Fahrenheit 9/11 packs SA theaters; Fiesta Coronation gowns on the 4th of July

By Bebe and Sissy Fenstermaker

We saw Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, making the first show on the first day. We arrived early at the Bijou at the Crossroads in San Antonio while storm clouds rolled in overhead. Inside, a small crowd gathered by the ticket window. I was interested to watch people buying tickets. As threatened on national news, were there going to be demonstrations? No one seemed to be holding placards. The crowd ranged in age from old to young, quite a few being over 50. That was predictable since it was an early matinee. We saw a recent St. Mary's Law School graduate we know. Although he should have been studying for his bar exam he said he couldn't miss the show. That's how we felt, too. Outside the heavens let loose with an enormous thunderstorm. Lightening dimmed the lights a few times; someone said there was hail.

The theater filled quickly until there were no seats left. The first movie trailer was for an upcoming documentary on corporate greed. Before it got very far the audio went out and it was stopped for repairs. Until then each person in the crowd was his own person, no one had said a word but at that everyone muttered good-naturedly, asking was this a conspiracy. A man stood up and said he just wanted to say he had on the best t-shirt! He sat down to calls as to what it said. He said, “Let's stop beating around the Bush!” Everyone laughed then someone called out to ask if everyone was registered to vote. The few nos got some advice to register as the theater darkened again.

The screen remained dark as the theater filled with the sounds of the tragedy of the World Trade Center . The sounds of horror and shock were again too much to bear. A roar began as the scene changed to Gore winning the 2000 election and we moved on to that debacle. I had never seen footage of the members of the Black Caucus in the House of Representatives speeches when the election was verified by Congress. Their eloquence placed them at the tip-top of elected representatives that day.

The documentary raises many questions. Craig Unger, author of House of Saud, House of Bush, was interviewed on screen regarding the close tie of this administration with the Saudi Arabian government. Why was the Bin Laden family allowed to leave the country in the first days after 9/11? A retired FBI agent said that it was extraordinary that the Bin Laden family was not questioned before they were allowed to leave the United States . Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar was seen commenting that when he had met him Osama Bin Laden had not impressed him, that he was a “simple, quiet guy.” Bush's friend James Bath, with whom he served in the Texas National Guard and, with Bush, was suspended from flying, was allegedly the Texas money manager for some of the Bin Ladens. Why was mention of his name deleted from Bush's military record when it was released to the press? Before 9/11, Thomas Pickard, acting director of the FBI June 25 to September 4, 2001, was told by US Attorney General John Ashcroft that he did not want to hear any more attack possibilities. Pickard had been receiving alarming information from sources and tried to relay them to Ashcroft. Richard Clark, of White House security fame, stated Bush had told him there were no good targets in Afghanistan and that all the good targets were in Iraq .

The most memorable part of the documentary was footage of George W. Bush going into the schoolroom on 9/11 after the first plane had hit the World Trade Center instead of canceling his appearance that day. Several minutes later when the second plane hit, an aid whispered that fact into his ear. He looked very strange as he proceeded to sit in the schoolroom another seven minutes before finally leaving. The odd look on his face throughout must be seen to be believed.

Michael Moore, attempting to question where the military recruits, takes us to Flint , Michigan , his home town. The camera shows the bombed-out community left by the demise of the automotive industry. Moore interviews young people from the hardest hit part of town, some of whom have relatives serving in Iraq . Then we ride with two Marine recruiters as they work a shopping mall parking lot in that part of town looking for possible recruits. The kids innocently answer personal questions the recuiters asked. It was sad to watch. Also from Flint are Lila Lipscomb and her family, who lost a son early in the Iraq war. Her profession is job placement/retraining, helping workers who have lost jobs, so when she states that the military is a good option for young people in her town she speaks with direct knowledge. However, before he died her son expressed his disillusion with the war in his last letter home, questioning why he was there. His mother's conflicted feelings makes her contribution deeply thought provoking. Moore shows footage of the war in Iraq and it is tragic to see both our soldiers and the Iraqi citizens in their desperate situations.

