Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer was on television this week. So was Frosty the Snowman. I was way more excited than the grand kids. I asked Landon if he was going to watch Rudolph and he gave me “grandma’s a little weird” look. He finally shook his head and said, “we’ll probably record it.”
Ahhh. The truth comes out. There’s no urgency to watch it because they can record it. So Landon got the ol’ “Back when I was a kid….” speech.
Remember when we were kids and Rudolph, Frosty and Charlie Brown Christmas came on one time a year? If you missed it, you missed it. You had to wait an entire year to see it again. There were no VCRs, DVRs, instant playback, start over, 1001 cable channels that may show it in “marathon” fashion.
Back when I was a kid, CBS showed Rudolph the Friday evening after Thanksgiving. It was a staple. And Friday nights were often the night the family went out to eat. I remember thinking when mom and dad ordered pie for dessert and a coffee refill and lit that cigarette while they waited, I’M GOING TO MISS RUDOLPH!!! I’d have to wait a whole ‘nuther year to hear Clarice sing “There’s Always Tomorrow”. My gosh, it must have taken them ten hours to eat that piece of pie!
And now, poor Rudolph has to compete with Pixar and Disney animation which makes older animation look like…older animation. My grand kids have grown up on Pixar and Disney. The level of animation improvement from then to now is no comparison. It’s like comparing a store bought tomato to a homegrown tomato.
Their childhood is their childhood and I can’t force them to like some of the things I liked as a kid. It’s not that they don’t like Rudolph…they just have other options. My daughter Nina tried to get Ivy (2) to watch Rudolph. Ivy wanted to watch Dora the Explorer. My heart broke just a little, but I’ll get over it. It is their childhood.
What childhood tradition do you miss the most?
