Now I've finally found someone to stand by me

[rolanni]

Inquiring Minds Want To Know. . .

At the beginning of "Dirty Dancing," Baby sets us into the story-frame with a voice-over as we watch the family car driving up the turnpike there in Maine.  She says:

That was the summer of 1963 - when everybody called me Baby, and it didn't occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came, when I couldn't wait to join the Peace Corps, and I thought I'd never find a guy as great as my dad.  That was the summer we went to Kellerman's.

So my question is -- what do Frances and Johnny do, now that they've defied just about everyone?  Does Johnny join the housepainters union?  Does Frances go on to Mount Holyoke?  More important -- does she join the Peace Corps?

What logically proceeds from the ending of "Dirty Dancing?" and!  -- bonus question -- what's the happy ending?

Go.

Oh.  Today's blog title is "The Time of My Life," Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes.  Here's your link.

Comments

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Johnny goes to Broadway, of course. Dances his way to stardom and comes the Fred Astaire of his age. Frances graduates from Mt. Holyoke, does the Peace Corps, goes to medical school and is an early adopter at Doctors Without Borders. She and Johnny meet every year or two, share memories, dance a mambo for old times' sake.

I have thought of this long and carefully, as you can see.

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute - where was "Lived happily ever after!" ??

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

It is implied, silly!

No one ever said the happy ending had to be *joint*

Aha!

[catherine ives (from livejournal.com)]

My aulde alma mater Mt Holyoke College ye these many years ago! The college started as a female seminary for Methodist missionaries in the early 1800's. I hear it's now co ed. Out west here where I live now no one has ever heard of Mt. Holyoke (they think from the name it must be some kind of Catholic school which wouldn't be bad...but it isn't) so it's nice to see it mentioned.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

So first, Kellerman's was a Borscht Belt resort in the Catskills, as so many of those old Jewish resort hotels were. They were supposed to be in New York, nowhere near Maine.

Second, it looks to me like Baby and Johnny were saying goodbye to each other, pretty much for good, at the end of the film. I think Baby had the future we expected: Mt. Holyoke, the Peace Corps. I like the Doctors Without Borders idea. But I think she and Johnny run into each other again, maybe on a subway platform in New York City, maybe on some hot afternoon at a coffee shop in Manhattan. They catch up, each realizing that what they had in common that summer was hormones and rebellion. They're still attracted to each other but know that what they had was one summer and to try to recreate it would ruin it. They kiss each other on the cheek and go their separate ways.

[gerald heaton (from livejournal.com)]

I (sadly) have to agree.

Summer romances end, just like most high school romances of that time (usually due to the draft).
Tight knit special circumstances like that make for seemingly increased time, but then it has to end.

As a male, I had a couple of those romances and actually met one of the young ladies later in life (after marriage).
Laughs about how innocent time was then (early Viet Nam Era) and "how are yous".