Movie Nights at Grandma's House |

by Timothy Deal
May 21, 2015

In our end-of-year blog back in December, I observed that changes in the path of life are sometimes marked by prominent monuments. The death of a family member is certainly one such monument; it was when my grandpa passed away in December and was again when my grandma followed him home to Heaven last month. By definition, a monument should cause us to remember and learn from the past. In thinking about the many experiences I had at my grandparents’ home, I realized how much those times formed who I am today and how much my grandparents taught me, even if often indirectly.

I had initially aimed to summarize the lessons learned from these memories in five main points, but even that was turning out to be way too much material for a single blog post. So I decided to first share one that most relates to a topic we talk about a lot on this site. If it connects with people, then perhaps I’ll share the other four lessons over the next few months

An entertaining story can bring a family together.

The summer of ’88 was a very hot one in Indiana. The house my family was living in at the time did not have air conditioning, but Grandma’s house did, so we spent several nights that summer camped out in their family room where the AC was strongest. Blankets were laid out on the floor in front of the big TV, popcorn was served in wooden bowls, and the entire family sprawled about in their PJs for a movie night. Since I was only four years old at the time, most of those movies went way over my head, but I kept fuzzy recollections of ‘80s comedies like The Dream Team, The Money Pit, and The Incredible Shrinking Woman for years afterwards because the experience of getting together to watch these stories was so strongly imprinted on my mind.

This, kids, is what we watched before Netflix. DS-Foto / Pixabay

The other piece of wondrous technology that Grandma & Grandpa had that made such movie nights possible was a VCR, which my family also didn’t have for awhile. (Not until I was six! That’s like forever when you’re that age.) Like any Grandma, ours was wont to spoil us occasionally, so she always kept a collection of cartoon videos around for her grandchildren. Each of us had our favorite Disney movies that we liked to watch over and over. She also bought a copy of The Great Muppet Caper for her collection when I asked her for it and thus began my lifelong obsession with the Muppets.

But the cartoons and kid’s movies weren’t just for the grandchildren. My grandfather, who tended to watch war movies and could be a very private man at times, nevertheless also loved cartoons and often joined his grandkids to watch Bugs Bunny, Popeye, or whatever funny cartoon we happened to be watching. I’ve also been told that when I was a toddler Grandma would rewind a certain Looney Tunes cartoon over and over because I would always laugh and giggle at some bird with a goofy walk. (Unfortunately, that particular tape has been lost to time, so I can’t tell you if the same bird makes me laugh today.)

At its best, movie or TV watching wasn’t a passive activity at Grandma’s house. As the stories made us laugh or hide behind a pillow, we shared the experience together. We’d talk about the stories as we watched them and sometimes the kids would pull ideas from the stories for our play time. (We had a weird ongoing game called “Crocodile” that I suspect may have been inspired by Peter Pan.) There’s no doubt in my mind that those times were an important factor in my love for movies and stories today.