The lure of the soaps

Lately I've found myself giving into another guilty pleasure (besides "Hoarding") when I settle into a cozy chair and let the television take me from the midday news seamlessly into an alternate reality -- the world of the soap opera. While I don't go out of my way to watch "Days of Our Lives," and wouldn't schedule my day around it, I watch it with a sense of catching up with old friends.

My grandmother watched her "stories" when I was a child. Although she worked most of the time, when one of the periodic layoffs in the local textile plants left her at home in the afternoon, she'd be tuned into one soap or another. I grew up acquainted with the Hortons on "DOL" as well as other characters on the shows that took over our limited television channels throughout the afternoon. As I grew older, I forgot about soaps until I went off to college. There, suddenly, soaps were the rage and we scheduled our classes around time for our soaps. Bo and Hope were young star-crossed lovers on DOL. So were Jack and Jennifer. When it came time to choose classes for the quarter (yes, it's been that long), we'd block out our soap times first, avoid 8 a.m., and go from there. Then college ended, the star crossed lovers married (or perhaps in some cases didn't) and so did we. Looking back at Bo and Hope's wedding, I can vividly recall the 80s and where I was in my own life.

With a career and children of my own, I can't say I've actually given the characters on what was my favorite soap much thought in the last few decades. But lately I'm a stay at home caregiver and naptime, or often the time I'm waiting for the quiet that means little people are really sleeping, corresponds with Days of Our Lives. So I found myself watching and recognizing old friends. There was Marlena, the least changed, although she somehow wound up with John, not Roman, who I seem to recall died, then was not dead after all. The senior Hortons have passed away leaving mystery in their wake. Jack and Jennifer, looking a bit different from the teens I remember, have apparently been together and then apart and aren't sure where they are now.

Characters have died and been born, moved in and moved away, gone from bad guys to good. Children have aged at an unnatural pace, but otherwise, their scripted lives, minus the drama, have moved forward much as mine. Just like my friends and I, they've had children, made marriages work or not, made good choices and bad, drifted apart and reconnected. If you've ever watched a soap, then you know the feeling. Despite the often overblown situations, there's a sense of the familiar, an understanding and a comfort. Especially when you see that you're not the only one getting older. So are Hope and Bo.