The Annals of My English Childhood (Volume III): Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
This Christmas, when I was in America, my cousin phoned me and said "I was watching the Family Channel and I saw a commercial for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; it's on at 7:30. I'm coming over to watch it".
This is not quite so random as it seems, since we both have this singular memory from childhood: I was probably four, if not younger, and our grandparents hadn't moved to Florida yet. So, we were having one of our first joint-sleepovers on the sofa bed in their basement and it was probably not even ten o'clock, but it felt like three am, and we both distinctly recall having watched the film of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on ancient VHS and singing along, jumping around the room. But, much like in a night of heavy drinking, that flash of a moment is ALL that we can remember. Thus, when, at the end of 2006, 15 (plus?) years after the fact, we tried to reenact/recapture that moment, we were somewhat unsuccessful. We got about two hours into the movie, able to recall nothing, before we had overloaded on wholesome, English musical Cheese, and we gave up under the pretense that we could not possibly endure another hour of that.
Tonight, however, I went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on stage, as it is something of a British institution, and while it may have been nearly as silly, erratic, and long-winded as the film, it was worth it for the following bit of banter during which two of the villains are attempting to masquerade as English people:
Vulgarian 1: My body is Vulgar, my mind is Vulgar...can I be Vulgar and speak English?
Vulgarian 2: That would make you an American!
This is not quite so random as it seems, since we both have this singular memory from childhood: I was probably four, if not younger, and our grandparents hadn't moved to Florida yet. So, we were having one of our first joint-sleepovers on the sofa bed in their basement and it was probably not even ten o'clock, but it felt like three am, and we both distinctly recall having watched the film of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on ancient VHS and singing along, jumping around the room. But, much like in a night of heavy drinking, that flash of a moment is ALL that we can remember. Thus, when, at the end of 2006, 15 (plus?) years after the fact, we tried to reenact/recapture that moment, we were somewhat unsuccessful. We got about two hours into the movie, able to recall nothing, before we had overloaded on wholesome, English musical Cheese, and we gave up under the pretense that we could not possibly endure another hour of that.
Tonight, however, I went to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on stage, as it is something of a British institution, and while it may have been nearly as silly, erratic, and long-winded as the film, it was worth it for the following bit of banter during which two of the villains are attempting to masquerade as English people:
Vulgarian 1: My body is Vulgar, my mind is Vulgar...can I be Vulgar and speak English?
Vulgarian 2: That would make you an American!