I was at the gym, running ten miles on the treadmill in a room filled with muscle-bound badasses (Trenton cops like this gym), and I had my iPod Shuffle on.
Nobody there would possibly imagined what I was listening to…
A friend of mine lent me the CD some years back, to share with our kids, of course.
Little did she know that I went home and popped in that CD and was immediately taken back to my childhood in 1972 – when my somewhat-feminist mom bought this album for me and my brother to listen to.
I don’t know why, but it is enjoyable and comforting, and I sometimes put it on while running.
Charlotte’s Web. I hadn’t thought about that book in years, and then the other day I saw the cover and the memories came flooding back. Tears even welled up.
I’m totally with you on the Tall Book of Make-Believe, but not Poky Puppy. Snuffy the TugBoat and Grandpa Bunny were way cooler.
On a more modern(?) note, the Melendy series and the Gone-Away Lake series from Eliz. Enright are good for the gap times when I have nothing else. Also the original Mary Poppins. Disney did not get it right. Go to the source.
Thundercats
Silverhawks
Jem & the Holograms (I have most of the music on my computer)
Sharon, Lois & Bram on record
Eric Nagler on record
The Hobbit (the old movie)
The Last Unicorn
I got the Sesame Street Boxed Set (3 or 4 discs of Sesame songs) and ripped it to my computer. Sometimes when I’m at work one of the songs pops up in my playlist. I absolutely cherish Sesame Street music.
I also grew up listening to Free To Be You and Me…but in the 80’s. I guess my parents were hippies.
For me it is the “Yellow Submarine”, movie or song.
Mary Poppins
“Puff the Magic Dragon” (The Song)
Battle Evermore & Stairway to Heaven (I grew up listening to this, my siblings are much older)
Reading Heinlein Juveniles like Red Planet and Starship Troopers.
Charlie Brown Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street and The Grinch.
Mr. Rogers. he’s still on every afternoon even after all these years. My kids love him just as much as I did. (How many times was Lady Aberlin pregnant anyway?)
The Muppet Show (especially sublimely surreal stuff like Mahna-Mahna and the Muppet Show version of the Banana Boat Song (“Trust me”))
Fraggle Rock
Thornton Burgess’s Old Mother West Wind stories. No, I’m not that old, but I found the story collections in the children’s section of my local library when I was about seven and I’ve never forgotten the stories. I still read them sometimes…
Dr. Seuss, especially the lesser-known ones, like On Beyond Zebra and If I Ran The Zoo.
Old Carl Barks Donald Duck comics. I somehow ran across a collection of them when I was a kid and I still remember some of them.
Scooby-Doo. I always identified with Velma rather than Daphne. I do find Scrappy annoying, though.
I miss the Ramona books, and am waiting for the Princess to turn 6 so I can introduce them to her.
There used to be some anime series that I watched as a child, that I wish I could find on DVD now, including “Candy Candy”, “Mahou Sally-chan”, and “Heidi of the Swiss Alps”. They were dubbed into Spanish when I first saw them. When I went to Anime Expo earlier this year, I was surprised to find that “Voltron” and “Robotech” are being reissued. I saw at least one man my age standing before the Robotech display with an ecstatic look on his face, but did not dare disturb his reverie as he was transported to his youthful otaku years.
My dad had as LP of silly songs but I think they were more 50’s novelty songs than children’s music but he would sing and we would dance to The Witch Doctor (The Big Bopper?) and The One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater!
I have all the L Frank Baum Oz books. I reread them recently…got me right back to age 10-12.
The CBS special music they used to play before Rudolph, Frosty, etc, really pulls me back. It’s when I was allowed to stay up late on a school night because Something Special was on.
On a similar vein, after mysteriously losing my copy of the “Neverending Story” (“Unendliche Geschichte”) by Michael Ende, I recently got someone to buy it for me in Germany and just re-read it. Brought me right back to my 10th birthday.
