Sincerely, Cindy

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GEN 11 You can’t change the past but you can reshape the future by making changes in the present. Just a thought. On another note, on a recent Thursday night, while flipping through the DirectTV guide, I stumbled across a childhood memory on AMCHD entitled Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the memories came flooding back in torrential fashion. The movie came out in December of 1968. This movie was loosely based on an Ian Fleming novel about a magical car. Ian Fleming gave her the license plate GEN 11 which is the Latin spelling for genii which interpreted means a magical person or being. The car that was turned into Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was actually an old broken down Grand Prix that the main character, played by Dick Van Dyke, turned into a magical flying car for his children. In 2011 Chitty went up for auction and sold in 2012 for well below the expected price of two million. But, I digress … Anyway, I distinctly remember going to the drive-in movie theater with my parents and siblings and being captivated by this flying car and loving all the songs and the pretty costumes and only occasionally being distracted by folks walking by with big tubs of buttered popcorn and bottles of coke. I was much more interested in the magic on the big screen and enjoying our family outing. My favorite part of the movie is Dick Van Dyke’s final musical selection with the music box dancer. Looking back now, the lyrics were understandable and innocent with no offensive connotation whatsoever. The costumes were bright and colorful but also modest and stylish. Now I have to admit, viewing this movie almost 40 years later, when Chitty Chitty Bang Bang shows up a the end of the movie with a character that strongly resembles the hunter guy from Jumanji, it did throw me for a loop, as I didn’t remember that part from my childhood. Guess that was because as a little girl I was much more focused on the pretty ballerina that I just knew I would be one day, that I didn’t remember that strange character at all. They don’t make movies like this anymore for kids and that’s a real shame. Here’s an idea, why don’t they just update these older movies incorporating new technology into the story lines but maintain a kid friendly script and ensure there are no wardrobe malfunctions. If Hallmark can manage to do this for adults than certainly Hollywood should be able to do the same thing for our kids.