hosted by Molly at the Bumbles
This week's movie topic is all about Your Childhood Favorite...
I thought back (which is a strain now that I'm half way to dead) to my childhood, and I realized that when I was a child I really didn't have the opportunity to view movies. We had one theater in town (10 miles away). My parents weren't movie going people. I only remember going to the theater once as a child and that was to see:
"Bambi"
Now my dad was a wildlife biologist for the state so my childhood was largely spent tromping around in and camping in the mountains that he worked in. I'll confess--my dad was a hunter, I pushed deer and elk toward the ridge line where he sat point. He shot lots of deer and elk and we grew up game fed. So Bambi wasn't the shocker to me that other children experienced . . . after all Bambi's mother just fulfilled her purpose on earth which was to be food for man.
What did amaze me about Bambi was being in the theater itself, with all its ornate carvings, velvet drapes, folding auditorium seating, the balcony, the smell of hot buttered popcorn and the big screen itself. It was like magic watching those curtains open and the cartoon play out in such enormity in front of me. And the frosting on the cake was that it was in color :). That's what I remember most about Bambi--oh that and Thumper, he is an unforgettable character.
So movies for me were pretty much limited to Sunday Evenings when ABC aired the "Wonderful World of Disney". We had church from 6-8 p.m. and the movie started at 8:00. There weren't any VCR's back then so we just had to hurry home as fast as we could to catch the show. They always had a little bit of an intro, so we didn't miss anything.
The childhood movie that most impacted me and that I remember the most as a child was aired one Sunday evening,
"Where The Red Fern Grows".
(1974)
I remember the family sitting there weeping as the show ended. You might be shaking your head and asking yourself "what is wrong with her?" She sheds no tears over Bambi's mother meeting her demise but falls apart at the death of two loyal hounds.
Let me explain. My dad also hunted lions. As a result we had a large assortment of hounds. Blue-tick, black and tan and red-bone were a few I remember. We also had lot's and lot's of cute little hound puppies that I adored. Now hound dogs are intelligent, loyal and fun-loving animals. They'd die for you in a heartbeat.
In fact, my dad told us a story of a time when he was out hunting lions in a snow storm and had to stay under a ledge for the night while he waited for the storm to pass. During the night the lion he had been tracking caught up with him and the dogs. Red--a large red bone hound, and the family favorite--fought like a lion himself and chased that lion off. The following morning my dad and the dogs finished the hunt and safely got off the mountain.
So I have a soft spot for hounds, and this story (yes I've also read the book) struck an emotional chord with me and my family. So now you understand the weeping for the dying dogs, and the boy left behind.
this is a picture of my dad with his hounds out on a lion hunt
this is a picture of one of the cats he treed
6 comments:
My grandfather warped me when it came to Bambi. He was a hunter and thought of it as anti-gun propaganda.
I think Bambi was the first movie I saw in a theatre. It was playing in an old theatre in town and was probably very similar to the one you saw it in, with beautiful carvings and heavy velvet drapes. I don't remember much about the movie, but my parents like to remind me that I dragged them up to the very first row and then cried so hard (even after the movie ended) that they thought something was wrong with me.
I never got to see Bambi at the movies - I remember my mother was planning to take me and the run had ended. Movie watching has changed so much since we were kids, that's true. I think of that often. We're still not ones to collect DVDs.
I don't think I've ever seen Where the Red Fern Grows. I'll try to remember it in a couple of years when my kids can handle it.
Bambi was not much of a repeater for me as a child though I loved flower.
My list is two long too!
Terry - My List
Romance in the Backseat
As far as childhood I only remember my Dad taking me and brother to see a showing of the old King Kong movie. I have no idea how old I was.
I also remember a showing of White Christmas when I was somewhere around 10 -12 years old and the theatre was packed.
Now that I'm thinking about all this I'm wondering why these old movies were playing at our local theatre other than the fact it was a small town and movies weren't as prevalent as they are now.
I think Bambi was the first movie I saw in the theater. My mom took me and one of my friends to see it one afternoon when it was really hot out. I remember that - it was so nice and cool in the theater. I remember the plush velvet curtains too. The forest seemed so real to me I was pretty scared. But I wanted to bring Thumper home with me. I can understand why you had the perspective you did - I probably would have too if I had grown up the same way. I never watched Where The Red Fern Grows - the book was sad enough. I loved the Disney Sunday night movies - that was an event in our house - but I think they started at 7PM when I was watching them - I always had to go to bed at 8 and remember begging all the time to stay up just a few more minutes!
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