Yesterday an old friend came to mind, Felix the cat. I posted it in the what's on your mind block on Facebook. It was great seeing all the responses. A string of cartoon characters followed along with all those memories. I had written my blog about my grandmother which naturally made me think about my father. I remembered that my father had a Felix the cat toy, it was a doll but Dad said it wasn't, it was just a toy, the term action figure having not been coined yet. But anyway I was thinking about that when I wrote that posting. I remarked how I hadn't heard about Felix in many years. Well I expect he may come with baggage in todays world and perhaps it is PC that is keeping him sequestered. Yes, I remember Saturday morning cartoons. It sounds cliché but my siblings and I sure did watch them. Everything from Captain Kangaroo to the Mickey Mouse Club. Annette and Bobby, the whole gang. Occasionally I even watched Spanky and our gang! Those shows certainly wouldn't fly today. Did they influence children's view of the world? I'd say they did propagate stereotypes.
Later on I was thinking about all of that and remembered another activity we really enjoyed. That was reading the funny papers and playing with silly putty. We didn't get the Sunday paper delivered or anything, but for a number of years Mom delivered the papers. She had a paper route, with the car, many adults did at that time. My brother did deliver papers on his bicycle to the people that lived in town. But I'm wandering off a bit. Anyway when Mom delivered the papers we did get the Sunday paper. It was Newsday, a popular choice for the working man on Long Island. The Times and Wall Street Journal could be had at the library and rich peoples houses. Even Newsday was stuffed full of flyers, inserts, and all manner of advertisements on Sunday. It was the funnies, as we called them, that interested us kids. The cartoons weren't political, they didn't mean a thing, they were just amusing. Charlie Brown and his gang, Do you remember Nancy? There was Andy Capp, Alley Oop, Archie, Blondie, Dagwood and others. It was great fun to roll out that silly putty and copy a frame of the cartoon. Then pull and stretch it into funny shapes, roll it up and start again. Good Times.
When my own boys where small it was all He Man, master of the Universe with Skeletor. Well, that and Hulk Hogan. The cartoons they watched didn't interest me at all, Yes by the 1980's cartoons just weren't the same. Heck you didn't see Porky Pig or Mr. MaGoo. No, overweight swine and nearsighted senior citizens weren't funny! The coyote wasn't trying to blow up the road runner at every turn. I haven't a clue what the kids watch today. I think it is safe to say very few have read the funny papers or played with silly putty. It would be hard to work that silly putty with hand sanitizer I suppose. Well, first you would have to find a funny paper printed with real ink, I wonder if they still do that? It's funny though, with the grandkids I had a DVD of Mouse Soup. I'm certain you have heard of that one, and Curious George. I played that for those kids and it quickly became their favorite thing. I couldn't say how many times I have watched that with them. We all especially enjoy the crickets singing. " There's no need to be so Bombastic, life alone is so Fantastic, just relax and enjoy the show. " I also have the big book of classic fairy tales which they enjoyed very much. I used that book teaching them to read. You could say they received a traditional education when it came to nursery rhymes and such. I think they are still both a little leery of the forest, wolves, and an old witch with an oven. Well, no matter, they turned out fine. Seems to me Morgan enjoyed Dora the Explorer a great deal. Strange I don't remember Mark having a favorite other than Mouse Soup. Perhaps it was Paw Patrol or Bob the builder. Both lame cartoons in my opinion. Now a rooster whacking a dog with a board while being bothered by a chicken hawk, that's funny stuff, a coyote blowing himself up, hilarious. a guy talking to his tools? That's just stupid. Boris and Natasha taught me about those sneaky Russians, they are still meddling in our affairs. Seemed plausible enough that a flying squirrel and a moose could handle that. Nowadays it's all fantasy stuff. Geez Oh, I forgot about Sponge Bob Square Pants, now that is funny stuff. Fun for all ages.
Later on I was thinking about all of that and remembered another activity we really enjoyed. That was reading the funny papers and playing with silly putty. We didn't get the Sunday paper delivered or anything, but for a number of years Mom delivered the papers. She had a paper route, with the car, many adults did at that time. My brother did deliver papers on his bicycle to the people that lived in town. But I'm wandering off a bit. Anyway when Mom delivered the papers we did get the Sunday paper. It was Newsday, a popular choice for the working man on Long Island. The Times and Wall Street Journal could be had at the library and rich peoples houses. Even Newsday was stuffed full of flyers, inserts, and all manner of advertisements on Sunday. It was the funnies, as we called them, that interested us kids. The cartoons weren't political, they didn't mean a thing, they were just amusing. Charlie Brown and his gang, Do you remember Nancy? There was Andy Capp, Alley Oop, Archie, Blondie, Dagwood and others. It was great fun to roll out that silly putty and copy a frame of the cartoon. Then pull and stretch it into funny shapes, roll it up and start again. Good Times.
When my own boys where small it was all He Man, master of the Universe with Skeletor. Well, that and Hulk Hogan. The cartoons they watched didn't interest me at all, Yes by the 1980's cartoons just weren't the same. Heck you didn't see Porky Pig or Mr. MaGoo. No, overweight swine and nearsighted senior citizens weren't funny! The coyote wasn't trying to blow up the road runner at every turn. I haven't a clue what the kids watch today. I think it is safe to say very few have read the funny papers or played with silly putty. It would be hard to work that silly putty with hand sanitizer I suppose. Well, first you would have to find a funny paper printed with real ink, I wonder if they still do that? It's funny though, with the grandkids I had a DVD of Mouse Soup. I'm certain you have heard of that one, and Curious George. I played that for those kids and it quickly became their favorite thing. I couldn't say how many times I have watched that with them. We all especially enjoy the crickets singing. " There's no need to be so Bombastic, life alone is so Fantastic, just relax and enjoy the show. " I also have the big book of classic fairy tales which they enjoyed very much. I used that book teaching them to read. You could say they received a traditional education when it came to nursery rhymes and such. I think they are still both a little leery of the forest, wolves, and an old witch with an oven. Well, no matter, they turned out fine. Seems to me Morgan enjoyed Dora the Explorer a great deal. Strange I don't remember Mark having a favorite other than Mouse Soup. Perhaps it was Paw Patrol or Bob the builder. Both lame cartoons in my opinion. Now a rooster whacking a dog with a board while being bothered by a chicken hawk, that's funny stuff, a coyote blowing himself up, hilarious. a guy talking to his tools? That's just stupid. Boris and Natasha taught me about those sneaky Russians, they are still meddling in our affairs. Seemed plausible enough that a flying squirrel and a moose could handle that. Nowadays it's all fantasy stuff. Geez Oh, I forgot about Sponge Bob Square Pants, now that is funny stuff. Fun for all ages.
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