Throwback Thursday?

I hope that some day soon, TBT is no longer a thing. For now, I'll use it as an excuse to think about the early years.

Like many little kids, Alan had videos he would watch over and over and over again. As I mentioned earlier, he had vague memories of these as an adult, but it left the rest of us with a more lasting impression.

The earliest of these were the Wee Sing videos. The first, Wee Sing Together, featured a birthday girl name Sally, two living stuffed animals, and her little brother and friends. This is how Alan learned his  address, and it helped him learn his alphabet. My friend Phil would come over and yell, "Hummmmbearrrrr!", one of the characters' names. The video promised, "the more we sing together, the happier we'll be."

The next video, Wee Sing Train, followed a magic train where the engine, Chug-Along and the caboose, Cubbie, took kids all over a magical land meeting such characters as Sheriff Knickerbocker, who "[felt] so gooood with [his] Bobbity-bop" and a singing vegetable garden.

After the Wee Sing videos, we moved onto Disney movies. The Lion King was a major one, as I mentioned earlier. The only one he liked more was Aladdin. He identified with the character, a scrappy kid in over his head that people called Al.

I identified with the Genie, a comedian (voiced by Robin Williams, whose birthday was July 21, my birthday, and whose suicide would impact Alan years later) with a big personality and a mouth to match. I had always wanted to be a comedian growing up. The Genie would do anything Al asked, just like I would for my Al.

I'll tackle the TV shows later. For now, it's back to the present.