The World According to Chuck

Actress Dinah Manoff turns 50 today. The veteran stage, film and TV actress has been around a long time (she was a Pink Lady in the film version of “Grease” when she was 19, and won a Tony for Best Actress when she was 22), with her major credits being stints on “Soap” and “Empty Nest.” She’s also a neighbor, living over on Bainbridge Island.

“Grease” gives me pause, and not just because I paid real 1977 dollars to see it in a theater, First of all, it’s interesting that Manoff was fairly unique among the cast members in that she couldn’t actually remember the 1950s. Secondly, although the movie, when I first saw it, was set only 18 years in the past, it still seemed like ancient history. I’m not sure what the explanation is for this relative disconnect — was it just that 18 years seems a long time ago to a 19-year-old? Or did life change so drastically in those particular 18 years that it was hard to find similarities? I have no idea.

What I should probably do is find me a young person with a good grasp of cultural history and ask for their thoughts on, say, the late 1980s, a time that seems only a moment ago to me. I’ve got jeans older than that. Possibly underwear. Definitely socks.

And, as luck would have it, I happen to have the good fortune of sharing a roof with just such a young person at the moment, so maybe I’ll ask her and let you know. If she ever wakes up, since it was a loooong day yesterday, from Boston to New Hampshire to North Carolina to home, or where home used to be, and so was exhausted and stressed and very skinny. But my girl is back, for the weekend. Rama-lama-ding-dong.