One thing that’s really fun about having kids is watching them experience things for the first time that are old hat to you. Disneyland. “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Snow.  That kind of thing.

My thirteen year old son discovered Twilight Zone reruns in July, 2007, when some cable channel ran a marathon over Independence Day weekend. He was enchanted, and it was fun to watch him mesmerized by the story lines and astounded by the conclusions, most of which are so old hat and cliched to us decrepit oldsters that we use Zone synopses to describe situations: “You know what I mean! It’s like Burgess Meredith with his glasses broken!”

We’re still wading through the recordings of the July, 2008 marathon and last night watched a classic: Little Girl Lost. The boys were entranced! Where is the girl? What if the dog gets lost, too? Can I make my own voice come out of the TV set?

I was entranced, too, only now I was looking at this through different eyes…If I went upstairs and couldn’t find a kid, I would assume that he or she was stuck under a carton of engineered hardwood flooring. Who do you call, by the way, when you can HEAR your child but not see her? The police? The fire department comes to mind, but they’d probably rip down all the drywall. I can see calling a trusted neighbor, but would it occur to me to call a physicist?

I would hope that my child, if he rolled under his bed and into the Twilight Zone, would think of something creative to say or do, as opposed to the piteous bleating that Bettina Miller cranked out. I do know that if we sent Elmer The Basset Hound in after her he would NOT retrieve the girl but would instead wreak such havoc that the denizens of The Fourth Dimension would probably declare war on us and hilarity would ensue.

And what does finding another dimension in the second bedroom do to your property values? Is this a detriment or an advantage? “Who cares if the house only has one bathroom? It has an extra dimension!” Who needs a swingset when there’s a cool place where everyone is upside down just on the other side of your wall?