All My Children

I was genuinely sad to hear recently that All My Children will come to an end in September. I don’t watch this daytime drama, but I used to be an avid fan of this program for about thirteen years. Although I haven’t watched it in twenty years, I still feel sad that the stories from Pine Valley will soon be ending.


I began watching AMC quite by accident. It was 1978 and I was a freshman in college working part time at the front desk in my dormitory. At noon each day, the lobby would fill up with residents of the dorm to watch their favorite soap. And this was a men’s dorm, mind you.

So, I got hooked. This was a long time ago – back when Erica Kane had just split up with Nick, Brooke was a young, mean little sylph, and Tad was a snot-nosed teenage brat.
You know. The good-old days.

After college, I worked in a bank and every day at noon, a large group of us would pile in to the TV room to eat our lunches, glued to the TV. I still recall that there wasn’t a dry eye in the place when Jenny died after being blown up on the jet ski. We could have all used grief counseling after that episode, trust me.

Now, the story lines from my favorite soap will come to an end and I feel a pang of sadness. I’m thinking of watching it again to see how it will all end. Erica is probably on her thirteenth marriage by now. I still hope that, somehow, Jenny will come back to life.

After all, stranger things have happened in Pine Valley.