Remembering childhood stories

There are half-remembered stories and folk tales from when I was a kid that have been popping into my head recently.

One is a cartoon short involving a traveling merchant, two villages, onion and garlic. Casual internet searches haven’t yielded anything yet, although I haven’t really tried all that hard yet.

One of my favourite stories to read was The Five Chinese Brothers. Harold and the Purple Crayon was another favourite, as was Where the Wild Things Are.

There was a TV show called Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings, about a little kid who has adventures through his chalk drawings. They were short little cartoons that I watched on Saturday mornings I think.

Update 2023-10-30: The wife was able to find the onion and garlic story. It was uploaded to the National Film Board of Canada‘s YouTube channel a couple of years after I made this blog post.

Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings is also on YouTube now, apparently added back in 2016.

NFB fun

So apparently I owe Heather a morning for the time she spent watching this little animation short and others from the National Film Board of Canada. Naturally this caused me no end of amusement and pleasure. It’s been posted in my blog before, but I just thought I’d share it again.

Logdriver’s Waltz

Log Driver’s Waltz, John Weldon, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

I’ve always enjoyed the tune. It’s one of those melodies that just sticks in your head. Here are a few more that I grew up with that you can waste time with.

The Egg

The Egg, Jean-François Pouliot & Robert Bélisle, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

The Big Snit

The Big Snit, Richard Condie, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

The Cat Came Back

The Cat Came Back, Cordell Barker, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

It’s birling down, a-down white water

Logdriver’s Waltz

If you’re any kind of Canadian and spent any amount of time in the 80s, this should bring back memories.

Log Driver’s Waltz, John Weldon, provided by the National Film Board of Canada