Elissa at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando.
Today is Harry Potter's 44th birthday.
Or at least it would be, if he were real.
In the Potter books, the boy wizard was born on the 31st of July 1980. As one website has it, the fact that July 31st is also author J.K. Rowling's birthday "does not seem like a coincidence."
I knew nothing of the Potter-verse when the first book in the series – "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," or the "Philosopher's Stone," as it was titled in the UK – was released in the U.S. in September 1998. We had just had our third child a month earlier, and well, my life centered much more on diapers and late-night feedings than it did on children's literature.
It was a few years later, when Elissa was in second grade, that Mr. Potter entered our lives. Elissa's teacher, Mrs. Kastelic, was going to read the first book to the class and Terry had some questions about it. She didn't know much about Harry Potter, so she decided to read the book herself.
And thus it began.
Terry was blown away by it. Our voracious young reader Elissa was, too.
And in time, so was I. I read all the books and listened to the audio versions a few times, enjoying the immense talents of the great narrator Jim Dale.
By the time the series was four or five books old, you could count on some portion of our family lining up at Barnes & Noble at midnight to get one of the first copies of any new Potter release. Once, my mother-in-law Judy even took the girls for one of these late-night Potter parties.
We watched the movies, of course, and to this day we still sometimes play a Harry Potter trivia board game when we're all together.
The depth of the narrative, the intricacies of the Potter universe, the growing pains of the young characters...it was all perfectly timed for our kids.
Whenever we visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Florida's Universal Studios, you better believe Elissa is there in full Hogwarts robes. She is as dedicated to her Potter fandom at 30 as she was at age 8.
So happy birthday, Harry. And thanks for being such an important part of our family for all these years.
One of my favorite subplots in the Harry Potter series is Arthur Weasley's continuous fascination with muggles (non-wizards). He is forever impressed by how they manage to live their lives without the use of magic.
I feel much the same way about the 1980s and 90s. How, I sometimes wonder, did we ever get by without today's technology?
The answer, of course, is that we did just fine. But there's no denying you and I have lived through – and indeed are still living through – a digital revolution that has transformed nearly everything. What we're experiencing is historic in its speed and scope.
I often think about the everyday gizmos and gadgets with which I grew up that are all but obsolete now. Cassettes, for example, are laughably ancient. So are paper maps. And the clock you kept on your nightstand with the little flippy numbers. And Rolodexes.
None of these things has completely disappeared, but they have mostly been replaced by faster digital alternatives. Whereas the old stuff was solid and physical, now so much is virtual. It "exists," but not in the same tangible way typewriters and landline phones and VHS tapes used to exist.
I often think about the early part of my career when I worked in newspapers. I was a print journalist right up until the end of the era in which editors would draw page layouts in pencil on pieces of paper. They would give these sketches to back shop folks, who would then take long strips of typeset text, run them through a hot wax machine, cut them into strips, and physically paste them onto large sheets of cardboard to match the editor's vision of the page.
That's how your daily newspaper was created. It seems slow and crude, but it worked.
Just as I got out of the business, it all went digital. I can't imagine how much faster and efficient it is now.
Time marches on and things change, of course, but the speed of that change in recent decades has been breathtaking. Day-to-day existence now is in many ways nothing at all like it was just 30 years ago.
To the point that I think our generation's experience of rapid technological change is unique in history.
I'm all for progress, but I do wish it would slow down every once in a while and let me catch my breath.
I did not grow up having heard of a lint roller, a genius device without which I now could not live.
It has become an indispensable part of my life owing to a decision Terry and I made way back in September 2007.
We went to the local humane society with the intention of bringing home a female cat, preferably a calico. Instead, we returned with two white male cats, whom we named after the Weasley twins from Harry Potter, Fred and George.
Happily, these two guys are still with us as they approach the ripe old age of 14. They are the oldest of our five cats and pretty much fixtures in our house.
Fred, in particular, is my buddy. He has slept at my side most every night since joining the family, and is just overall a good guy (if a bit overweight and off-puttingly fragrant at times).
As I type this post, I'm sitting in the computer chair in our room after George just spent time laying in it. I am wearing black pants.
The moment I get up, I guarantee you my butt will be covered in highly visible white cat hair.
Every article of clothing I own eventually gets covered in white cat hair. You don't notice it on light-colored garments, of course, but it really stands out on the dark stuff.
So I'm constantly lint-rollering my clothes, at least the parts of myself I can easily get to. There are almost always at least a few of these white hairs on my back.
It is in some way a small price to pay for two guys who have given us many years of love and joy, and hopefully many more to come. But if I had a nickel for every time someone pointed out the white cat hair on my clothes, well, I could probably buy a ticket for a first-run movie.
One of the greatest responsibilities we have as parents is exposing our children to the right forms of entertainment.
And by "right" I mean, "the stuff you yourself like and therefore they should like."
Because we all want that, don't we? We have this inner desire for our kids to like the same music, TV shows and movies we do.
