pennscruff

I began watching in season 1 but I never warmed up to most of the characters. I also got tired of the plot line, someone has a problem and everyone chips in to solve it. I continued watching only because I had a crush on David Bradford. He was a he-man blue collar construction worker type so I only watched to catch episodes with him. When he faded so did my interest.

I was young boy when I saw this movie, I think on the CBS Children's Film Festival and it stuck. I'm Roman Catholic and grew up in a very Catholic town of New Orleans around the corner from my parish school, in an all Catholic neighborhood. I was so curious about the Jewish faith as we learned about it in our religion class so I was drawn to this film.

I am so happy to have found the name of this film because although I remembered it, I never remembered it's title name. The scenes I remembered best was when the young boy entered the synagogue and removed his hat only to have it quickly put back on by a man and the "you killed Christ" scene which was strange because we never learned our faith that way but that our faith evolved from the Jewish faith.

The film had parallels in my life though not directly. One of my first friends was a little girl my age named Tonya. She had Down's Syndrome and although I knew she was different from me she was my friend and the differences didn't matter. I grew up on the edge of town, we spent our summers playing in the woods and I shared that sense of danger and adventure when they take the raft on the river, and finally, as an altar boy I felt a closeness to my priest, Fr. Englebrecht. I think I would have run to him for answers if my friend has been near death like in the film.

I think kids today should see this film and I hope it re-emerges.