Many, many years ago, okay, about sixteen or seventeen years ago, Sam wanted to start watching this show on TV called SpongeBob. This was when I was home for the summer when I was still teaching. He asked, and I forbid it. It seemed stupid and too loud to me, so I just plain said it wasn’t allowed. I didn’t say that often, so it was a bit of a surprise to Sam.
And he ignored me, and watched it (with Ben) when I wasn’t around, usually when my mom was watching them. When I would find out, I would yell about it. Then one day, in his completely Sam way, he calmly asked, “Have you ever watched it? How can you say it’s garbage if you haven’t really watched it.” I really hated when he would reasonably question authority like that!
So I did. I sat down on the couch and watched an episode with them. And by a week later, we were watching it as a family when we had TV time in the evening. Turned out, I loved that silly show. I loved the devotion between the friends. I loved the humor that went right over the kids’ heads. I would still grumble, making it sound like it was a concession on my part, but truth was, I liked it as much as the kids. And I still do.
As the boys got older, there were still times when SpongeBob was on, and we would laugh. We watched the movies, one of them even in the theater (a big deal for us)! We sang along to the songs and we watched it in Mexico in Spanish.
After Sam died, I made a playlist in his honor, and shared it on FB, and it is shared here in one of my prior blog posts. In that list was The Best Day Ever song from SpongeBob. Here is the link if you don’t know the song:
The thing is, I learned a lot about myself in learning to love SpongeBob. I thought I was too smart, too educated, too politically correct to watch such a show, and it took a little boy to make my stop and think, and in doing so, I learned something and made some great memories.
Today I learned that the creator of SpongeBob has passed away. I thank him for his creativity, and for helping us make some great memories.