Memory lane--TV style

I can't remember how it began, but a few nights ago found us watching clips from Arthur.  Arthur was one of my favorite shows that our kids used to watch.  I remember sweeping the kitchen floor and laughing while they watched.

Mark left the room.

He has zero interest in childhood TV shows--mostly because he had zero interest when he was a little kid too.  I tried very hard to get him interested in PBS while I was homeschooling Braeden and Emma and he would have nothing to do with it.  He would rather terrorize us, sort of a stick with what you know situation.  (He's since gotten over it.  He'll watch Netflix now with the best of them.)

Last night we were talking about revisiting Arthur and decided we would look up all the old shows they used to watch that we could remember.  (Adam can't be blamed for this scheme.  He was working late in anticipation for our trip.)

We started with Barney.  Because you sort of have to.  We made Mark come and watch with us.  "Fine," he said with resignation.  Why wasn't he so compliant when he was three?

Braeden and Emma were deciding what to watch and someone said, "The castle one!" and Braeden googled it and there it was, "Barney's Magical Musical Adventure."

The acting was as painful to watch as that picture is blurry.  If you had kids in the late 90s, you know these kids as well as I did:  Adam, Min, Tina and Michael.  ("What was Michael, twelve?" Braeden wanted to know.)

"Tina was my first love," Braeden said.  Then he and Emma reminisced about Braeden's imaginary friend named Tina and his stuffed animal named Tina.  I maintained that Min was cuter than Tina.  Braeden said, "I think Tina is why short brunettes are my type."

You can't make this stuff up.

We were watching the "magic" unfold.  It was pretty terrible in a wonderful Mystery Science 3000 sort of way.  Braeden got fidgety and said, "This was a scary part...I feel dread building."

Emma agreed.  This character was about to enter the scene.

Mark was watching, mystified. "Why are you creeped out?" he asked.

"It's coming," Braeden said.  Then he stopped the video.  "I can't do it!" he said.  All this time I had no idea.

Our next set of clips was Blues Clues.  Braeden and Emma were unreasonably happy watching the opening theme song.  They both had these Christmas morning worthy smiles on their faces.  We watched for a few minutes, bemoaning the fact that Steve went to college and it was never as good after Joe took over.  "Wait, what?" Mark asked, "Steve quit?"  (Mark had watched some Blues Clues.  I had some of the old ones recorded on a video tape, the good ones, with Steve.)

After awhile Braeden said, "He's a lonely man in front of a green screen.  It just occurred to me.  No wonder he quit."

We watched a few minutes from a whole collection of shows ranging from really weird (Boobah) to really ludicrous (Big Comfy Couch).  We couldn't stomach much.  They wanted to revisit Caillou which was against my better judgement because I hated that whiny kid.  Braeden was typing it into the search box and Emma was correcting his spelling (why Emma knows how to spell Caillou is beyond me.)

Braeden said, "That's how you spell Caillou?!?  See?  This is why I can't spell."

We kept going down the list, mostly just watching theme songs.  Emma put the brakes on for Berenstain Bears.  "We have to watch the hiccup one," she said, "I still think of it every time I have hiccups."

I do not remember the Berenstain Bears being as stupid as it was.  I probably left the room whenever they watched, saving the sweeping for later.  What kind of bad mother was I to leave my children to such drivel?  A tired and busy one...

We couldn't keep watching.  Sorry Emma.  You'll just have to hang onto those hiccup memories.

Adam got home and added things to the list like Greatest American Hero from his childhood which I had never seen.  (We didn't get a lot of channels when I was growing up.)  We watched Richard Simmons on Letterman. (Oh my.)  We even watched a little of Captain Kangaroo.  I used to watch that in the morning after Marianne left on the bus.  Good times.

Finally we watched Homestar Runner.  You really can't have enough Teen Girl Squad or Strong Bad Emails in life.

The moral to this story?

You can find anything online.  Also, the shared memories I have with my family, even the lame kids' show memories, are pretty delightful.