The Greatest Blessing

About This Video

No story for this week's video, so Van attempts to make it with ease. He's meant to make this video for over a year. Maybe it's just for him. The gist: what he did with his son during the pandemic, on mom's days off. A recreation of the Sunday routine refined over many Sundays.

The Griffith Park merry-go-round, closed for over a year, just reopened with the vaccines. It holds historical significance in American childhood culture. Van notes this and promises to return to it later. The L.A. River on bikes. Mushroom hunting. A marble found in the dirt. The boy trips on a log. The video is a document, not a story. Van realizes his son won't remember any of this and wants a record. That is the turn. Twelve minutes of a father building a childhood his son will only know through this footage.

Transcript

[Music] this spirited man has no story for this week's video so he's decided to attempt to make it with ease which almost never works

he's meant to make this video for over a year now maybe it's just for him

maybe he's made this just for himself but the gist of this video is that it's what he did with his son

during the pandemic on mom's days off this is a recreation of the sunday

routine refined over the course of many sundays [Music] maybe this isn't a story at all maybe it's just a document maybe he realizes that his son

won't remember any of this stuff and wants a record of their sundays and what made them significant

[Music] maybe this is for the boy but special things happened on those sundays so here's one of them [Music]

this is a new development for us this is a first [Music] this merry-go-round has been closed for over a year and it's just opened up now that the vaccines are out

[Music] this particular merry-go-round the griffith park merry-go-round holds historical significance in

american childhood culture at large and almost sacred significance but we'll come back

to that later [Music] let's go get it let's go get it okay okay the mushroom is right here i see something

i don't know it's right here buddy [Music] my [Music] do [Music] that's a flood gate that's right okay we gotta watch out for other bikes okay now we'll go across the big bridge

[Music] do you see any horses crossing the l.a river no do you see any birds yeah i see a crane a crane is a kind of bird as well a crane bird

you gonna go in there [Music] i'll see you on the other side [Music] [Music] [Music] oh cool i think that's a marble

[Music] [Applause] are you all right buddy what happened did you trip on the log i got you bud [Music]

oh you held onto the marble what happened i think because your shoes are on the wrong key let's fix them

[Music] hey do you want to go to panda express no you don't want to buddy what's this neighborhood i don't know it's at water

that's right and the beastie boys recorded check your head here um

[Music] i do want a donut [Music] when we cross this street right here we'll be in glendale okay you gotta push the button

this is the best one right open it we're going in [Applause] okay so you got the sprinkle one that one's for dad

basketball [Music] [Music] so [Music] keep going keep going you don't want to get hit with a board go let's that's over go

[Music] no we did not no because it's complicated but we had a little ball in the backpack and then someone stole it so now we have a big ball and no backpack so we have no way of carrying

the big ball here without it being a real pain in the neck yeah i wanted to shoot that hoop

i know but we don't have oh i know something we have buddy i know something you can shoot in there

do you want to shoot that in the hoop [Music] what's in there oh no where is it's okay it's okay to be scared tell me there's a bee on you let me get them off

[Music] hold my hand okay [Music] it's okay i don't want my mom you just want your mom i don't want my mom you don't want her are you scared a little

i'll help you i'll help you dad i'll help you in the afternoon we'd drive across town to the beach and nap

then we'd explore santa monica and venice [Music] one sunday in the winter when it got dark early we discovered all of these crazy lit up

bikes with boom boxes that cruised the beach every sunday they do this

during the lockdown folks came out of their houses with their kids to wave at us

which brings us to the significance the childhood cultural significance of the griffith park merry-go-round

first of all is a perfect merry-go-round 20th century maybe 100 years old the kind where the

wooden horses go up and down all mechanical one of those mechanical pipe organ

things that uses punched out paper rolls for music magnificent machines

[Music] but while we were checking out the pipe organ thing we noticed a plaque obscured by two photos so here's the significance of this particular

merry-go-round this is what the plaque says [Music] it says the actual park bench from the griffith park merry-go-round where walt disney

first dreamed of disneyland [Music] say what you want about disney world or disneyland if you've ever been there as a child you know

that what it does to your childhood brain is a good thing

[Music] not sure if you can read this man's shirt but it's the name of this sunday night bicycle event and the shirt says the electric light parade [Music] you

Products & Tools Mentioned

• Panda Express mentions — restaurant visited at amusement park

People Referenced

Walt Disney

Films & Media Referenced

• Beastie Boys album, Atwater Village connection