Sharing Some Memories

One of the things that I enjoy most about having children is sharing with them the joys of my own childhood.

We recently rented the movie “Annie” from Netflix. Not the one that came out in theaters about 20 years ago, but the made for tv one with Victor Garber that came out about 7 years ago. The tv version comes as close as you can get to seeing “Annie” on stage! As a child, I loved the Broadway play and listened to the soundtrack every week. I can still sing all the songs. I remember the thrill of being able to see it on stage when the production came to our little town. After years of only knowing “Annie” from the album, finally seeing the lights go down, hearing the orchestra start the overture and watching the curtain rise caused my eyes to tear up and my neck to tingle. Just thinking about it now causes the same reaction. Watching the movie all these years later with my own children was magic! They worried about Annie and Sandy, learned to love Oliver Warbucks and hate Miss Hannigan and laughed out loud at the antics of the orphans. As the camera pulled away from the closing scene, I watched my children, transfixed on the tv screen and I found my eyes tearing up again.

I am also a big fan of “The Brady Bunch.” As all the classic TV shows started showing up as DVD collections, I swore I’d be first in line when “The Brady Bunch” was released. Well, it happened while we lived in Korea and somehow I missed it. Not to worry, though, I’ve been buying them season, by season as I can. (thanks, Grandma Honey for the birthday money!!) Boo and Pumpkin Girl caught me watching season 2 in my room as I cleaned up. They came in and got hooked! They asked for “the Brady Bunch” as their evening movie the other day, so I set them up with Season 1, so they would know the whole story. Boo can now sing most of the theme song.

We’re also reading some of my favorite books from my childhood. Little House in the Big Woods is part of our daily reading right now, and we’ve already finished The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Waiting in the wings are Jenny and the Cat Club, The Borrowers, and The Wonderful Journey to the Mushroom Planet (I think that’s the correct title). It’s amazing how many great memories I have of the books I read as a child. Philip does, too. I’ll have to get him to give me a list of his favorites so we don’t miss them. Even many of the easy reader books the children pick out at the library have caused me to smile at the vague memory of reading them way back when. Bears in the Night and A Kiss for Little Bear both made me stop and do a double take. “I remember this one!,” I said. Somewhere in the far recesses of my mind I remember the pictures and the storyline of these wonderful books. I am so glad to be able to share them with my children now. I hope they love these books and movies as much as I do and discover new treasures of their own. Maybe someday they’ll call me up and ask if I still have such-and-such book, so they can read it to their own children.

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