Sleeping Beauty

We had a record player when we still very young. We usually got to listen to our records during weekends. One of our long playing records was the story book record album of Sleeping Beauty, the one with Mary Martin narrating.

I'm sure I fell in love with her Prince.


Who could blame me? He was a true blue hero. He fought the evil sorceress turned fire-breathing dragon for Sleeping Beauty and woke her up with a kiss. What young lady would not be enchanted?

I mean they lived happily ever after. Isn't that every girl's dream -- find Prince Charming and live happily ever after.


Last week, RD asked me a hard question. He asked me to tell him the story of Sleeping Beauty. Goodness gracious! I was at a loss for words. I couldn't remember the details of the story. All I could remember were bits and pieces of the songs that were sung in the record and the voice of Maleficent who said, "...before her sixteenth birthday, shall prick her finger on the spindle of the spinning wheel ... and DIE!"

Were Flora, Fauna and Merryweather the three fairy godmothers of Sleeping Beauty. Was she known as Briar Rose? Was I even in the correct Disney movie?

That was BAD. These are stories I knew by heart when I was younger. We listened to that record over and over again.


As you can see, I found the record which has lost most of its pages. The record rekindled memories which reassured me that I was in the right Disney movie. Yes, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather watched over Princess Aurora. Yes, they named her Briar Rose and raised her in the woods where she sang, Once Upon a Dream. I had totally forgotten that the Prince's name was Philip. (I thought he was Prince Charming.) Unfortunately, the remaining pages in the story book record were not enough to provide me materials for a decent fairy tale for RD.

I looked around the house for a book which might have Sleeping Beauty. Surprisingly, there was none. I must have given them away. I looked at our stash of DVDs. Perhaps Sleeping Beauty was among the Disney movies in our collection. No such luck. Somehow Barbie reigns as the princess in our DVDs these days. We do have Belle, Jasmine, and Ariel. Of course long playing records were way before their time.

Alas, we ended up going to National Bookstore and buying a BOOK OF FAIRY TALES.

I suppose I have to be thankful for these turn of events -- this memory gap, the missing pages in the old story book record, the absence of Sleeping Beauty story book or DVD at home. All of these led to the acquisition of a new book which has become the source of bedtime stories for the kids. RD and MyGirl now look forward to storytelling before sleeping time. They get to pick one story each which I read to them. Then I pick an extra one, so that they have three stories for the night.

This has been going on since we bought the book last Saturday. Perhaps when we finish all the 50 stories in the book, we will move on to another book. It is always good to bring back these bonding moments with the children.