We don’t have either broadcast, cable, or satellite television in our house. This does not mean that we live in an entertainmentless cave. Instead we’ve gotten creative about how we get our hands on the entertainment we’re interested in watching. It is more work, but it means that we don’t have to put up with all the advertising and dreck programming that comes with a regular supply of television. We rent DVDs, buy movies, borrow movies, or barter trades. For a while we had a very happy arrangement where we traded homemade bread for the loan of MST3K videos. When my oldest kids were younger a friend kindly recorded a bunch of PBS programming for us. They watched and rewatched these tapes for years. Then the tapes sat and gathered dust because the older kids had outgrown them.
Today Gleek fell sick. Again. She needed something quiet to watch. I dug around the video cabinet and unearthed a tape labeled Zoboomafoo. I’d nearly forgotten this show. It isn’t on the air anymore, but my kids loved it at the time. I played the tape for Gleek. The image and sound have degraded a little with age, but Gleek didn’t mind. She was as enraptured as my older kids were when they were her age. Not only that, but as the older two came home from school, they plunked down to watch as well. Kiki reminisced loudly about how she always used to watch the show back in the “olden days.” I don’t know what it is about Chris & Martin Kratt and their lemur friend, but we’re all happy that they’ve come to visit again.