What a wonderful movie we saw today, Second Hand Lions! It looked pretty funny from the previews, young city boy goes to visit his elderly eccentric great uncles who live on a farm. “Nice doggie,” the kid says to the pig that approaches him.
It was a lot deeper than that, though. It was about being abandoned and abused (by the boy’s mother and new boyfriend). It was about acceptance and love. It was about how love never really dies. I was in tears several times through out the movie and so was TB. Even Kristin got misty-eyed.
I know the critics didn’t like it but most audiences say they think the movie was terrific. This was yet another time when the critics didn’t seem to know what they were talking about!
The boy was horrified to learn that his uncles didn’t have a phone or a television. My first reaction would have been about the same but then I think, like this boy did, I would make do. There is so much to enjoy without the interference of the television.
There are studies that show kids are losing their imaginations because all story plots are fed to them in a formula. I’m not sure about that, but I do notice that our kids are getting heavier. I didn’t watch television much when I was a kid. I remember being outside playing all day. TB has the same memory … my kids don’t.
I liked to read comics when I was a kid. My kids read anime books, all are Japanese and there’s some violence there. I used to read Little Audrey, Richie Rich, Archie, Jughead, and Betty & Veronica. I also liked the superhero comics which had violence in them, Superman, Batman, and Spiderman. When I got a little older, I added Mad magazine to my reading list.
Not too long ago, I saw some of these comics again. Mad and the superhero comics still look pretty much the same. Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica are now little softback books. Maybe that is so they sort of look like the anime comic books? I haven’t seen Little Audrey or Richie Rich any where.
This must be where we get “those were the good old days”. They were good memories for me … some of them. I wouldn’t mind if we were still living that way but I know it can’t be. So it goes.