Ever take long family trips in a car? Remember when those in-car screen systems became available? I’ve heard the stories from friends about listening to princess movies ad nauseam while driving across the country; anyone in the car measuring an age in double digits had to tough it out or suffer sharing that space with crabby kids.
We came late to the vehicle video party. We arrived there, finally, when our friend with a car dealership found a used SUV that had every option we wanted … and one we didn’t. I really didn’t want that DVD player, but the deal on the car was too good to pass up. In the end, we told the kids that they could watch shows only on long drives, and that system worked pretty well.
The Husband and I would load up on DVDs that we could stomach hearing since the headphones were perpetually broken or missing. Best of Bugs Bunny, Guys and Dolls, and Princess Bride, were part of our on-board entertainment… great shows that were already burned into my mind’s eye. And the Star Wars movies. All of them, memorized, too. Or so I thought.
With the latest Star Wars movie release, The Boy was completely happy to oblige his mamma in a six movie marathon to lead up to our Force Awakens matinee tickets. Two minutes into watching the first prequel and I realized that I had never actually seen any one of these new movies- I’ve only heard them all. From the front seats of that SUV. I had next to no idea what these stories involved.
So this weekend, for the first time, I watched all the first three stories- the second set of three movies released, for those of us who remember the original trio of movies as the real first three Star Wars movies. Not bad! I hope the seventh movie lives up to all the hype surrounding it.
We still have the SUV and the old DVD player still works. I think the last time it was used was several years ago. The Boy and his friends watched a bunch of original, black and white Three Stooges shows- slapstick and pre-adolescent boys are a great match. I wonder if we will ever find or fix the headphones? Probably not, I want to hear the shows, too.
branching out... on a limb 