The same holds true for sports teams, by the way, which is actually a little unfortunate. My son Jared is, at age 14, not only a devoted fan of Cleveland sports, but already a jaded one, as well. He expects our teams to lose.
So do I, of course, but it took me years and years to get to this point of pessimism. He was there by the time he turned 10. I'm so sorry for pulling you into the horror that is pro sports in this town, Jared.
Anyway, your kids are going to develop their own tastes in entertainment because that's the way it's supposed to be. Nowadays we often think of The Beatles as old-fashioned and quaint, but in the early 60s, there were parents who hated them and thought they were the embodiment of all that was wrong with the world.
But you can still share some of the classics with your offspring. In fact, you must do this. It's one of the obligations of parenthood.
Feel free to add to this list, but here are five movies to which your kids should be exposed if you want to feel like you're raising them right:
(1) Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
I'm guessing I've watched this movie start to finish maybe 25 or 30 times. And every time I appreciate something new about it.
For one thing, it's delightfully weird. It was made in 1971, a few years after the whole hippie/psychedelic thing hit its peak, but it retains elements of that genre.
Like the boat ride scene? Used to scare the pants off me. But the movie wouldn't be complete without it. Here it is, in case you've not seen it in years (or, God forbid, have never seen it):
And Wonka himself, as played by Gene Wilder, is a trip. He makes the movie. Your kids need to watch it.
(2) The Wizard of Oz
There's actually quite a bit to be afraid of in this movie, too. Like the flying monkeys. Or the way Margaret Hamilton plays the Wicked Witch of the West. Terrifying stuff.
I should note here that I'm not trying to scare your kids. But these are "frightening in a good way" stories. "The Wizard of Oz" may seem syrupy on the outside, but it's dramatic and real at its core, which is why we still watch it 70-plus years after it was released.
By the way, the musical "Wicked," which obviously takes its characters directly from the Oz book/movie, does a great job of fleshing out the human realities of the plotline. One does not end up as the Wicked Witch of the West (or as Glinda, for that matter) without a juicy backstory, and "Wicked" provides it in spades.
Anyway, if your kids haven't seen this movie yet, proceed directly to Netflix and have them watch it. Do not pass "Go," do not collect $200. They need to watch this flick, and they need to watch it now.
(3) Any of the "Toy Story" movies
I just spent 10 minutes trying to figure out exactly what it is that makes these movies brilliant, and I can't boil it down to a single thing.
Is it the performance of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen? Both are excellent as the voiceovers for Woody and Buzz Lightyear, respectively. The inflection, the interplay of the dialogue, the jokes that only the parents in the audience get. They're all good.
Is it the animation, which was pretty far ahead of its time when Pixar released the first movie in 1995? I'm no visual artist, but even I can appreciate the fluid movement of the characters, the shadows and shading, the distinct "look" of every toy.
Or is it the plots, all three of which are extremely well written and engaging?
I'm going to cop out here and say "all of the above." If you have the time to do a family triple feature and watch all three "Toy Story" movies in order, do it. You'll be glad you did.
(4) Mary Poppins
The irony here is that I have never watched this whole movie in sequence. I've seen the whole thing (several times over, probably), but only in bits and pieces, fits and starts.
That hasn't been intentional, but that's what happens when you have cable TV and not a lot of time to use it. You come across "Mary Poppins" somewhere right in the middle and you can't help but stop and watch. Maybe it's only for 15 minutes, but you watch.
Dick Van Dyke's horrible Cockney accent aside, this movie is awesome. The music alone is worth the time, but I also love the jokes and the way the characters come to life.
Everyone knows the songs: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidcious," "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Chim Chim Cher-ee," "Step in Time," etc. But my favorite is "A British Bank," and it's probably because of the way David Tomlinson as George Banks sings it:
(5) Any given Harry Potter film
As with any wildly successful movie franchise, the Potter series has its virulent detractors. They're certainly entitled to their opinions, just as they're certainly entitled to be wrong.
Are the movies as good as the books? No, of course not. Can you name more than a handful of series in which the movies supersede the books? Probably not.
But the movies are still extremely well done and great entertainment. Whatever happens to Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, they will forever and always be remembered as Harry, Ron and Hermione, and the world is better for having watched them grow up on screen in those roles.
A few years ago in advance of the release of the last Potter film, my family (all seven of us) spent the better part of a day and a half in our living room watching all of the Potter movies back to back to back to back to back to back to back. It was great fun.
It also gave me an appreciation for how the Potter directors so skillfully adapted J.K. Rowling's books to film. If you think that's easy, try writing a screenplay. Then try writing one based on the best-selling children's book series of all time. Go ahead, I'll wait (NOTE: Keep in mind you will unavoidably fail.)
My favorite character? The very underrated Argus Filch. For some reason I can't embed this video, but I'll give you a link and encourage you to watch some of Filch's best moments. To get to his best two lines of the series (both from the first movie), fast forward to the 1:30 and 2:10 marks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k_B5gwAfds.
