The Apple Dumpling Gang

Remember that old Disney movie with Don Knotts and Tim Conway? I purchased it not too long ago and Husband and I watched it the other night. It’s a great old movie – clean, funny, and ok, a little cheeky, but still good.

Before I go any further, there are still some people of the belief that Disney is a “bad” company and therefore, should not be supported by Christians. To those people I say this: get over it. It is a secular, money-making company, and will be run as such. As long as they continue to produce quality, family-friendly shows and movies, I will enjoy those things and not feel bad about it. Continuing on…

We’ve decided to start collecting old Disney movies (and some other childhood films)– at least the ones we can find on DVD. Husband wants movies like Swiss Family Robinson and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I want The Ugly Dachshund and The Million Dollar Duck, neither of which he has ever seen. We even saw a complete “Herbie” set that was immediately added to the list.

We’ve purchased some newer Disney flicks, not just the old ones. The Incredibles was definitely one we knew we had to have. We also got Toy Story when it recently came out on DVD. That was the first movie we ever saw together. Granted, there were about 18 other people in the room with us, about half of them being my family. But still, those special memories are there. We’ll also probably be getting Cinderella soon. Dad never liked that one, and always made us fast-forward through the Fairy Godmother part. I’ll be watching it all the way through when we purchase it…that’s right, I’m a rebel.

We also just got a collection of Looney Tunes. Since you can't even watch them on TV anymore, that's the only way to see them. That's right...well into adulthood, I would watch Saturday morning cartoons. How can you not love Bugs, Daffy, Silvester, Elmer and the ever-pursuing duo of Wyle E. Cyote and Roadrunner? It was great to sit down the other night and watch Wyle E. try to pull one over on the Sheepdog...one of my all-time favorites.

Why the interest in old flicks? There are several reasons, one being the great childhood memories they bring back. As we sat watching The Apple Dumpling Gang the other night, it was about more than just the movie. It was remembering when we watched it before as kids, and all the memories associated with it. For me, it was laying on the floor in the den on the scratchy off-white carpet, the cozy “horse” blanket, and the enormous console TV with a slider for volume and a knob to change the channels. The first VCR we owned lasted a long time – and had a quirky thing where you had to press the number 10 to get channel 11. I thought about the place we used to go to rent videos, with the one guy who worked there, who had seen every movie in the world, or so we thought. He knew we lived outside of town, and would let us keep the videos an extra day every now and then. See what I mean?

These old movies also bring back a feeling of simplicity…when everything was as easy as finding sheer and utter happiness in eating all the Apple Dumplings you wanted and dropping an anvil on someone's head. When you remembered things like how your grandfather smelled (The Parent Trap), wondered if you could actually jump into a sidewalk drawing (Mary Poppins), believed that there just might be a singing, striped cat that has powers of invisibility (Alice In Wonderland), and played with your spaghetti (Lady and the Tramp). It was a time when the good guys were good, bad guys were bad, sidekicks were loyal and funny, and everybody was made happy within the space of 90 minutes.

One of these days, we’ll have kids who will probably obsessively fall in love with one or more videos. I’d love for one of those to be something as great as The Apple Dumpling Gang. The old phrase, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to” certainly fits when it comes to movies.