"Remember When..."

This post was inspired by a friend who has followed my blog since before it was Married In Minnesota. Crazy4acop tagged me with a couple of Memes... and while I don’t even know what this word means ...and normally I don’t do these... because she asked, I will incorporate the answers into this post. If the truth be known, I liked one of the questions because I loved cartoons when I was a kid... and the other asked what you miss about when you were a kid. When you think about it, the two actually go together quite well as it requires you to “reminisce” about your childhood. Who DOESN’T like to do that... well unless you were beat as a child... then I suppose you don’t like too. But for the moment, let’s pretend we weren’t beat when we were kids. lol. This post is called: "Remember When..."

Remember when you were so excited on Saturday morning to get up and watch cartoons that you would get up at 5 am to watch the test pattern? And not the screen with the rainbow colored bars on it, but the test pattern that looked like a radar screen. As the clock reached 6 o’clock, the national anthem would begin to play as jets would scream by, Eagles would soar, and “Old Glory” would flap in the wind on our TV Sets. Kids all over the country would be standing in darkened rooms with the flicker of the TV flashing in their eyes...holding their hands over their hearts... singing their allegiance to this country. Yes, I miss this about childhood. As quickly as this “almost reverent” moment came, it would fade into “Our Gang.” Spanky, Alfalfa, and Butwheat would begin to entertain me and my thoughts were on to other things. Back when it was understood how long an attention span actually was. My Saturday mornings were filled with my favorite cartoons like “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show,” “Scooby Doo,” “The Super Friends,” “Hong Kong Fuey,” and “Space Ghost.” (Okay, maybe Space Ghost wasn’t my favorite... but it came on and I didn’t have a choice... it was that or Care bears or Muhammad Ali...or something.) I liked "Thundar the Barbarian" as well. And whether we understood this at the time or not, cartoons taught us that the good guys always win and the bad guys always lose. And while we don’t always believe this as adults and cynicism reigns as truth... the cartoons were right. In the end, the good guys will win. But remember when all we had were 3 channels? ABC, NBC, and CBS... and ALL of them played cartoons? From 6 am to 12 pm the air waves belonged to us... no news, no “gardening shows” nothing... just cartoons. I miss Saturday Mornings. They were great.

Of course my memories don't end here; there were other things that were great when I was a kid. The JC Penny Catalog was just one of these great things. The hours I spent looking through the toy section... circling what I wanted for Christmas... planning out my wish list was hard work. This was a time where kids knew what anticipation was. Dreaming for months on end about a toy for which they had to wait. It was a time where parents did the best they could and kids didn’t have everything. It was the beginning of prosperity... not a time of prosperity. Restraint was shown. ...I miss games of “Kiss and Kill” in the first grade... back when little girls “loved” little boys and little boys "showed" enmity (but secretly loved the girls and the attention.) I miss being the same height as everyone else. Back when I could look a bully in the eye and tell him to to give her hat back to her... (I don’t miss getting sent to the principals office for making his nose bleed.) I miss thinking that Mom and Dad were going to live forever, I miss the feeling that 40 was “old”. I miss interpreting the passing of time however you wanted... it could be two hours or TWO HOURS depending on how you looked at it and what was waiting for you. I miss my mom’s back scratches and her comforting when I thought the house was going to burn down in the middle of the night after fire prevention week. (BUT, we had an escape plan written down on paper in case it ever happened.) I miss my dad calling me his “little varmit.” I miss... well I could go on and on... but it’s safe to say that I miss being a kid and the innocence that comes with it. Remember? Sure you do...

Thanks for the memories Crazy4aCop.

Update: (Paragraph spacing was added for Eddie's readability.)