The Butter Rum Cartoon: 70 AND ABDUCTED

One of my very favorite books is Daniel Pinkwater's "The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death." In it, boys don their hats and "snark out" in the night to go to the Snark Theater, and get in all sorts of wild adventures.

For my 70th birthday in 2019, I was wishing we could just kick back and watch the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" together, since some of the kids hadn't seen it. But suddenly the guys in the family put on hats and gave me one to put on, and announced that we were snarking out. Before I could get my wallet or wraps, I was led out of the house and into our van by Austin Sanders, my sons, Leif, Samuel and Andrew; and Samuel drove us south, all the way out of Missouri and to Harrison, Arkansas, leaving the womenfolk behind!

There in Harrison, like in the Pinkwater book we stopped at a park and in a gazebo, standing on a platform of two phonebooks, Andrew gave a speech (the speech verbatim that Don Knotts gave in "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken"). I was totally confused.

Then we walked back to the parked van, and I looked at the Lyric Theater and was shocked to see the girls of our family in the ticket booth with big smiles -- My wifeMicki and daughters Glory and Julia and Disa! (They had passed us on the highway while we stopped to get gas.) When I walked up to them in disbelief, they said, "Did you see what's playing?" And I walked around and looked at the poster: "NOW SHOWING: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DALE. COMING SOON: 70 AND ABDUCTED."

We went into the theater and there at the concession stand was Richie (Michael Amburn) with tons of free popcorn and candy! We got our treats and went in to take a seat. And on the big screen came a movie that my family had produced -- a "trailer" for "70 AND ABDUCTED," starring my family!

And then came the feature film: "BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID"!

How in the world did they pull this off?! That was worth 70 years!

Here are pictures of the unbelievable Snarkout. Thank you, family and friends, who made all this happen!

Here are the guys leading me to the park in Harrison. I'm the old guy in the red hat.

The girls are watching us from the theater's ticket booth.

Our daughters Glory, Julia and Disa, and my wife Micki in red.

Me noticing the impossible: The girls had stayed home in Branson MO and were now running a ticket booth in the Lyric Theater in Harrison AR.

Then the guys led me over to the poster on the front of the theater.

The concessions were all free! Try to find that at any other theater!

Richie took our orders with a smile.

Richie and Austin behind the counter.

A 70-year-old man snarking out.

Micki is the girl who lived with me in an 8x12-foot cabin in the woods with no utilities for the first year of our marriage in the 1970s. Read our love story.

I meant to show the trailer, "70 AND ABDUCTED," here that the family produced and starred in, but it exceeds the space limit allowed. If you come over, we'll be happy to show it to you. It's a kick!