Moore does have his light moments when he rents a ice cream truck and drives around the Capitol reading the Patriot Act to Congress after learning that they don't read the bills they pass. He also confronts congressmen on the street, asking them to sign up their children for the military. One member actually dashes past him to get away.

At movie's end many people sat in reflection for a moment. Later we heard that the theater may have received one threat but it was not clear whether it was in person or by telephone. We heard the Fahrenheit 9/11 shows were packed all weekend.

Bebe Fenstermaker

The dilemma of what to do with six Fiesta Coronation dresses has hung over us for 40 years. Once we thought about donating them to a group that performs the Los Pastores pageant each year over the Christmas holidays. Unfortunately, it remained just a thought. That is, until a year ago when Bebe and I were having lunch with a couple of friends in Boerne just after the Fourth of July weekend. One of them, Rebecca, has a birthday July fifth. Since the early 90s (1900s, that is) she and her family have celebrated both the Fourth and the fifth in her hometown of Montell , Texas , a town with a whopping population of seven. Everyone in town turns out for the Parade on the Fourth. Guests come from all over and some even march in it decked out in ridiculous attire. Rebecca and her sisters (a total of four) always come up with outlandish themes and outfits.

Anyway, during that lunch last year, she admitted they were having trouble coming up with an idea for this year's Parade. She said they had talked about spraying glitter and what-not onto material and appearing as royalty. Bebe looked at me and almost in unison, we said we might be able to help. We knew of some coronation dresses that were languishing about, just waiting for the opportunity to see daylight again. So, one day this past May we loaded four dresses, three duchesses' and a queen's, into the back seat and drove them to Boerne. They were deposited upon Rebecca's floor and much discussion followed. Over the weeks leading up to July we heard snippets about who would be wearing which outfit and how they were doing fitting into them. By the way, we're talking about wearing suffocating velvet on a July day.

The Fourth dawned. Bebe and I traveled with neighbors over the beautiful route from Bandera to Montell. The Parade began at noon (I'm sure in order to have the full effect of the sun) led by the Highway Patrol, one officer draped over the hood of the patrol car. The Queen, Rebecca's mother, followed, seated on her “throne” in the back of a pickup, wearing a gold crown and waving to the crowd. Groups of her subjects came next, walking, riding bicycles, and leading their prized livestock. Then the “court” made its entrance: Miss Mountain Laurel, Alice, quite elegant in the once white, now a bit yellowed, queen's dress with eight-foot-long train, riding on a trailer; Miss Prickly Pear, their friend Claire, oh-so-fetching in a mesquite-green ensemble, with elbow-length white gloves and topped off with a cowboy hat, also astride a trailer; Miss Mesquite Bean, Liz, very striking in a “cool” black gown, wearing white, cat eye glasses, a la Greater Tuna , topped off with an authentic Mongolian “cap;” and last, but not least, Miss Agarita Berry, Rebecca, stunningly swathed in a top and petal pushers of silver lame, sitting on a pillow on top of a Cadillac, the brown and silver train cascading down the back over the trunk. I must say the four made a swell showing. By the end of all the parading they had gotten the parade wave down pat. The route is only a matter of several hundred feet. The Parade traveled up the short stretch of road and then turned around and came back. The whole procedure took less than five minutes, going and coming. It was repeated, however, since some of the spectators were late and missed the first performance.

After that august event, everyone enjoyed a potluck/covered dish lunch. Then it was off to the Blue Hole, a beautiful swimming spot several bumpgates up a ranch road to swim and hang onto inner tubes visiting with friends. It is on the ranch where this year's royal Montell Court grew up and called home. Those not in the pool lounged on chairs in the middle of the rock-lined streambed which was rippling with water. We headed home after visiting there a bit, the return trip just as spectacular as in the morning.

The next stop for all six dresses will be a final photography session hanging from the corral fences at the Ranch. Then they will finally be given a new home with the Pastores players.

Sissy Fenstermaker