Last night, I watched 1776 a musical with William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, and Ken Howard. It’s actually one of my favorites, but that wasn’t what I planned on watching on an October weekend. Unfortunately, what I did plan to see left me bored, and after studying my DVD collection, this was the title that I felt like watching.
A strange thing occurred to me as I watched it. I suddenly remembered all the times I’d been asked: If you could meet anyone living or dead, who would it be? It’s a question that I’ve never had an answer for because I’m not into celebrity and I couldn’t think of anything else. Last night it dawned on me that I wish I could have gone back and talked to the founding fathers–John Adams, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, and the others.
Wouldn’t it be cool to travel back in time and sit in a corner to watch the Continental Congress debate independency? To find out first hand what they envisioned, what they were thinking?
I understand that the real men are unlikely to resemble the way they were portrayed in the musical, but I still think it would hugely interesting. Jefferson was in his early 30s. Adams his early 40s. And they were part of one hell of a creation.
And when I went to bed after it was over, I dreamed about aliens invading Earth and blowing things up ala Independence Day, another favorite movie. 
I don’t know how my subconscious transposed a sweet musical with an ET invasion, but hey, at least it wasn’t dull.