Can anyone remember their very first special interests?
I think I can remember some of my earliest ones....I'm sure there were more, but these are the ones I remember best:
Snow White's Seven Dwarves - I loved the Dwarves in the Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves...I had a ton of Snow White stuff as a kid, like plushies of Sneezy, Dopey, and Doc (Sneezy was my favorite, since my aunt gave him to me), a sleeping bag with graphics of Snow White dancing with Dopey and Sneezy on it (I remember lying on it and just staring at Dopey and Sneezy) and these little plastic figurines of the dwarves that actually worried me a bit, bcuz it seemed almost like they mated and cloned themselves overnight....for instance, I would be walking around the house and find these random Doc, Dopey, and Grumpy figurines in random places. Oh well, maybe that was just the whole "distorted reality" thing that lots of little kids have. I referred to the Dwarves as " The Dwerves" and even liked to assign different "dwarf roles" to random people, like when my aunt took me to her work and I called all her coworkers by the different dwarf names I felt were appropriate...anyone who yawned or stretched at their desk was "Sleepy," people who wore glasses were "Doc," people who sneezed randomly were called "Sneezy"....you get the idea.
The Lion King - I think I was about 2 or 2 and a half years old when The Lion King came out, and I listened to the songs all the time, and even carried around little plastic toys of Simba, Nala, Timon and Pumbaa...I think at one point I lost the Timon and Pumbaa toys at a TGI Friday's and cried forever afterwards. My mom was never able to figure out why I was so upset bcuz I was so hysterical I couldn't tell her.
Winnie the Pooh - I had VHS tapes of all the classic Disney Pooh featurettes ( The Honey Tree, The Blustery Day, Tigger Too, A Day for Eeyore, etc), and had small plushies of Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger and Pooh. I also watched The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on TV, and could quote parts of certain episodes from memory. Also, I referred to any small pathway surrounded by bushes and trees as "The 100 Acre Wood," or simply, "The Acre Wood." I guess those kinds of places where what I imagined the actual 100 Acre Wood looking like.
The Blessed Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus - I had almost forgotten about this special interest until my mom brought it up at dinner one night - My mom would often go to church on Saturday mornings to do the flower arrangements for the following day's service, and she would take me with her. We would sometimes go to a church store to pick up altar candles, and every time we went there, I left with a small, plastic Virgin Mary statue. I can't remember why Mary appealed to me so much....I think it was her kind, motherly expression. Later on in high school, I gave my small collection of Virgin Mary statues (the ones I'd kept from childhood, anyway) to my "little sister" as a special gift (I attended a Catholic high school).
And as for my "Baby Jesus" interest - I think I've told this story here before, but one day, not long before Christmas, I was about 2 and a half years old and my parents took me with them to Sears. Once they both had the items they needed and took their places in the checkout line near the store's entrance, I wandered away towards the light-up Nativity scene. Once I got there, I unplugged the Baby Jesus, and according to my mother, grasped him under my arm like a football and ran for the door, with Baby Jesus' power cord dragging behind. I will go to my grave asserting that my intent was to locate my parents so I could ask them to buy it for me, but my mom says that I was running right for the doors to the outside with the light-up Baby Jesus, with zero intent of paying for it. She loves to tell that story.
Speaking of light-up decorations, I had a "thing" for those, too, when I was young....we had a light-up ghost sitting on a smiling pumpkin named "Casper," a light-up snowman I named "Frosty," a ribbon-bedecked teddy bear decoration I named "Pooh" (Just like all little garden paths were "The Acre Wood," so were all Teddy Bears "Pooh," lol) and for Easter....a light-up Easter Bunny I named "Smee." I think Smee got his name because even as a little kid, I took notice of how Disney would re-use voice actors in their movies - such as using the same voice actor who did the voice of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland for Smee in Peter Pan. I simply associated Smee and rabbits with each other.
Other special interests I had as a young child were the movie 101 Dalmatians, my stuffed animals (I still love them), and suit performers (actors who dressed up as characters such as Clifford, Barney, etc. To me, they were like stuffed animals come to life. I always wanted to go to Disneyland for the sole purpose of getting to meet them all, and my favorite Disney Sing-Along videos were the ones that showed the Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy etc. suit performers singing and playing with little kids).
So...what are your earliest memories of your first special interests?
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I wish Sterling Holloway narrated my life.
"IT'S NOT FAIR!" "Life isn't fair, Calvin." "I know, but why isn't it ever unfair in MY favor?" ~ from Calvin and Hobbes