For weeks my oldest daughter asked me to find out where she could watch Full House. She’d seen the reboot series (Fuller House) at my parents’ house and was itching to watch the original show. I remembered it fondly from my childhood and figured it would be a fun watch this summer, so one day I found the show on Hulu and hit play.
I wasn’t focused solely on the show, sitting a room away with my laptop and phone offering plenty of distractions. But the moment I heard the voices of those characters, something inside my chest swooped and my breath caught in my throat. What on earth? It’s not as if this was my very favorite show as a child; I didn’t think I had any poignant or significant memories associated with watching it. And yet, I couldn’t deny the strangely physical response I had to my girls watching this television show I’d watched at approximately the same age.
When the theme song began playing, my head began nodding without my permission. But the thing about knowing every single word of a song I heard nearly every Friday night as a child and hearing it now, as an adult, is that my brain began processing it through a completely different lens — causing no small amount of dissonance.
Whatever happened to predictability — the milkman, the paperboy, the evening TV?
How did I get to living here? Somebody tell me, please!
At first, I chuckled. Who, living in the year 2020, can’t identify with those thoughts? How did we get here? What is happening? Where did our normal lives go? What happened to our plans, our lives, our world? And then, how do we and when will we get back to normal? What did happen to predictability?
The old TV show playing in my living room made me think of a time gone by, but as I thought about that, I began to wonder: What exactly do we mean when we long for the “good ol’ days”?
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Head’s up: I realized pretty quickly that Full House isn’t quite appropriate for my kids just yet. The episodes focused on the kids are fine, but many of the storylines and even full episodes are all about the adults in the show. And that didn’t work for us right now. No judgment if it works for your family, of course! I simply wanted to let you know my decision in case it’s helpful.
Hi Mary, Thanks for sharing this story, I can relate to it. I grew up on Full House and I was so happy when we decided to sign up for Netflix and I could watch Fuller House. It does bring me back to my childhood but what I really like about the show is it silly and fun and they don’t use bad words or violance. I love how you point us back to God, we cannot live in the past, our hope is in God alone. Thanks for that reminder and keep enjoying that Full House!
Hello, Doreen! Thanks for reading. I’m so glad this post was encouraging to you. :)