There are a few movies from my childhood that I remember and yearn for on occasion; A Christmas Story, The Never Ending Story, Excaliber and Radio Flyer are just a few of my very favorites. I just make the assumption that movies like Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), The Wizard of Oz, Oliver, It’s a Wonderful Life, etc are a given on the list.
Anyway….
The movie Radio Flyer is a bit of a dark story with an uplifting ending and the one part that has always stuck like glue are the 7 secret fascinations and abilities. Do you know about these? As we age these fascinations and abilities disappear but when we are young we believe them completely. I personally remember using all of them at one time or another when I was young.
#1 – Animals can talk- Of course! The dog we had when I was growing up spoke several languages, including Spanish. I always loved that about him. We had all kinds of animals when I was growing up; birds, cats, dogs, hamsters by the pound
#2 – Your favorite blanket is woven from a fabric so mighty, that once pulled over your head, it becomes an impenetrable force field
- My brothers and I all had the same blanket in different colors and they were perfect when it came to this kid of warfare. They were indeed the finest and most might fabric around!
#3 – Nothing is too heavy to lift with the aid of a cape- Those same mighty blankets happen to make perfect capes.
#4 – Your hand, held forefinger out and thumb up, actually fires bullets
- The number of bullets that flew in our house was massive but move it outside and it became epic! All those bullets and no died permanently.
#5 – Jumping from any height with an umbrella is completely safe- I recall one umbrella incident but those blankets often multitasked as parachutes making those high dives possible and survivable.
#6 – Monsters exist and can be both seen and done battle with
The story goes: My brothers were 2 and 3 years old, approximately, and they had broken a hole in the wall of their bedroom right threw the lath. My parents caught them throwing stuffed toys into the hole that they made and saying that they were “feeding the monster in the wall”. One day there was a commotion in my brother’s room and my parents went up to investigate. My middle brother, Mike, was standing in front of the open window where the screen had been pushed out by something that obviously had been thrown through it. When asked about what happened, my youngest brother, Jeff (never the one to miss the opportunity for a good tattling) shouted, “The monster came out of the wall and Mike got him and threw him out the window!” My parents investigated further and found nothing. No toy in the backyard that had been thrust through the window in the heat of this imaginary battle, no obvious way for the screen to have been pushed out as it had been and certainly no reason for Jeff to declare Mike the hero monster slayer. A mystery that may never be solved.
#7 – Anyone can fly
- I tried to fly using a swing as my launching pad and although the flight was short, I did fly and remember the feeling of the wind in my ears before I abruptly landed. I will also tell you that I logged an amazing number of flight hours in my childhood and to this day, dream about learning to fly in a real airplane. Someday.
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