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All Summer in a Day
March 24th, 2020
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When I was a child my dad recorded an eclectic collection of TV
movies for me onto a very low quality VHS. I'm fairly convinced he
had no idea what the stories were about but they probably said
they were for kids and that was good enough for him. For me, it
was a warm blanket of comfort. I adored every single thing on that
tape and watched them over and over. My sister, three years older
than me, couldn't stand any of them and would leave me alone.

Years later the VHS tape surfaced when I was in college. My friend
and roomate at the time looked at this odd assortment of titles
written on masking tape and asked about it. "Hold onto your butt!"
I probably yelled and looked all over creation for a VCR.

We sat there, two guys in their twenties, watching this mad
collection of cinematic excellence and I'll never forget his
reaction.

"This tape explains ALL of you."

So what was on it? Allow me to give you the highlights:

It opened with a powerhouse. One of the most beautiful and
heart-wrenching stories ever. Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in
a Day".

All Summer in a Day (Video)

All Summer in a Day (Short story)

If you've never seen or read the story, I can't tell you honestly
which to look at first. The short story is powerful, but the video
really nails the drama. The only downside, which I did not
remember from childhood, is the absolutely horrible score.

As an interesting side-note, I ended up ripping the video of my
VHS tape and creating a chapterized DVD from it. I made fake
artwork for the case and printed 5 copies. A friend working at the
Franklin Indiana Public Library tagged them and snuck them onto
the shelves there. If anyone is in the Franklin Indiana area, have
a look and see if you can find a copy!

**** SPOILERS ****

This story profoundly affected my own appreciation for sorrow and
tragedy. This was just strong enough for the child I was to feel
it deeply and empathise with Margot. I was in the closet with her
in darkness. It's hard to put into words what that did to me.

**** END SPOILERS ****

The next video on the tap was a TV adaptation of the 1977
children's book by Daniel and Jill Pinkwater: The Hoboken Chicken
Emergency. The plot as described on Wikipedia:

    The main character, Arthur, is asked to pick up a reserved
    turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but the market has lost the
    reservation, and no store in the area has any turkeys or other
    birds available for purchase. So Arthur finds and brings home
    a 266-pound chicken named Henrietta. The family welcomes her
    with open arms, but the neighbors are not so sure. Everyone in
    town is horrified after Henrietta escapes.

As you can imagine, it's pure ridiculousness. The video format,
made in the early 80s, is really bad. The giant chicken costume,
the acting, all of it. 

The Hoboken Chicken Emergency (Video)

Following that was a harrowing tale of kidnapping and escape.
That's right, I'm talking about that oh-so-famous TV movie, 
Run Rebecca Run! Synopsis:

    Simone Buchanan plays a young camera fanatic who is marooned
    on a desert island. Here she is threatened by a refugee from
    South America (Henri Szeps) who isn't keen on having his
    whereabouts known. Hostility melts into friendship before the
    rescue boats arrive.

That's kind of a lame way of putting it. The dude is a fugitive
and he decides to hold her captive so she can't give away his
location. She tries to escape, and there's a bird, and stuff.
I really wish I could explain it more, or link you to the actual
video, but this one doesn't seem to be online at present. The best
I can do is this trailer.

Run Rebecca Run (Trailer)

I guess I could point to this one for some of my outdoors-y stuff,
or maybe for my penchant for being a recluse and doing crimes. I
dunno.

And that brings us to the clean-up position on the tape. The #1
biggest hit for me was The Boy Who Loved Trolls, with its all-star
cast including Sam Waterston and William H. Macy, and the dad from
Alf! This one is on Youtube in Parts and it's so worth your time:

The Boy Who Loved Trolls

When the parents go away the secret magic of the world is revealed
to a dreamy-eyed kid. He journeys on adventures, meets some crazy
cool characters (including a mermaid and a turtle!) and saves time
itself. My fastination with the fantasy genre definitely comes
from this thing, in all its flaws.

There were more things on the tape, but you get the idea. It was
really substantial to my emerging identity and I'm appreciative.

Do you have anything like that? Books, movies? A horrible drive
you took with the family every year that scarred you for life?