The Secret of Snowy Rides

I spent most of today running errands. I finally delivered a big bag of donations to the Friends in Deed thrift shop in Collingswood, including my old winter coats. I bought a cute Cheer Bear that can talk when you hug her. I bought a hot chocolate at WaWa, then went to counseling. I told Scott about everything happening in my family and the culinary school idea, but he mainly wants me to concentrate on trying not to get upset when things go wrong at work. I wrote down some of the things he suggested I try to think about when I get anxious - I hope it helps.

I had a quick small ham and swiss sandwich at Primo Hoagies, then rode over to the Haddon Township Library. I made a brief stop at Walgreens to see if they had any good Lil'Kinz. Nope - they still just had Tigers and Yorkies. I have a Lil'Kinz Tiger, and I don't want a silly fluffy Yorkie. I just went on ahead to the Haddon Township Library. I did the children's DVDs, removing the PG-rated animated films Iron Giant and Over the Hedge. (And for those of you who work at libraries or video rental stores, please remember that a movie being animated doesn't automatically mean it's G-rated or for little kids. Please check the ratings on the box!) I took out three DVDs and two cookbooks before heading out.

I made a very brief stop at Super Fresh. I didn't find what I was looking for and forgot something else I wanted, milk, so I also stopped by WaWa on the way back to Oaklyn. I'm glad I did - a half-gallon of skim milk at WaWa has dropped to $2.19. (A half gallon of skim milk costs $2.69 at the Acme!)

Since I was in the area, I rode over to the park behind the Oaklyn Public School on my way home. It was a nice day, bitterly cold (the high was 25) and very windy, but sunny. The snow is still very pretty, and there's still quite a bit on the ground. (Thank goodness it's not nearly as icy or as much of a problem to move as last week's snowfall, though.) I just had to take ten minutes to run through it, kick it around, make snow angels, throw a snowball to the air. We didn't often get snow in Cape May County, and the rare times we did was usually a treat. I love snow. As long as it doesn't get too messy, it's a lot of fun. (Of course, I also don't have some of the problems other people do with large snowfalls. I don't have kids who will be out of school, I live less than ten minutes from work and can commute in anything short of a major blizzard, and my neighbors or my landlady's nephew shovel my steps and porch.)

I enjoyed some more snow-related animated shorts and specials this morning and during dinner. In addition to their Christmas and Easter specials, Rankin-Bass made two specials in the 70s that were really more salutes to winter than to winter holidays. I have Frosty's Winter Wonderland, which was RB's 1976 follow-up to Frosty the Snowman. Unlike the original, this one doesn't try to needlessly tie Christmas in. Frosty comes from the North Pole, but he's lonely when the kids aren't around, so they make him a wife. Meanwhile, Jack Frost (not the same character in the 1979 stop-motion special) feels jealous of the attention Frosty gets from the kids and tries to steal his hat. It's slight but charming, with one of Rankin-Bass' better casts. The original Frosty, Jackie Vernon, is joined by Shelley Winters as his "snow wife" Crystal, Paul Frees as Jack Frost, Dennis Day as Parson Brown, and Andy Griffith as the narrator. Day and Griffith get to duet (rather nicely, too) on the title song.

Although Frosty Returns sounds like a second sequal to the Rankin-Bass Frosty specials, and it does share some elements (snow setting, kids, song, goofy villain who turns good in the end, comedian narrator), it's was actually made by Bill Melendez, who did the Peanuts specials. In fact, Returns, which was made in 1992, has more of a Peanuts vibe than a Rankin-Bass vibe. The kids seem a bit more real than they did in the Rankin-Bass specials, and there's a somewhat cynical 90s feel, from elderly teachers complaining about shoveling sidewalks and breaking hips to Frosty making wisecracks about his polka-dot bow-tie. Not for Rankin-Bass purists, but different and cute in it's own way. I'm especially fond of the only song, "Let There Be Snow." Not a bad cast here, either - Andrea Martin as the fussy teacher, John Goodman as Frosty, and Jonathan Winters as the narrator.

The Backyardigans had their own adventures in the snow. I took out the last Backyardigans DVD the library had that I hadn't seen this afternoon. I have seen the title special episode (a James Bond spoof, complete with Henry Mancini-esque jazz music), but not the other two episodes. Uniqua desperately wants to find "The Secret of Snow," but ever-busy Ice Lady Tasha has no time for her questions. She tries to send the pink bug girl first to the desert, then the jungle, but compassionate Austin, Cowboy Pablo, and Tyrone of the Jungle help her out. All four kids end up learning that there is no real secret to snow...but the secret of friendship is to help others out and have fun doing it, to the tune of Dixieland versions of Christmas songs. (In fact, this would appear to be the closest thing The Backyardigans has to a Christmas episode. It ends with the kids saying "Happy Holidays," the only time they don't go home for a snack in the end.)

My personal favorite on the disc was "A Giant Problem." Queen Uniqua sends her wizards Tyrone and Pablo to get rid of Tasha the Giant, who keeps waking the Queen from her nap. Problem is, Tyrone and Pablo are hardly Harry Potter-quality wizards - none of their spells work right. Big, goofy Tasha doesn't really want to hurt them, anyway. All she wants is to play tag. The 80s synthesizer music brought back a lot of childhood memories.