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In the last few months I have been enjoying old episodes of The Golden Girls online.  There is a GoingGoldenAgain channel on YouTube which has most of all of the seasons.  But it doesn’t matter if I’ve seen them before, I can watch them over and over.  When the series first broadcast on television in the late 80’s, my daughters were just babies and I imagined that one day it would be wonderful living in a house full of old friends in my golden years.  Especially THOSE old friends.  These days, I’m realizing how close I am in age to them now.  How did THAT happen??  They were so ancient to me back then.

Well if I thought they were funny then, the jokes and stories are even funnier and more relevant now.  The writing is so quick and witty and, of course, the lines were delivered by some of the best in the business.  I can’t decide which character I’d like to be most.  ‘Blanche’, played by Rue McClanahan, was the resident sex pot and might be the obvious choice…who wouldn’t want to have all those men on your date calendar?  I didn’t get that concept when I was younger, but I sure do now.  I also love ‘Dorothy’, the character portrayed by Bea Arthur, because of her brains and brawn and that dead pan sarcasm delivered with such impeccable timing.  And Estelle Getty’s ‘Sophia’ got away with saying whatever the hell she wanted because of her stroke.  Who wouldn’t want that pleasure? 

And then there was ‘Rose’, played by the only surviving member of the cast, Betty White.  Who doesn’t just adore Betty White?  Did you know that she actually has some Scandinavian blood, just like her ditzy, St. Olaf-born character?   The pseudo-Swedish phrases, the names of the St. Olaf residents and their food specialties make me laugh every time.  And those St. Olaf stories…how did she keep a straight face?  How did they all keep a straight face?  I would love to have been there to watch a live episode.

I’d like to be a mix of all of those wonderful characters.

I’ve been watching Betty White’s recent re-emergence on television with absolute delight.  She’s  88 years old and she still has amazing comic timing and enormous energy.  I joined the Facebook page that began to encourage Saturday Night Live to have her on as host and was astounded at the fact that she took part in pretty much every skit that night, with not one flub or sign of being tired.  Since then she’s done TV ads and appearances on talk shows and award shows, always with that beautiful smile and wonderful sense of humour.  She is tireless and timeless.

Come to think of it, I’d like to be Betty White.
IJ