I Wonder What My Grandmas' Would Think?

Today marks the end of an era....an end to a tradition that lasted over 72 years. After over 15,700 episodes, Guiding Light's light is dark! As I write this, it is bittersweet for me, as I think of both my grandmas and wonder what they would think if there were alive and their faithful "story" or "serial" as they both affectionately called GL was over, done, cancelled! I got hooked on GL back in 1981 when we stayed at my Grandma's house for a week in the summer for Vacation Bible School. Every afternoon at 3 p.m., Gram would go into the den and turn on her show. It only took a few days and a little coaching from Grandma to learn the characters and their trials and tribulations of their day to day lives in Springfield. I watched through the years and learned that my other Grandma was a GL fan as well. In high school, I would tape "special" episodes and buy Soap Opera Digest to keep up with my favorite stars. I even sent a fan letter to one of the stars during the Rick/Beth/Mindy/Phillip era, (which was my favorite story line) and received a response back! GL was a part of my life and I enjoyed escaping every day for a hour! Eventually I stopped watching as life got busy, I went to college, had jobs, etc. When I was home on rare occasions or over the holidays, I would sometimes check-in on this familiar place. It wasn't hard to get sucked back into the drama, there was some new faces, many old and a sense of comfort that I knew and remembered from years past. It had been a while since I had last watched, I found myself sometimes checking in on my old show while I was in line at the grocery store if a headline caught my eye. Well, in February when I went on maternity leave, I was flipping channels and ran across something familiar....my favorite story line was attending their 25 high school reunion. That did it, I could relate, as I would be celebrating my 20th HS Reunion this year and the fact that I felt as if I grew up with these stars. I got sucked back in, only to find out a few months later that CBS had cancelled the show due to low ratings! It is sad to think that today it all ends. GL was the longest running television show ever....sad to think that it is over, as I really did enjoy growing up with this show....and sad to think what my grandmas would think of this. Thanks for the memories....