Jan/09

Snapshots of Recent Memory

Comments | Posted by Jared Scheib in Media

We watched the historic Inauguration with TVN’s only black couple (though recently another black fellow moved in, bringing the tally to three total). This was by total coincidence, mind you, and not by design: not thinking of the Inauguration, Ashley was attempting to schedule an interview with them for Tuesday afternoon when I heard Mr. Scott say over the phone that they were going to be watching the Inauguration that day, to which I said, “Can we watch it with them?” Mrs. Scott was particularly overjoyed that day, and it was really wonderful to share it with them.

You might wonder, as we did, if the Scotts have experienced any kind of racism while living at TVN, which, though not all white other than the Scotts and the other gentleman who moved in recently, is largely composed by white people. To answer that question, they said absolutely not. They’ve never felt or experienced any such thing there; everyone treats them very nicely and like anyone else, which is of course as should be the case anyway.

To give you a little background info, since we haven’t posted any videos of the Scotts despite shooting with them quite a bit, Mr. Scott was a principal and Mrs. Scott a schoolteacher, both from Tennessee. They met because he was her principal, and they’ve been married for almost 60 years. She’s in her late 80s, and he’s about to turn 90! They’re really wonderful (and fun) people!

Here’s a picture of Jesse (or daddy, as Mrs. Scott calls him) about to chomp down on a peppermint candy cane while mom (as Mr. Scott calls Ernestine) is eating up the breakfast we watched him prepare for her: a cheese omelet prepared in the microwave, leftover fried chicken wings, garlic Texas toast, and some OJ (she wanted cappucino but he hadn’t picked any up from the supermarket).

Shifting gears, here’s one of Sam and the three women he has dinner with every night–Cordi, Vera, and Eva–playing cards in Eva’s apartment.

Sam couldn’t stop eating the popcorn. At one point he whispered under his breath, “I must have a tapeworm or something.” No one heard him but me, and I started cracking up while filming.

We followed Sam to his volunteering job at Presbyterian Hospital where he goes from room to room collecting used binders and bringing them back to be re-used for keeping temporary patients’ records.

And another of the lunch Sam treated us to at the hospital. The spinach wasn’t very good, but the mac and cheese was great! I love me some macaroni and cheese.

And one last picture for good measure: my grandmother’s old toaster oven that she’s had for so many years she can’t remember how long, which she used to make her own special grilled cheese for me and my brother on countless times growing up. Best grilled cheese I ever had. The toaster broke just a couple of weeks ago, after all this time!