Written by: Andrea Angileri

                Resurrecting our VCR player has led to revisiting various videos of ‘vintage’ movies and cartoons.  I’ve been slowly integrating the Disney movies into my daughter’s repertoire of entertainment.  Since my daughter loves movies with music, tonight I decided to put in a 2000 tape of ‘The Wiggles’.  Ah…The Wiggles.  Who knew that I’d be spending the majority of my late 20’s questioning which ‘Wiggle’ is more attractive.  Hey…you dads have Sprout’s Goodnight Girl…we needed somebody as well.  This video was pre-Gray, pre-Sam, back when Greg Wiggle needed the other colors, and when all The Wiggles needed a haircut and a higher video making budget. 

My oldest son liked the Wiggles.  I have footage of my 12 year old (1 year old at the time, dancing in a tank and diaper to ‘Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack..Cock-a-Doodle Do’, his chunky arms flapping while raising his little bare foot in the air.   We even took him to see them Live! In Concert!  Playing the video tonight with my daughter, I can easily ease into ‘Oh Me Oh My He Barks All Day and Night’, because I know these songs by heart like any song on the radio from the 80’s.   I sing every song with an Australian accent because it’s more fun that way.  Between listening to ‘The Help’ audiotape, which makes me call my daughter ‘Mae Mobley’ in a Southern accent and singing Australian Wiggle tunes I’m further confusing my daughter’s language development. 

I really don’t watch the new Wiggles.  I stopped watching somewhere around ‘Wiggly Waffle’.  I suppose my middle son was more into ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ and my last son was more into me making him food.    Whether you prefer Greg Wiggle over Sam Wiggle would be like asking whether or not you like Sammy Hagar or David Lee Roth better as lead singer of ‘Van Halen’. 

I’ll end this post with a simple but sincere question…”Can you point your fingers…and do the twist?”