Irv Harper quotes from Everwood

Irv

[About Edna] We went steady in the 5th grade. She introduced me to hickies and shoplifting.

Irv

[voiceover] Legend has it this bridge was constructed by a young man and women who lived on opposite sides of the river the two fell in love and constructed the bridge so they could meet in the middle and share what would be their first kiss. From that day on it would be known appropriately as the kissing bridge and if people had just stuck to the kissing Dr. Brown would have been able to avoid one heck of a crisis.

Irv

[voiceover] No matter how old you are, it's hard not to get excited when snow starts to fall. Because, so long as it keeps coming, no one can make you go anywhere or do anything. All life's rules are suspended...The best thing about snow, other than snowballs, is that it has an equalizing effect. Snow can take any object or situation and make it pretty just the same. Couldn't care less what's underneath...It's not just that snow makes the world pretty. Snow gives us all a second chance. Snow cleanses. Hiding the sins of all with no prejudices, favor or blame. Everything gets to be pure again. If only for a little while. Which might be all you need.

Irv

[voiceover] Forget for a minute what the real world looks like, forget what you know, sometimes you need to believe in what isn't exactly there. A daydream of better nights. A storybook fantasy where life is ordered and consistent and tales get awfully exciting before they wrap up nicely for all involved. Who are we to enforce reality? After all, you never know when the good angel of fortune might bring a page from your book to life and throw a kind of miracle your way.

Irv

[voiceover] Throughout the centuries mankind has been fascinated by the nighttime sky, ancient people believed that the heavens were moved by a pantheon of gods while others thought that the stars were diamonds hanging just out of reach with all the advances of technology of late, modern science offers more opportunities than ever to unravel the mysteries of the night sky. And yet it seems the closer we get to the stars, the less we actually understand them.

Irv

[voiceover] They say that patience is a virtue, that good things come to those who wait. Of course, they also say, he who hesitates is lost. Unfortunately sometimes what looks like patience on the outside is really fear underneath like so much sheep's clothing wrapped around a very clever wolf.

Irv

[voiceover] It's hard to say what happened exactly. For the most part it depends on who you ask. There are as many sides to a story as there are pairs of eyes. It's always been that way; one of those sides must be closer to the truth, but we'll never know which one. I try even now to look back at that time, look past the blame and outrage that made it all so hard to see anything. I try to piece it together; what follows is all I know.

Irv

[voiceover] The funeral for Colin Hart fell on the first warm day of spring. For many who attended, it was the most difficult day they had ever known. But the day was kind enough to pass. I'd like to say it took a while for Everwood to return to business as usual, but it didn't. Bright and Amy went back to their usual summer jobs; Ephram joined them, though his duties were a little less glamorous.

Irv

[voiceover] Sometimes it is only with the ending of a season that a storyteller can find the most appropriate ending to his tale. As the last hours of summer crept up on Everwood, it seemed everybody was just about ready for a change. A fresh start, filled with new adventures and new friends, and some old ones, and those somewhere in between. For if death reminds us of anything, it reminds us of just how resilient the human spirit is... when it wants to be. [edit]

Irv

[voiceover] They say that from the instant he lays eyes on her, a father adores his daughter. Whomever she grows up to be, she is always to him that little girl in pigtails. She makes him feel like Christmas. In exchange, he makes a secret promise not to see the awkwardness of her teenage years, the mistakes she makes, or the secrets she keeps.

Irv

[voiceover] The town of Everwood was built around a silver mine opened in 1857. In 1929, like much of America, the mine closed and a lot of families learned what it meant to go without. It wasn't until another 10 years later that someone started snooping around another part of the mountain and found a kingdom's worth of coal waiting to be unraveled. The mines reopened and that many people didn't have to go hungry anymore. From silver to coal, just like that. A good example of how something you never considered before can become your whole focus and blazing new relief all of a sudden.

Irv

[voiceover] When it's going right, life changes minute to minute. On a random Tuesday in 1939, coal unexpectedly became important to the entire town of Everwood. On another day some 75 years later, it was a lighthouse suddenly on everyone's mind.

Irv

[voiceover] There are moments in life so archetypal, that there's only one proper response, one right thing to say. But as humans, each with our own idiosyncrasies, preferences, and perceptions, we may not always have the response that the universe or, say, our parents want or expect us to have. It is at moments such as these that we realize that the truth has a distinct cost that cant be bargained down. And in these moments we must choose whether to pay the price.

Irv

[voiceover] For many years now, this sliver of dust-covered rock has served as a haven for the hope-filled and hormone-driven youth of our town. You won't find it on any map, but everyone knows exactly where it is. We call it The Point. On this uncharted piece of rock, many of Everwood's young people first discovered their capacity for passion, and sometimes for love. For them, the view from The Point will be forever etched in their hearts and minds -- a reminder of one special moment when everything changed.

Irv

[voiceover] The speed and direction of our path through life are pretty good measures of our age. We race headlong through childhood, never looking back; wanting it to end as quickly as possible. As we get older, we occasionally slow down long enough to look around and savor certain moments: It's a sure sign of growing up. It's only in our twilight years, when our pace is slowed and the long race is nearing the end that we spend most of our time looking backwards, and we wonder why we were ever in such a hurry.