Grease is the word

In 1978 I remember queuing up with my schoolfriends to see the eagerly awaited new film Grease. I was 13. That Christmas I got the soundtrack LP from my parents. The only thing was that by then I knew that my Christmas presents were hidden in their wardrobe and from about October onwards I would sneak into the wardrobe, take out the LP and listen to it in the hour between getting home from school and my Mum getting home from work. I was almost fed up of it by Christmas. I was in love with John Travolta and my brothers used to tease my mercilessly about this. Rob even wrote a sketch for his comedy radio show about some waxworks coming to life and ended it with John being shot and rasping out the last bars of Sandy as he died. They used to mimic his silly walk to annoy me too. Maybe I deserved it for the whole LP thing.

So when I was at Shugborough the other day and saw that they were doing an outdoor picnic screening of Grease, I thought it would be a good idea to go. My first thought was a family evening out but when they all looked at me as if I had just landed from Zergatron, I turned to some friends.

It was an excellent opportunity for Julie to put to first use her lovely picnic hamper and along with Jen and Ione (who is now nationally famous) we made a sumptuous picnic spread.

It was warm and sunny enough to need sunglasses as we settled on Jen's folding chairs to have our picnic. We were entertained by a local radio station, seemingly playing one fifties cd on loop and getting kids to mummify their parents with pink toilet roll (a token gesture to the Pink Ladies!) as we ate. Hmmmm! But it was amusing to see some of the fabulous costumes people were wearing. Now where did we put our skin tight black silk trousers and leather jackets?

But we had forgotten to take into consideration that with darkness (necessary to watch an outdoor movie) comes the chill factor. Good job I had my hoodie! I did consider using it to menace someone into giving me their blanket...

Funny, funny night :)