Smurfs

When our kids were young and the weather was less than ideal, Saturday mornings meant cartoons. I often sat with them. One cartoon we really enjoyed was the Smurfs by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo. The video shows the theme song but there are several episodes available on YouTube. I don't know if you see a little theme with me having a troll doll as a child and loving gnomes now but there likely is. Little folk living in the forest and gardens just spike the imagination. These little blue beings were only three apples tall and at least 100 years old but were simply a delight. Originally they appeared in 1958 as a cartoon strip but our kids remember them for the animated cartoon series The Smurfs by HannaBarbera Productions (1981-1990 tv series). The smurfs lived in a village in the forest but humans couldn't find them. Papa Smurf wore a red cap and red pants while the rest wore a white cap with white pants except for Smurfette who wore a white hat, white dress and white high heeled shoes. Smurfette was originally created by evil magic by Gargamel but after discovering the deception Papa Smurf used good magic to change her into the Smurfette seen in the rest of the series. For the most part they taught fairly good values too although some have argued that the whole smurf way of life was based on Communism. We never analyzed their lifestyle in terms of politics. We simply enjoyed the shows as a family. Even now I still enjoy watching the Smurfs on YouTube as a nice diversion to the news before going to sleep. The kids gifted me with a 2 CD collection of season one for Mother's Day. These shows bring back good memories of little ones curled up on the couch enjoying family time on Saturday mornings :)

Garden Gnome
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