Wow, That IS Old!

I was leaving Blockbuster, where I'd taken the kids to pick out a few movies, when I heard, from the back seat, "Mom, when did Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory come out?" The question had come from my son, and I looked in my rearview mirror to see him examining the DVD case that contained the movie.

"I'm not sure, honey," I said. One of my nine-year-old's favorite authors is Roald Dahl, and so, not surprisingly, some of his favorite movies are those inspired by Roald Dahl books. Having loved Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, as a child, I'm grateful that my son enjoys that version of the Roald Dahl classic novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, more so than the more recent one starring Johnny Depp.

"Mom, it says that this movie came out in 1971," my son said.

"That sounds about right," I said, thinking back to my childhood and my memories of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The first time I'd seen that movie had probably been on a clunky now-extinct Betamax machine--the precursor of the nearly extinct VCR.

I made a left turn down the long road that led toward home, and then, from the back seat: "Mom, were you born when this came out?"

I hadn't even been a gleam in my mother's eye in 1971.

"No sweetheart; I wasn't born until 1977," I told him.

"Wow! This movie is old!"

I couldn't help but laugh. Immediately I thought of one of my good friends, who was born in 1971. I picked up the phone, and began to dial her number to share with her my son's revelation. She seemed less amused than did I.