It's that time of the week again. MamaKat's writer's workshop is due again! What have I chosen this week? What was it about that movie? Describe A movie you once had memorized.
The Wizard of Oz
We were, like a vast majority of other Americans were (and still are), poor when I was growing up. We went time and time again with the cable being on, and then being off. With this thing braking, those pants ripping, this and that going wrong. My mother struggled with depression and dealt with two kids the best way she knew how to. I remember there was one time when our cable had been shut off because of other bills needing to be paid, and during this particular time my sister and I were not at all bothered by it. We had not only gotten used to it, but we had realized that we could have a perfect excuse to use the dining/living room table as a fort, once again! That table was AMAZING, by the way! A spaceship, a fort, a tree house, and even a damned car at one point!
That was a traumatizing event for me, by the way. I used to own a monkey puppet that I loved with every ounce of my little soul. My sister and I were playing under the table one day, in our new car that I was driving... because duh, my sister was too young to drive! We had window cutouts, a steering wheel, all of our friends (stuffed animals) in the car with us. Shannon (my sister) and I were arguing over where we were going and when she was going to get to drive. We had the awesome heater on... or in reality there was a floor furnace under the table that was warming the inside of our "car." Well, I reached back to grab my awesome monkey only to see that his once black eyes were now brilliant white and staring at me like a spooky ghosty! He (apparently) was leaning against the furnace and his eyeballs burned the color off of them. Lucky for me, my mother was awesome and fixed his eyes with permanent marker... and off we went down the road again!
BUT... that is not the point of this post!
During our times of no cable television, we had a few options. My aunt would record weekly shows (Friends, Grace Under Fire, and the like...) for us on VHS and we would watch those, OR we would watch the Wizard of Oz, Ace Ventura, the Secret Garden, and Richie Rich over, and over, and over again. Shannon and I share the same month for our birthdays - she is the 14th of March, and I am the 19th, and this particular year the Wizard of Oz had come out around our birthdays and so we watched the movie a million times.
Shannon and I could recite every word of that movie, knew exactly when that evil witch was going to pop up, and when Dorothy was finally going to get to go home! It was the best time of our lives. That and playing and mastering every damned level of "Yoshi"... or Super Mario Brothers as you other people like to call it.
Ahh the good old times when we were poor and we found stuff to do (like going outside and being active!) that made life fun!
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5 comments:
It's interesting to me... I grew up in the 80s when cable was a "luxury." Only the "rich" or "lucky" kids had it (not my household), but by the 90s, only the "poor" kids DIDN'T have it. How did that happen? Strange, huh?
Yeah I was born in 83, so I spent most of my growing up in the early 90s. It is strange how fast life changes in front of you when it seems like things are moving so slow.
I honestly don't remember when we got cable... I don't remember watching much TV as a kid except at my baby-sitter's! Definitely not a bad thing. I don't think kids have the imagination that we used to have. I never made a car, but I did make many TV's out of boxes, complete with remotes and a VHS player and a "window" that we could pop up in to "be on TV." It was great!
The car was our best invention, I would say. It was at least the most memorable! It is a shame to see that kids are not as into inventing things these days. Not only is outside not as big of a thing these days, but it also isn't as safe these days either (which is really sad). "What type of inventions did you create when you were a little kid?" should be one of Mama Kat's questions sometime. haha
One of the reasons we did have cable was because we lived to far away from regular TV stations. Lauren, do you remember the "local-ish" TV station in Oneonta? Do you remember "Buffalo and Brandy?" We would watch day after day in hopes of seeing the episode you guys were in. That was so much fun!
The "Wizard of Oz" that we had recorded was actually on on February 26, 1993. Close to your birthdays. It was also the day the WTC was attacked with a car (van) bomb. I remember because it was shown during the commercial breaks... I think the movie may have even been delayed that night because of the news running late, but I am not sure.
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