every day.
As crazy as it sounds the people of Salem are like a part my family. But after having shared their lives with them for over 40 years whatdo you want from me?
Emotional people like me can thrive on the drama a soap can bring about. So many different feelings are released, laughing, crying, anger, envy and even happiness on the one day of the year something goes right for one of my friends on the show. This really works well because when it's over, it's over and I get on with my life. No dwelling on what happened when I get out of my chair. I leave everything right there until I come back for a refill.
My husband cannot understand why I continue to watch after all these years. I may be addicted! Is there a soap opera rehab? I’m so attached and I’m just not willing to give it up. I will watch until the day it goes off the air. This year All My Children will leave us in September and fans are heartbroken.
May it never be that Days of Our Lives leaves me with only my memories. That’s a lonely place
to be.
This was written for a prompt from The Red Dress Club. Recall a television show from your past and write about the feelings it evokes and memories it triggers.
Related articles
- Money Lessons I've Learned From Days of Our Lives (savings.com)
- These are (still) the days of our lives (run4joy59.wordpress.com)
- Daytime Emmy Nominations 2011! (rightcelebrity.com)
