Courtesy of Gary Larson

The Sound of Music is one of my all-time favourite movies. I have loved it since I first saw it about twenty years ago. We were new to Canada and our family had become friends with another Nigerian family with four kids as well, two boys and two girls, just like us, except their birth order was girl boy girl boy while ours was girl girl boy boy (fascinating, eh?). They were more established in Canada and our new friends introduced us to movies. I don’t think we had a vcr back then so whenever we would see our friends, which was at least once a week, the kids would sit and watch a movie after playing outside.

To my young self, the whole story was magical. I loved to sing and this movie just seemed to have it all. The first time I saw the movie, I missed most the nuances of it, a lot of the big words were beyond me and my focus was on following the action in the movie, and trying to get all the children’s names memorized. We eventually got a vcr and whenever our friends would come to our house, they would bring the movie. It’s no surprise that after this constant devotion to the movie, the four girls had the movie memorized, and one of our friends (by now we called each other “cousins”) had a crush on a guy who we thought was pretty ugly and we would tease her to no end about her crush.

Eventually, we recorded the movie from the television when it was airing, and it got to the point where we had the commmercials between the movie memorized too. Later on, we bought the movie on VHS and the sound track, and it became mine and my sister’s goal to memorize not only the songs but to also be able to recite the movie, complete with the proper inflection and gestures. Even today, someone can say something that relates to part of the movie and that can embarrassingly launch someone, usually me, into song, complete with actions (There’s a loud sort of clanging from the clock in the hall and the bell in the steeple too / And up in the nursery an absurd little bird is popping up to say cuckoo! Cue promenade move, arms akimbo and clutched in front of the body, elbows parallel to the floor and curtsy). Needless to say, it’s the movie that I am most familiar with.

Four or five years ago, even though I was well into my 20s, I received the DVD for my birthday and although I have only watched it once or twice in the last five years, the movie will always be linked in my memory with the carefree, happy years of my youth. When I recently reuinited with my “cousins” (thanks, Facebook!), it was one of the first memories the oldest girl cousin and I mentioned, giggling at the memory of her sister’s crush on an older gentleman in the movie.

The Sound of Music started my love affair with romantic movies, novels and happy ever after endings. If a normal girl, an orphan, could win the heart of the handsome captain, surely I, blessed with family and many opportunities, would fare just as well!

I never did try joining an nunnery though. Perhaps that should be my next move.

Filed under: Introspective by jummy