Peter Pan with Mary Martin

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I remember as a child being able to watch the same movies on repeat every single day to the point I had the whole thing pretty much memorized. My dad got so sick and tired of watching "Peter Pan" with Mary Martin and "The Wizard of Oz" much the same way I got sick of "The Lorax" and "Cars 2" on repeat with my son, payback and all. "Peter Pan" with Mary Martin was my absolute favorite and I could watch it several times in a row on repeat. To this day I don't know why I loved it so much. I was entranced and when I watched it I just believed in magic. I believed if I tried hard enough just maybe I'd be able to fly, which of course, never happened. I watched it so much that I wore out the tape. My sister had recorded it for me (she's 13 years older than me and was in the military and on her own at this point) and back in the day, they used to broadcast on TV on occasion. I think I remember them playing it around Christmas but I don't remember anymore. I was obsessed. It always amused my parents that of everything I could love, I always seemed to love live-action or musicals over cartoons. I ironically never cared for the animated version of "Peter Pan" only the version with Mary Martin. I still have the VHS and while it still plays you can tell it was very well-loved. I watched it again as an adult and it just didn't have the same magic it seemed to have when I was a child. I actually ended up enjoying the old commercials that I used to fast-forward through as a child more than the actual movie. I laughed at how ridiculous it all was as an adult. I never realized you could see the changes in scenery and see the people wearing the costumes. As a child, I saw it all as it was meant to be seen. I saw it through a child's eyes and not a critical adult's eyes. I was so lost in the magic of it all as a child that I didn't even think of the people as actors. It all seemed so real to me. I liked to believe there really was a Neverland. I liked to believe I really could fly. I never did anything stupid like trying to jump off of something high to try and fly but I felt like if I could just wish hard enough I too could fly but of course, reality set in soon enough and I learned that that particular kind of magic wasn't real. Not to say there isn't real magic in the world or that miracles don't happen but not the way they do in movies or in our childhood imaginations. To be young and innocent again. We grow up and become jaded about the world. I always let my son believe in things for as long as he could because reality happens eventually and there's no sense in taking away the magic of childhood before you have to. "Peter Pan" represented my early childhood and the time before real responsibilities happened. It was back before I started school and it lasted a few years after I started school. I remember waking up super early in the morning to sneak downstairs before my dad got up so I could make sure I got to the TV before he did. I knew how to use the VCR at a young age because my dad taught me how so I could work the TV for him so he didn't have to get up himself. I knew if I got there first he'd at least allow me to finish watching my movie before taking it over. I'd always hear his groan when he saw me watching the same movie. I'm pretty sure he knew the words in the movie by heart too much the same way I learned the ones from "The Lorax" by heart when my son became obsessed. Even though I haven't watched Mary Martin's version of "Peter Pan" in years it still holds a special place in my heart and memory. It represents my childhood innocence and reminds me that even just for a while I believed in magic and that everything was right with the world.