Classics

In a world that seems to grow crazier by the day, I take great solace in the films of my childhood. Let me be clear about this as I continue: The films of my childhood were not just those that were released in the mid to late sixties and seventies. I am talking about all those that came before that. Black and white masterpieces and forgotten gems from another time. I watched movies with my mother as much as we played gin rummy, which was a lot. I learned to appreciate Spencer Tracy and Hepburns both Katherine and Audrey. Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford and Howard Hawks made movies that made influenced Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola and Quentin Tarantino. And all those musicals. Before I ever went to the theater to see That's Entertainment with my mother, I could have described the lineage and flow of all of those MGM treasures. I was familiar with the tragic life of Judy Garland long before Renee Zellweger charted it for a chance at an Oscar.
I winced a little when American Movie Classics became the place where the dead walk and bad was broken. The "classic movies" currently include a heavy dose of their in-house productions along with a whole lot of films made after 1980. That was a business choice that gave us some pretty decent choices for viewing, but came up pretty light on movies made in black and white.That's where Turner Classic Movies came in. They were there for the expressed purpose of keeping the community memory of Boris Karloff and Lana Turner from fading into darkness. My mother and I would talk on the phone about what we had seen or missed and our thoughts connected to those so many years ago. Until October 10, 2019. That's when our cable system decided that if we really wanted to see classic cinema, we should pony up for the Sports and Entertainment package. We, along with the rest of Xfinity's subscribers were encouraged to enjoy "NFL RedZone, CMT, CBS Sports Network, ESPN Goal Line & Bases Loaded, Military History Channel, Outdoor Channel, MLB Network, Turner Classic Movies, and more." 
Makes perfect sense. In order to watch movies that have been part of our cultural firmament for more than eighty years, we should take on all that specialty programming that has nothing to do with film history. And don't think that the customer service folks at Xfinity don't know it. When I called to add my voice to those who shared my dissatisfaction, I heard the pained and confused response from those on the receiving end of that dissatisfaction. The powers that be had decided that there simply wasn't enough money being made on movies that had been made in a previous century. By subsidizing them with a heap of sports, they could be folded into a mix that would somehow make them more cost effective. I'd like a whole bunch of apples and just the one orange please. The asking price for this deal? Ten dollars a month. I would have to watch a lot of that other stuff in order to justify a hundred twenty dollars a year for movies whose copyrights have long since been bought and sold for everyone to make their money. Why not squeeze just a few pennies more a day? I was already paying for the privilege, in a package they call "Premium," now the suits at Comcast/Universal/NBC/Walmart wanted to shake me down for another ten bucks a month?
I am struggling with this decision as October rolls toward its end of Halloween, with its potential for horror classics and lost bits of macabre. Will they live on without me watching? I have my memories. But I miss them still. 
Heartless.