Trolls, Wizards, and Fairy Kings

I'll make an educated guess that there's a 68% chance whenever a group of friends coalesce into a chat-pod the topic of childhood television shows will come up. I don't care how old they are, the only exception being octogenarians. They'll probably talk about their first memories of penicillin.

Whenever the topic (sometimes forced by me) comes up amongst me and my friends, the standard fare is unearthed. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Gummi Bears. Pee Wee Herman's Playhouse. Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Reading Rainbow. Sometimes even Doug and Reboot. The favorites amongst these shows are always debated, but there's one that always garners the same reaction from people.

David the Gnome

Some people remember it immediately, others are at first confused. That is, of course, until I start singing the theme song. During the course of the lyrics people will find a deluge of childhood memories rushing back into them like a typhoon of innocence from which they cannot take shelter.

Look around you...there are many things to see!
That some would say...could never be.
These things I know...It's true and I will TELL you so!
They are there to see...if you believe.
Trolls and wizards and fairy kings..birds that talk and fish that sing!
And if your heart is truuuuue then you will find them tooooo.
In every wish and dream and happy home you will find the kingdom of the gnome.

(If that didn't do it for you, I of course have the video of the intro for your watching pleasure. I hope that you wouldn't have expected anything less of me.)

As soon as I (and anyone else who may have joined in) would sing that final word, everyone invariably will be all bambi-eyed at the thought of their childhood friend with the tall red hat (so that the owls wouldn't mistake him for a scurrying mouse!). For some, such as myself, those lyrics create a more holistic impression of their childhood--years are relived in a single moment.

Cartoons today just don't invoke an emotional response from me (besides laughter, in the case of Family Guy). It's only when I see that characteristic animation of the 80's and early 90's that I get a stab of what can only be described as yearning. I miss David.