Ponies and Muppets and Childhood Memories

Today was Farm Market Day. I bought those lovely mini MacIntosh apples, pears, carrots, radishes, and a medium-sized pumpkin for Halloween and Thanksgiving at my apartment. I'd never be able to get a big one home on my bike, and I don't carve them, anyway. Besides, my porch faces the river side of the house. It's a lovely view when the leaves are gone, but until the leaves ARE gone, no one can see my place...and even then, the only ones who could really see it are my neighbors on my right. There's only the park to my right, and the people across the river are too far away.

It was nice to be able to just ride around and check out yard sales today. It was nice weather for it, too, windy and chilly but soooo very fall, with that lovely wood-burning scent in the air. There were tons of yard sales today. Most of them were disappointments. I went back to the place I found the genuine 50s and 60s dolls and toys at, the one I got my cool 60s mohair bear from in the spring. I saw a mechanical teddy bear that moved and made sounds like the panda I found in front of the thrift shop two years ago, but he was too big to carry on my bike, so I moved on.

I rode around for almost an hour looking for yard sales. There were three or four in Oaklyn alone today. I went behind the school, near a park and playground, and found Maple Street, where I made my best (and only) find of the day. They had a table filled with kids' videos from the 80s. Among the familiar Winnie the Pooh, Disney Sing-Alongs, and Christmas specials were four that stood out. I'd never heard of, much less seen, the 1974 special Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus, though I'm quite familiar with the story of the little girl and the newspaper man who convinced her - and all of New York - that Santa and the Christmas spirit exists. They also had the two remaining mid-90s Muppet Babies videos I didn't have.

My favorite find was a true piece of 80s culture. The My Little Pony toy line made its animated debut in a half-hour special in 1984. Though it starts cute, with frolicking pastel-colored horses, pegasus, and unicorns, it quickly becomes much darker than most people today would anticipate. This is surprisingly dark and disturbing for what's supposed to be a cartoon for little girls. Four of the ponies are captured by a strange lion-like monster and are turned into dragons by a demon. There's a surreal Busby Berkley-esque "dance" number by the Sea Ponies about midway through that really has nothing to do with anything.

It's that darkness, though, that makes this one of the best of the Little Pony cartoons. The villains here are far more menacing than in most girls' shows of this type, and the songs actually aren't that bad (including that crazy Sea Horse song). Tony Randall plays Mr. Muchick, the forgetful elf-like wizard who provides the MacGuffin that saves the day. I think Sandy Duncan was Firefly.

Originally titled Firefly's Adventure on video and renamed Nightmare In Dark Castle when it was shown as part of My Little Pony and Friends in the late 80s, the full version has never been on DVD and costs as much as $20 on eBay and Amazon.com. The video is in lousy shape, but it runs, and a dollar sure beats $20 with shipping. There was a second Pony special a year later, Escape From Katrina, that I remember being just as good and is also hard to find in full on video.

After all that, the rest of the day was comparatively quiet. I watched Firefly's Adventure and the Muppets until it was time to go to work. Work was busy today, mostly due to a lack of help and to it simply being a lovely weekend, but I was able to get in and out with no problem, and other than a few mildly cranky customers, my day went quickly.