Childhood Memories

My nieces are obsessed with Dora the explorer. Eliza, who is almost 2, could say "Dora" almost as soon as she could say "Mama." Ouch. Eliza and Sage both have Dora cups, dolls, games, and coloring books. They couldn't get enough of her. But, the Dora movies are the WORST. At least they are extremely painful for adults. The Dora shows are so repetetive and boring that they make you want to scream after 2 straight minutes of hearing "I'm the map! I'm the map! I'm the map! I'm the map! I'm the map! I'm the map! I'm the map!" Pretty original screenwriting, huh?

While the Dora shows drive me crazy, I have to admit I had my own favorite cheesy movies when I was young. Fortunately for my parents, at that point Dora had not yet cursed the earth with her presence; however, there were other alternatives that were at least as cheesy (although notably better in musical quality).

One of the most notorious of these was the Sleeping Beauty Ballet on Ice. For those of my friends and blog readers that were unlucky enough (or was it lucky enough?) to be deprived of such pleasures, let me explain.

Sometime a long long LONG time ago my mom taped a ballet version of Sleeping Beauty on Ice from TV for us. It must have been done in the 1980s because the costumes were very . . . um . . . unique? Maybe scary is a better word. Picture a bunch of twenty and thirty-year old men in really tight white tights. Yuck. Most of them wore poofy tunics, but the prince (who we all thought was so handsome) wore a sleek, shiny vest that looked like it was made from fish scales. Who couldn't resist such glamour? The girls, on the other hand, were all in really really short dresses. And then there were the fairies. All four-- the yellow, green, blue, and purple fairies-- wore spiky headresses that looked slightly reminiscent of a pineapple. Basically the only redeeming quality was the beautiful music it was set to (let's be honest, you can't really go wrong with Tchaikovsky, can you?)

Spiky headresses notwithstanding, we LOVED Sleeping Beauty Ballet on Ice. We used to beg mom to let us watch it. Watching SBBI involved a lot more than just sitting in front of the TV in a glazed-over stupor. Each time we watched the beloved ballet, we chose a part in the ballet to play. Since Suzy was the littlest, she always got to be Sleeping Beauty (the good fortune of being the youngest, but at least we were comforted by the fact that Sleeping Beauty was asleep for most of the ballet and didn't have that prominent of a part). Being second youngest, Becca got next pick, and she ALWAYS picked the purple fairy. The purple fairy was by far the coolest of the fairies because she was the one that saved the prince. I think I wasted years of my life being jealous that I never got to be the purple fairy (maybe this was why I always took out my frustration by forcing Becca to be the boy whenever we played house!) Danielle always chose to be the bad fairy because she had such an interesting part. (Good thing she didn't know then that "she" was actually played by a man!) With all the exciting parts claimed, I always got stuck as the queen. Boring. The queen was old (well, compared to the fairies and Sleeping Beauty, anyway!), and she only had about 2 scenes in the whole movie.

Once the parts were assigned, we had to move all the furniture in the living room out of the way. (I'm sure Mom disliked having her living room rearranged, but she was always a good sport.) With the living room "stage" cleared, we were ready to perform. Each of us in turn got to dance along with our character as she appeared on the screen. The Wilson dancing troup was ready to perform!

I think there's a reason Mom never took any of us to dance lessons. Our family seems to have been granted a generous dose of musical talent, but when it comes to dance, we definitely linger in the shallow end of the gene pool. Our "dancing" mainly consisted of a jumble of random gymnastics moves (somersaults, cartwheels, etc.), running around the room, and twirling until we were too dizzy to stand up. Nevertheless, Mom was always supportive, even after watching us peform for the 5th (or 10th or 20th) time. It's a good thing she was, because we made a lot of memories, just from that one cheesy video tape.

I have yet to decide if I will introduce my children to Sleeping Beauty Ballet on Ice. I'm not sure I could handle seeing it that often. However, it did leave us with a lot of fun memories. And at least the music is better than Dora.

Technology Thoughts

Reading for classes can be very tedious, but when it comes to history, I often find the assigned books to be surprisingly thought provoking. Last week I had to read a book for my British History class called Sixties Britain. It detailed everything from the political revolution of the 1960s to the creation of miniskirts, to the advent of television. Reading about the 1960s made me very grateful I never had to live in them (sorry Mom and Dad)! I don't know how I would have handled some of the cultural fads of the sixties (clothing styles and hippies, for example). I come from a pretty conservative background-- a definite contrast to the liberal waves of the 60's. However, reading about the technological advances of the 1960s did did lead me to reflect on some of the changes that have occurred in our style of living since then. Even just during my lifetime, technology has exploded in leaps and bounds. I remember how exciting it was when we got our first cds. (I can only imagine how much more exciting it must have been for my parents to get cassette tapes after a lifetime of record players. Who wants to carry around a music recording the size of a frisbee?) Computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices carried the same aura of mystery and excitement.
One memorable technology change was the creation of the remote control. I remember what it was like to have no remote controls. We actually had to get up to change the channel on the TV (gasp!) (Funny we're suddenly back to those days in our aparment. But I think that's only because we can't find our remote . . . )
When we finally got our first remote control, it was a momentous occasion. Use of the remote was reserved only for extra-special events, such as days when we were sick. Maybe that had something to do with the set-up. If the truth be told, this was before the days of slick-cordless remotes. Our remote had a long, silver cord that ran all the way across the room and pluged into the VCR. It's a wonder that Mom didn't trip and break her neck with it draped along the floor (probably the reason it was relegated to sick days and sick days alone). But, nonetheless, it was still a remote and I felt like a princess on those rare days that I got to stay home and use it to watch normally-forbidden treasures, such as Disney cartoons or Sleeping Beauty Ballet on Ice.
It's funny how fast technology changes-- and how fast our lives change with it. No one would dream of having a TV with a plug-in-remote in this age. Nor would we be able to do without computers or DVDs or so many other inventions that have taken a firm hold in our homes. But at the time, there were no cordless remotes. Computers were almost unheard of and DVDs were yet to be created. In spite of that, we got along fine. Not only did we get along without all those technologies, but we were content without them. Without all these distractions, we actually spent more time doing things that really mattered-- spending time with family and friends, serving others, deeping our testimonies of the gospel. Maybe having a plug-in remote wasn't so bad after all.