Sorry for my delayed responses here. The days go by too fast. Moving is the biggest reason for my inactivity. Amongst many other things, I’m also working on some holiday treats that I am pretty sure you will enjoy, which I will upload soon.

That yacht killing story is crazy. How did Deleon think he would get away with that? Couple mysteriously missing the day the yacht is signed over to a guy who has no money? It is so moronic that if it was in a movie, it would simply be the beginning of the story — during the rest of the movie, some smart cop would figure out how and why Deleon was framed. Unfortunately, in the real world, there are just really stupid and ruthless people.

– Melissa — When Solid Gold was on, it was actually hip to be flat chested — they had to be in those slinky outfits they wore and with the moves they did. Gone are the good ol’ days. Now it is all about plastic fantastic.

– t.sterling — I bet you can find your ‘Song that never ends’ on the Internet somewhere. Someone else loves it just as much as you out there.

Crossfire? Sounds like a Jim Hendrix ditty to me.

– RJ Keller — I have not seen Peter Pan in ages. I think I am due. There are some hilarious photos online of this guy dressed up as Peter Pan. It’s been years since I have seen those as well.

The last drive-in theater near where I grew up turned to porn, since it wasn’t getting anymore customers for the regular movies once video was all the rage. So you’d be a little kid in the back seat driving down the country highway and see some serious sex action; it was jaw-dropping. We’d always try to sneak a peak.

Oh, yeah, I had some of those Disney records with the book. Used to sit at the base of the record player, flipping the record, playing it over and over again. Good stuff. Long gone.

– Karen Swim — You are Queen of Inspiration; I am glad I could send some back your way.

Either way, I just hope she’s okay! Someone go check on her.

This was back in the olden days, before VCRs and DVD players, before you could actually own any movie you wanted and watch it a billion times. Once a movie was out of the theater, that was it. (Unless a local drive in happened to replay it 20 or so years later for unknown reasons). All my mom could do was buy me a See-Read-Hear version of it, the kind with the record that narrates the story while you read the book. (“You will know it’s time to turn the page when Tinkerbell rings her little bells like this…”)

I wore that record out, then read the book on my own so many times that the thing fell apart. But every time I heard the story, or read it for myself, I felt just like I did the first time I saw it in the theater. I have to say, there’s a part of me that misses that. Movies seemed more magical to me then. I appreciated them more.

That didn’t stop me from buying Peter Pan on DVD as an adult, of course. And each time Peter says, “Come on everybody! Here we GO-oooo…off to Neverland!!!” I feel just like I did the first time I saw it in the theater.

@Shane, since you mentioned Reading Rainbow, it opened a door of childhood memories that I now cannot close.

Thanks again to my sister, her and I would watch Lamb Chop together and “The Song That Never Ends” would’ve probably been on our iPods if such things were around back then. Nevertheless, it wasn’t uncommon to hear the song sung during school field trips on the bus.

As for a few more jingles, there was a popular game (at least in my neigborhood) called Crossfire where you shot marbles across a board to knock some “thing” into your friend’s bin. I can’t really explain, but I loved the commercial because it was some dude singing his heart out:

Crossfire!
You’ll get caught up in the..
Crossfire!
Crossfire, Crossfire, CROSSFIRE!

And there’s the game Operation! and Perfection! I can’t remember the words, but I loved how some of these jingles explained how to play the game. Crossfire might’ve had it too.

Oh yeah, and the name of Winnie the Pooh just became a joke later in life despite having a warm snuggly place in my childhood heart. Now that I think about it, I guess his name is really Winnie and he is a Pooh, or a Pooh Bear. What a Pooh Bear is, I’ve never been sure. But that’s where my childhood innocence lived, or lives.

I really can’t get that Reading Rainbow song out of my head now…

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/07/yacht.killings.trial.ap/index.html

After the show was said and done, this guy was tying people up on yachts.

Does anyone remember David the Gnome? The 399 year old gnome that was the healer of the forest using acupunture and hypnosis? Heavy stuff for a child. I don’t recal the words to the theme but, man, it was hypnotic.

Then there’s always Reading Rainbow!!! Sing along with me, if you remember:

Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high
Take a look, it’s in a book – Reading Rainbow.

I can go anywhere!
Friends to know and ways to grow – Reading Rainbow.

I can be anything!
Take a look, it’s in a book – Reading Rainbow.

Childhood was the best.

As for Winnie the Pooh, the name really disturbed me as a child, that anyone would be called poo, I couldn’t deal with it. Now, Mr. Hanky on South Park is another story.

Per your jingles, I guess the soda marketing teams hit the target with you; sure, I guess we can include those as writing for children, as that is exactly what they were doing, albeit with purely financial motives.

Yes, “plop plop fizz fizz” has to be the ultimate in best jingles of all time. Thirty years later and the thing is still ringing in my head.

But I’ve watched cartoons and grew up with them for years and I’m still influenced by them today. But my childhood favorites? Hard to narrow down, but here’s an attempt. “A Goofy Movie” … “Aladdin” … Actually most animated Disney movies starting with the “The Little Mermaid” up to “The Incredibles” I think… I’m still catching up. And TV cartoons, Bugs Bunny of course… Winnie the Pooh was big with me when I was wee. Animaniacs had and still has a big influence on me. My cartoon idol is Yakko Warner. This is probably why I like the Marx Bros so much now. And jingles? I’m going to go with the first couple I remember:

do-do-do-do-do Always Coca-Cola (It’s much longer, but I’ll spare you.)

and then…

ba-ba-ba-ba-ba The Joy of Pepsi (again, it’s longer, but it’s better with music)

And just because my mom used to sing it to me, I’ll add

Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is! (That’s all she would sing, but thanks to TV Land, I saw the whole commercial.)