I'll always love you, Gene Kelly. My mother introduced me to you many long years ago. I think you're fabulous. (By the way, GHD3, have I ever told you that I think you look quite a bit like him? You do!)I think I've mentioned before how awesome my mom is. She did such a good job sharing her loves with us kids. She was always giving us opportunities to get acquainted with the arts. She rented all sorts of things from the library to show us, including Gene Kelly movies, Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, and plenty of Shakespeare. I think I also gained an undying love for the public library from her as well. I have many fond memories of my mom getting all excited when her favorite dance number came up in some show. I always wondered if I'd be able to muster enough energy in myself to pass some of that along to my own kids. Well, tonight at the dinner table Stomper started saying something about only girls being able to tap dance. Oh contraire, mon fraire! Within moments Stomper found himself being dragged into the living room by his mother. I did not actually make him watch all of Singing in the Rain, one of my favorite movies of all time. I did, however, show him three of my favorite dance numbers from the show, and I think I may have emulated my mom a little as I sat there, kneeling in front of the television getting all excited. And you know what? The kids thought it was pretty great. Stomper started pretending to be Gene Kelly, and Bitty really liked "the girl with the blue bow shoes," (Debbie Reynolds). I ended on the very silly "Make 'Em Laugh" number, starring Donald O'Connor, which escalted them into a frenzy of their own crazy dances around the living room. I was expecting that to end in tears, but thankfully, they were okay. They were still going crazy when I tucked them into bed, but thankfully the exhaustion took over. Bitty was zonked out within the first two pages of our book. I'll have to try that more often! Someday we'll actually watch the whole thing. Remind me to do it before Stomper turns 12 and thinks everything I do is dumb. Of course, tonight as I tried to kiss him goodnight he tried to make me swear I wouldn't kiss him again for the rest of his life. Maybe I should try the movie again sooner than age 12.
6 comments:
That is so cool Rach! I love Gene Kelly too. Himself thinks I'm a little strange, but I think I inherited my love of musicals and classic movies like that from my parents as well. They are just so wonderful. My favorite is Brigadoon.
Oh, I have such a warm place in my heart too for those days. We were in such rapture when we saw those dance scenes.
Do you remember the even earlier days before the VHS when she would rent a room at the library with a TV screen in it and the library could put on the movies? I remember some Gilbert and Sullivan there. Home made popcorn too. Maybe even the Hickmans joined us. Bliss!
M.
wow -- high praise! Too bad I can't dance like Gene. Kathleen loves him too, we even have a framed picture from 'Singin' in the Rain' somewhere in our house.... Glad your kiddos enjoyed seeing some serious dancing. He is good. And, I need to know how you get your kids to fall asleep by page 2 of the story? In our house, it's dad that falls asleep during the story, not the other way around. :)
That is so awesome! I am getting to that age with my boys too where they think only girls can do certain things and only boys can do certain things. I love it when you have such powerful proof...so I'll have to remember singing in the rain, if tap dancing ever comes up in conversation. And, by the way...good job on spelling the French correctly. It is one of my biggest pet peeves to see people use common French phrases all wrong...like "pardone mwah!"
I love the oldies but goodies. I need to rent more of them!
Oh, I just remembered what "French" really bugs me. It is "Walla" instead of Voila. Lol!
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