The Littlest Hobo

Most of my Canadian counterparts who watched television in the 80s are familiar with this blog's title. The Littlest Hobo is a Canadian TV series filmed in British Columbia starring a German shepherd (whose real name was London). In each episode, this smart, friendly, wandering dog "saves the day". And despite the great friends he makes in each episode, the show always ends with him wandering off by himself, in search I suppose of other people who are in trouble and in need of his heroic acts.

Although I did watch and enjoy this show as a child, I always associated the show with sadness. The theme song is quite powerful - I always ended up feeling lonely/depressed/sad at the end. All I could think about was the "lonely dog" [who in retrospect probably wasn't lonely at all].

Back when Glenn and I lived with the whole downhere gang in a house in Tennessee, I was often subject to the music of the wandering minstrel [AKA Marc Martel]. I distinctly remember one Saturday when I just couldn't shake a feeling of depression/sadness/loneliness. I finally realized it was because Marc had been wandering the house playing his guitar and singing the theme song of The Littlest Hobo. When I let Marc in on that, he was amused, and occasionally to this day, will pull that one out of his sleeve to bug me. At least, I think so - but he's impossible to read. Is he trying to torture me, or is he just randomly playing something that's running through his head? Or maybe my presence reminds him of the song, consciously or subconsciously?

So anyway, this morning we convinced Jonah to climb in bed with us and watch TV so we could sleep a little longer. And guess which show we found while flipping through the channels? The Littlest Hobo! Glenn convinced me to let Jonah watch it.

We got through the initial opening - the theme song accompanied by various shots of the littest hobo wandering and saving the day. Then Jonah said in a sad and concerned voice, "That doggie doesn't have anybody to be with." And he decided that the dog was sad.

Jonah IS sensitive like me!

He made it through the show, enjoying the heroic acts (e.g., the dog pulling a large bin on wheels full of plants so that a man falling off a roof would have a soft landing), but then came the theme song. Jonah again switched into his concerned/sad voice and said "That doggie doesn't have anybody to BE with."

It IS a powerful melancholy theme song.

There's a voice,
that keeps on calling me.
Down the road, is where I'll always be.

Every stop I make, I'll make a new friend.
Can't stay for long, just turn around and I'm gone again.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll wanna settle down,
Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

Down the road, that never seems to end,
where new adventure, lies just around the bend.

So if you wanna join me for a while,
just grab your hat, come travel light,
that's hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down,
until tomorrow, the whole world is my home.

So if you wanna join me for a while,
just grab your hat, come travel light,
that's hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want want to settle down,
until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down,
until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

There's a world, that's waiting to unfold,
a brand new tale, no one has ever told,
we've journey'd far but, you know it won't be long,
we're almost there and we've paid our fare, with the hobo song.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down,
until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

So if you wanna join me for a while,
just grab your hat, come travel light,
that's hobo style.

Maybe tomorrow I'll find what I call home,
until tomorrow, you know I'm free to roam.

What do YOU remember about The Littlest Hobo? Do you have any feelings associated with it?

The boys "Reading"

The other day I grabbed my mother-in-law's camera to snap a few cute pictures of Miles and Jonah sitting quietly together reading. Then I decided to run downstairs and grab my camera to get a video. When I returned they weren't exactly reading any longer. You may want to watch this video twice to see if Jonah is telling the truth at the end!

Dancing

Jonah's interest in dancing has definitely increased over the last little while. I'll call this his "Surrender Music Video". The first 30 seconds are AWESOME, as is the last 5. Enjoy!




After I showed this video to Jonah, he said, "Why did I keep saying puff?" GOOD question, dude!

the Portico

As a University of Guelph alumnus I receive their magazine, the Portico. I usually peruse it for articles related to my field. Finally the Fall 2007 issue came through for me...

U of G Researcher Plays Role in Provincial Child-Care Initiative
09-July-2007

Providing access to training, setting professional standards and increasing wages for early childhood education workers are essential to improving Ontario's early learning and child-care system, according to an advisory panel chaired by Prof. Donna Lero of the Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition.

The province announced $142.5 million in additional child-care funding on Thursday, partly in response to recommendations from two expert panels on the province's current and future plans for a co-ordinated approach to child care as part of Ontario's Best Start plan.

Lero, who is a lead researcher at the Centre for Families, Work and Well-Being, chaired the 20-member expert panel on quality and human resources.

The panel's report recommends increasing educational qualifications for early childhood educators, directors and supervisors; developing a recruitment and retention strategy that includes significant wage increases; and establishing policy changes and community-based supports to help centres and regulated home child-care providers improve high-quality and inclusive services.

As part of the additional funding announced last week, the province will be allocating $24.8 million to provide a wage increase of about three per cent to 33,500 child-care practitioners across Ontario.

The province has also committed $12 million towards creating the first-ever College for Early Childhood Educators in Canada. The college will set professional standards to help ensure that children who are attending early learning and care programs are being cared for by qualified professionals, said Lero.

"A regulatory college is a provincial mechanism that will help ensure that people entrusted to care for young children are early child-care educators who are responsible for meeting professional qualifications and standards, she said. "Having a regulatory college is an important step towards recognizing early childhood educators as having the specific expertise, knowledge and skills required for an increasingly complex and demanding career.

Lero said she is also pleased that the province will be giving early child-care educators at all levels of the profession the opportunity to upgrade their education and training.

"We still have a long way to go in Ontario and in Canada to ensure that all children have the opportunity to benefit from high-quality and inclusive early childhood programs, she said. "While increasing families' access to affordable child care, we must also ensure that these programs are stimulating children's learning and development and are providing excellent career opportunities for individuals committed to helping young children develop to their full potential.

Our "expotition"

Jonah and I went to Riverbluffs Park for a walk on Saturday and it wasn't until the end of our walk that I realized Jonah had been acting out some of what happens in the classic Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition by A. A. Milne. It's amazing to me that Jonah will sit through this entire book, because the story is written in an older style (I initially had trouble reading it and the others in the series) and it has very few pictures and a lot of words.

In this story, Christopher Robin and his friends set off on an expedition to discover the North Pole, unsure of exactly what it is that they are looking for.

Here are some of the things that Jonah "discovered" on our walk:

A crusty brown leaf

He was excited about this "bird nest"

A tiny rock

A "T" stick that made him laugh hysterically

A leaf as large as his head

A sign

At the end of the "expotition" Christopher Robin realizes that Winnie-the-Pooh has "discovered the north pole", which they place in the ground and put a sign on.

Jonah found THIS north pole:


Although I don't believe it's discussed in the book, once home and looking at the story again, I discovered there are two pictures in the book of piglet blowing dandelion seeds.
Jonah was excited to find some dandelions of his own and said he was going to sit down like Piglet. Too cute!