Saturday Morning Memories

I suspect that many of you have similar memories of growing up in the 70's

As a Gen X wee lad, my childhood was somewhat different than my parents. We had a TV (but at first only a B&W) and since this was the era of more women entering the workforce, they joined their husbands in heading to work Monday through Friday.

That means that Saturday mornings were for the parents to sleep in, and that meant that us kids needed to fend for ourselves and not make too much noise.

So, my memory is replete with my ritual. I would get up early, flip on the boob-tube, and begin to shovel sugary breakfast cereals in my maw while watching Saturday Morning cartoons.

My favorite cereal that I remember was Freakies, which was a lot like the plain Cap’n Crunch, but I really liked the toys that came with it. Don’t judge me.

Anyhow, I wolfed that shit down, while watching the cartoons. Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and a shit-load of Looney Tunes¹ cartoons.

While I enjoyed the franchises, what I really loved were the 7 minute hits that were the Looney Tunes. I got a taste for opera from the Bugs Bunny “Rabbit of Seville” a riff on The Barber of Seville.

Or the use of the iconic William Tell Overture. You can’t be a young man and not really enjoy the Overture.

Yeah, I was probably at risk back then for youth diabetes:

I bring this up because I recently got a couple of “Connected Recognition” awards, and I used them to buy some media to add to my collection. First on the list was campy “schlock” 40’s and 50’s vintage SciFi movies. I bought a few sets, and they are just … awful. I love them.

Next up was to add to the Film Noir, so I bought a big box of those too. Cool.

I found that I still had about $60 to blow, so I just dropped in three collections of the Looney Tunes Blu-ray discs.

The Looney Tunes were converted to digital files and tossed on my Plex server, and I was teleported back to my mid 70’s childhood, Saturday Morning rituals, and I am just sad that I can no longer buy Freakies².

For the record, my favorites were the Roadrunner cartoons, then the Bugs Bunny, but I loved all of them. And now I am dropping in and getting my fix on.

What were your favorites when you were growing up?

1. My recollection is that the Disney cartoons weren’t in the mix. I seem to recall that there was a Disney hour on Sunday evenings where they played their Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and others.

2. Freakies were made by the Ralston company, and if you are like me, you probably think of “Ralston-Purina” the maker of pet foods. Yeah, that doesn’t turn off my recollection of the cereal, but it makes me go hmmmmm.

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