Beetlejuice

March 24, 2012

So we’re trying to get back in the habit of exposing our children to the stuff we liked as kids, instead of either letting them choose (which means hours of Spongebob and iCarly reruns or Toy Story 3) or forcing them to watch what we’re watching (usually Hoarders, inappropriate sitcoms or Hockey). Since both our kids have been watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory obsessively, my husband took the initiative to sit them down and watch Beetlejuice. I was so proud of him, I could shit.

I didn’t think much about it, but I was older than my son is now when Beetlejuice came out. Even so, he was fine with it – nothing freaked him out. (I wasn’t worried at all about my daughter. She is tougher than her older brother – she recently watched Poltergeist without batting an eye, but it would be too much for my son.) In any case, when we asked him what he thought, all he would say is, “It was cool.” What the fucking fuck? After he watched The Wiz, he wouldn’t shut up about it. I waited days and my son never mentioned Beetlejuice. Finally, a few days ago, my son asked if we have Beetlejuice on DVD so he could watch it again. YES!

I tried to tell my four year old that Beetlejuice is Ken, but I don’t think she understood.

On a personal note, I don’t remember watching Beetlejuice for the first time, but I assume it was on rental, I don’t remember watching it in the theater. I do know that we rented it repeatedly from Showtime Video and Price-Lo. (Yes, the town I grew up in was so shitty that we didn’t even have a Blockbuster.) We never missed the Beetlejuice cartoon either. (Yeah, I was a bit older than cartoon age when it came out – don’t judge.) I even dressed up as Lydia for my 8th grade career class. The project was to create a commercial – I don’t remember what I was selling, but it involved pouring a bag of junebugs on my friend Shelley’s head…(I have pictures, but I sure as shit am NOT posting them.) That class was fucking useless. I certainly am NOT a Fashion Designer, as I presumed back then, but that’s a different story entirely.