I had a nostalgic Saturday morning, reliving a childhood moment that many of us of a certain age remember fondly.
I watched cartoons. No, seriously. I watched cartoons.
A channel I get has started showing classic cartoons on Saturday mornings, so I watched over an hour of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Foghorn Leghorn. Then, I watched an hour of so of classic Pink Panther cartoons on YouTube, which I discovered recently has the entire collection of cartoons online.
The only thing I was missing was a bowl of Cap'n Crunch. Those little sugar bombs were as much a part of the Saturday mornings of my childhood as the cartoons themselves. But with my commitment to eating healthy still intact, I settled for a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries and a cup of black coffee.
The thing that made me so nostalgic wasn't as much the cartoons, although I did enjoy them, as much as the memories of childhood. When I was a kid, I had to wait all week – all week! – to see cartoons on Saturday morning.
Kids don't have to wait today. There are, at my count, at least a half dozen channels that show cartoons and kids' programming. Plus DVDs and websites.
So many of the things that fill our memories are like that. "The Wizard of Oz" aired one time a year. Today, you can stream it on demand all day, if that's what you want to do. (One advantage to streaming it is that you can fast forward through the flying monkey scenes, which is what I would do every time.)
We also use to anticipate Christmas. The holiday used to be reserved for the three or four weeks after Thanksgiving. This year, I heard the Christmas music a few days after Labor Day, and some people celebrate the holiday for months on end.
We've lost the power of anticipation. I loved Looney Toons. "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show" was must-see viewing for me as a 6-year-old. I waited all week for it to air. Then it was gone in a flash and I had to wait another week. I think looking forward to Saturday mornings made me love those cartoons even more.
I know that some people think Looney Toons are too violent, and I understand that, to a point. Yosemite Sam does seem to try to solve all his problems with a gun. Elmer Fudd used to shoot Daffy Duck, making his bill spin around his head. Wile E. Coyote bought bombs and other weapons from Acme Corporation, which I figured must have been the Amazon of the cartoon world. It had everything.
On the other hand, I never once thought I could run off a cliff, hang in midair then fall to the ground without injury, other than flattening myself into an accordion for a few minutes.
My love of the "Pink Panther" cartoons goes back to spending Saturday mornings at my grandmother's house. She loved the Pink Panther and made a point of watching the show every Saturday morning. I remember piling into her bed and watching it together.
I don't know if watching cartoons on Saturday morning will become my "new normal." I do have responsibilities I didn't have as a 6-year-old, plus I’m hoping by fall, I'll be spending my Saturday mornings at a college football tailgate.
But I did enjoy my walk down memory lane Saturday.
