Do! a Deer, a Female Deer

So today is the 40th anniversary of the release of "The Sound of Music" as a film (or so it said on Good Morning America this morning), and I felt the need to reflect on how much I loved that movie as a child. I think my sister and I watched that movie weekly between the ages of 5 and 8. (It was on a rotation with "Grease 2." I must say, "Grease 2" was much racier than the first "Grease," but we did not own "Grease" for some reason.) The wholesomeness of the characters is refreshing to me now - I truly believed that each girl should have her first kiss at the age of 16 (going on 17) in a glass gazebo during a thunderstorm. I believe my sister's knack to turn any scrap of cloth she finds into a very a-la-mode ensemble originated from watching Maria Von-Traap turn her drapes into play-clothes (paisley lederhosen anyone?). My mother hummed "how do you solve a problem like Maria" in response to my preteen brattiness well over a thousand times (much to my annoyance - I mean, like, come on!). And who will ever forget the Austrian folk dance number where Captain Von-Traap fell in love with Maria, giving her his smitten stare (HAH! That's what the Baronness gets!). I will admit, as a child I tried to duplicate that dance myself several times in hopes of luring some unsuspecting foreigner away from a shapely blonde with my graceful hop-steps!

So today my goal is to run through the "mountains" of New Braunfels (ok, it's not Vienna, but close enough) singing "THE HILLS ARE ALIVE..." while drinking beer and dancing to polka music at Wurst Fest.

So it's not quite as innocent and romantic as the 1965 opening scene, but it'll do for the 2005 version.