
Over the weekend, I was listening to a rebroadcast of America's Top 40 with CASEY KASEM from February 1987. There was a song on the countdown that reminded me of a trauma suffered by my nephew. The song was "Somewhere Out There" sung by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram. This song is from the 1986 animated film AN AMERICAN TAIL. It seemed like a harmless animated movie that could not possibly traumatize a child.
Well, in the fall of 1987 my sister and her husband decided they wanted to go out of town for the weekend and leave my nephew (3 years old) and my niece (8 months old) with me (16 years old). The only flaw in this fabulous plan was selecting AN AMERICAN TAIL as the entertainment. Bear in mind that this was the first time (other than the birth of my niece) my nephew had been separated from his parents. About the time, Fievel is separated from his family and begins telling everyone he meets he lost his family my nephew began crying. For the rest of the weekend all I heard was, "I've lost my family." constantly. Due to a poor choice at the video store, my nephew was traumatized and I was annoyed. To this day, I can't stand AN AMERICAN TAIL.