The Outsiders - Blast From The Past !

Oh boy, talk about a Blast From The Past !  I ran into this article on www.toofab.com and couldn't resist....

I was 15, I think, when the teacher of our literature class came in one day and handed out this book to everyone and proclaimed that we were to read it as our next assignment.  This particular teacher and her classes were not really liked by any of us, so we -myself included- were on the defence and ready to whine about whichever boring piece of literature she had again chosen for us to stumble through.

The book was S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders.....and I believe were were all mesmerized by it by page 5 -- I know I was sold by the first sentence, which I still remember to some extent today...."when I stepped out from the darkness of the movie theatre to the bright sunlight..." --- or something like that. My god, was it really 30 years ago ?!

Not only was the book a huge hit and one of the books I cherished for years to come (and that also got me to all other S.E. Hinton's books), they soon made a movie of it ---- and if ever there was a movie matched with the original book -at least in teenagers' point of view- this was it.  I think I saw the movie twice, if not three times, and each time when The End appeared on the big screen, I was desperately hoping it would all begin from the start again and I would never ever have to leave the comfort of the small movie theatre of my boring hometown.

30 years later and I run into this photo collage online of the movie cast....and oh my, look at these people, all of whom became big names in Hollywood...all of whom look so sweet in the photos from that year...1983. It's funny....I'm not one of those people who worry about getting old, I don't have a crisis of any sorts relating to age --- but I am sure ageing in good company, eh ?

Stay gold Ponyboy, stay gold.

NOTE: all pictures are from TooFab 

The whole gang, from left: Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, C.Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise

...then and now...

Ralph Macchio aka "Johnny"

C. Thomas Howell aka "Ponyboy"

Emilio Estevez aka "Two-Bit"

Diane Lane aka "Sherri"

Matt Dillon aka "Dally"

Tom Cruise aka "Steve"

Rob Lowe aka "Sodapop"

Patrick Swayze aka "Darry" (RIP)

Seriously - has there ever since been a movie that would have had this kind of cast ?! No wonder all the teenage girls worldwide were falling left, right and center :)

In fact, I think I'm going to see if I can find this movie on Netflix and watch it tonight...for old times' sake !