Helen Suggs made her way downtown Saturday night with her family, ready to watch her favorite movie right on the New Haven Green. The city was screening The Little Rascals, the 1994 film about kindergarten-age, cowlicked Alfalfa looking for love in a world of little boys afraid of cooties. Suggs’ cousin, Meka Cogdel, had invited her.
I asked Suggs what she thought of the screening after the credits rolled.
“Awesome,” she replied.
“A hundred out of ten,” 14-year-old Ra’nyla chimed in.
“A thousand out of ten!” 8‑year-old Stevie declared.
Moviegoers lounged on beach chairs, blankets, and the soft grass. A couple people sat by the bikes they rode in on. Someone brought their dog. All in all, about 60 attendees spread out over the Green’s eastern quadrant.
As the flick played, people stretched and laid down to settle in for an hour and a half of high-res hijinks on the big screen.
It was the kind of screening the whole cast of The Little Rascals could have happily joined, even the most restless among them. Out on the open Green, anyone who needed to stretch their legs could go take a lap. Halfway through the film, a few kids got up to perform some cartwheels and The Worm behind the movie screen.
“Maybe I should just forget about love,” Alfalfa lamented on screen after his big date with his crush Darla went off the rails. Unbeknownst to him, his friends had sabotaged the meetup, disapproving of the time he spent thinking about girls.
The glow from the screen tickled the Green’s clovers and blades of grass, joining the streetlights, church lights, and lights from passing cars and city buses to illuminate the night.
“Relax, you double-crossing mud muncher!” Alfalfa snapped at his best friend Spanky when he found out how the boys had ruined his date. Spanky, in turn, called him a “Muzak-warbling wimp.” It was becoming clear that the real relationship at the heart of the movie was the friendship, and friend-breakup, between the two rascals.
17-year-old Siulmarie Santana, who was invited to the movie by her friend Jayona Salmone, said the event was “a lot of fun,” noting how nice it was to see so many people gathered together on the grass. Salmone found out about the event on Instagram, where the New Haven Green has its own page.
The two teens graduated from Hillhouse High School this past year. “Top ten!” Salmone made sure to add. She hyped up her friend in particular, telling me Santana was the school’s salutatorian. They were enjoying one last high school summer before heading off to college in the fall.
The movie was sprinkled with celebrity cameos and fresh beginnings for now-famous figures, including Raven-Symoné and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Whoopi Goldberg had a few seconds of screen time, cheering for the rascals at their big go-kart race.
So did Donald Trump, playing a rich oil tycoon with an evil son. It was a real “how did we get here?” moment.
By the time the movie wrapped up, Alfalfa and Spanky were able to work things out to become closer than ever. Spanky realized girls can be cool. The whole rascal crew learned some life lessons and grew up, just a little bit. And Darla and Alfalfa were finally able to express their undying affection for each other.
“My Alfalfinator!” Darla exclaimed.
“My delectable Darloony!” Alfalfa replied.
People clapped as the film gave way to a series of adorable bloopers — kid actors looking directly in the camera or getting the hiccups. Santana and Salmone folded up their blanket. People ambled out in all directions to go back home, and just like that, the Green was a regular green again.
