Tune in tomorrow

After tomorrow they'll be gone forever.

My friends. My family. The people I have come to know so well over so many years. The ones I have come to count on nearly every day of the week.

These are the people that have always been there for me. And I've always been there for them -- well, on my days off, anyways, or days I was home sick.


I've been with them through thick and thin. Engagements. Weddings. Divorces. Reunions. Divorces. Reunions. Births. Deaths.  Back from the deaths. Visits to heaven. Time travel. Switched places. You name it, we've been through it all.

Or so it seems.

I became a lot more loyal once the VCR was invented. Better still with the DVR. And Soapnet. And the Internet (which gives spoilers!)

I'll admit there were times (years) when my interest waned. The 90s mostly. But still I tried to keep up with the comings and the goings, the who-was-doing-what, and who....

And yes, there were times I was jealous. Hey, some of those guys were hot.

Judge me if you want.

Yes I watch soap operas. Daytime dramas. Or, as my beloved Grannie used to call them, "the stories." I have for years. And I have thoroughly enjoyed them too.

Back when our TVs were black and white and there were only four channels to watch (one of them PBS), I first got hooked on the creepy old Dark Shadows, which used to air in the afternoons. I would rush home from school and my brother and I would eat pickles and watch together. Sometimes he would try to scare me by pretending he was a vampire. If you hold a glass of Coke up to the light, it kind of looks like blood.

Then sometime back in the early 1970s, when I'm sure I was home with one of my really bad cases of tonsillitis, I stumbled upon a soap opera. I don't know which came first -- All My Children, One Life to Live, General Hospital or The Edge of Night, but it was one of those.

I distinctly remember Erica Kane polishing her fingernails -- especially her "ring" finger -- because she expected to be getting a ring the next day. Of course I had to tune in tomorrow.

And I distinctly remember the first day I saw Laura and Scotty kissing under the Christmas tree and Laura tearfully (and way over dramatically) wishing on on the star. Then Scotty (who was a hottie!) pulled the ring out of his pocket. Of course I had to tune in tomorrow.

Years (and years) later, when Laura married that rogue Luke, my dorm room at Loyola  -- which had the biggest color TV on the campus -- was filled to capacity with a bunch of female class-cutters. We all screamed when Scotty caught the bouquet.

I used to watch The Edge of Night just because I liked the lady named Raven. And later the only person I had ever seen with a name spelled like mine -- Lori Loughlin. That one bit the dust first.

But my favorite has been One Life to Live. I will never forget the first day I saw it, with Karen Wolek on the witness stand, admitting she was a prostitute. Oh my God. Of course I had to tune in tomorrow -- and the next day, and the next. And many after that. How could I not with Marco Dane, the Buchanan Boys, Clint and Vicki, Bo and Nora, Tina and Cord, Gigi and Rex, Todd Manning and Starr, Dorian And Vicki! 


But last year, they wiped Pine Valley off the map. And tomorrow, the little town of Lanview will disappear too. Forever.

Now all that's left is Port Charles -- the town, not the soap.

I'm not one of those people who will protest or sign petitions. But I am one of those who will watch tomorrow and be sad to see it end.  And I'll watch GH as long as it stays in business, but I think most of us fans can see the writing on the wall. It's time will come too, and I will have to say goodbye to Sonny and Carly and Jason and Sam.

Then what will I tune in to tomorrow?