Didn't know what a good thing you had when you had it.

When I was a child, the two greatest things to ever grace my television (be it from PBS or the BetaMax machine, because we were too cool for the VCR until later) were "Mister Roger's Neighborhood"  and "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh." I can distinctly remember being home sick one day and watching Mr. Rogers and when he sang "It's you I like, It's you. The way you are right now- The way down deep inside you.  Not the things that hide you.  Not your toys - they're just beside you." I found myself thinking "but Mr. Rogers, I am in my pajamas... and you still like me?"  And Winnie the Pooh... well, I watched it daily.  At least.  "He bidged, he badged, he budged!"

Later in life I found that the NEW and IMPROVED best thing ever to grace my television was "The Parent Trap"  Starring Maureen O'Harah, Brian Keith, Hailey Mills and Hailey Mills.  This show is CLASSIC, and can still make me happy when I am having the worst of days. 

Yes, friends... as the charming maid Verbena (who I now learn has a real name of Una Merkel... gross) said "you didn't know what a good thing you had when you had it."

Things I didn't know what I good thing they were when I had them: A list by Sarah Timms Thompson

• The ability to watch the same movie every day.  I love Winnie the Pooh. 
  
• Friday Sno-cone days.  At Woodstock Elementary during warm months, the PTA would have sno-cones available outside the lunch room for a quarter on Fridays.  And if you got there early in the year, they had tigers blood.  A QUARTER!  And practically on your way home...
• Sleepovers on the trampoline.  Or any sleepovers, really.  These days even if I'm out late with my friends I think to myself "I should go home and sleep in my own, confortable bed" instead of "I want to call my mom to ask if I can sleep over."  And although you had to be crafty with trampoline sleep overs (everyone winds up crushing everyone in the middle of the tramp...) they were the very best kind.
  
• Block Schedule.  I'm not the girl who wants to go back to High School.  I enjoyed my time there and politely decline to do it again.  Plus, I am way less of a nerd now... but the block schedule... it was brilliance in school form.  You don't have to do the same thing every day, you always know when lunch is going to be, and you have two days to do any homework.
• $1.50 for Lunch.  While we're on the subject of high school (or Jr. High)... let me just say that eating all of lunch for a buck-fivety would be a glorious idea.  And, by the way, most days I used that to buy a doughnut and every-other day I would get a lemonaid to go with it.  In High School this was changed to eating at Subway about 3 days a week with Becky and her Bitchin Camero.
  
• Musical Theater.  Talk about a time-sucker.  I envy and am amazed by my friends who still do it (and have those magical moments...) but every weeknight and in the morning on Saturday to have rehearsals?  And I was excited to miss vacations and camps so I could go to said rehearsals?  Really, Sarah?  And still, I would do it again.
• Schedules I Can Stick To and Plans I Can Make.  This is a relatively new one for me, and isn't so nostalgic as most of these... but it's true all the same.  I am a plan-planner and a list-maker and a schedule-haver.  These days those are all worth about the same as having a buck fivety for lunch... it doesn't get you very far, and you just get a quick sugar high and then a plans-got-nixed-again low.  
  

Aah well... back in the good old days...

Please stay tuned for pictures of our house in Georgia, and our new pet dog whose name may or may not remain Barney.  (The joy of buying a dog at a shelter where they didn't know his name either is that you can give him a new name... and the dog will still be happy.)