Fond Memories

When I got my hair cut short and I wore it in a sort of "fauxhawk" fashion, one of my coworkers told me that it reminded her of a Smurf, and she began calling me "Smurfette."  Since I took it so well, she made a point to post random photos of Smurfette on the outside of my cubicle.  Some might think that's offensive.  I think it's endearing.

Today, as I was sitting at my desk, she came up and said, "Oh!  I see you have a new family photo up... that's wonderful!" while she pointed to the outside of my cubicle.  I was a little confused, so I went out to where she was, and sure enough-- there was a photo of the Smurfs (similar to the one on the left) with a caption that read "Family Reunion."  Ah, I love my artist coworkers :)

I made a point to tell my sister about this, because I was quite tickled by the new artwork in my workspace.  I mentioned to her that "The Smurfs" movie was coming out in a couple weeks, and my department is pretty excited about my big debut.  We then discussed the new movie about the little blue creatures, and it quickly moved to Saturday morning cartoons, where she used to catch episodes of the Smurfs every so often.

Naturally, our conversation spiraled into a nostalgic trip down Memory Lane.  We talked about TV shows, commercials, toys, and characters that we remembered.  We both have very fond memories of our childhood -- for many reasons, not just for TV shows.  We spent much of our chidlhood taking the characters that we saw in our toys/books/music/television, and making up stories and games out of them.

Today we talked about Smurfs, ShirtTales, Punky Brewster, Garfield, My Little Pony, Popeye, Carebears, Inspector Gadget, Gumby, Rainbow Brite, The Jetsons, Flinstones, Scooby-Doo, California Raisins, Strawberry Shortcake...  All great shows - and now you can only find them on special-order DVDs and limited-edition lunchboxes from online "retro" stores.

We had a California Raisins lunchbox when I was little - you know, one of those cool plastic ones that included a matching Thermos.  And let's not forget one of my favorites-- the Cabbage Patch Kids lunchbox-- the image on the front of the box was of one CBKid with her desktop flipped up, and she was eating her PB&J sandwich, while her friend next to her was appalled that she would be violating classroom rules like that.  It always made me hungry for PB&J.

At the risk of belaboring the subject, Cabbage Patch Kids ROCKED.  What kid born around the 80s didn't adore these guys?  Not just the dolls-- there was memorabilia too.  One of my favorites was our Cabbage Patch Kids album -- yes, I'm referring to vinyl.  It wasn't enough to own a doll, complete with the soft, simply-assembled body (their arms were really just nylons stuffed with some sort of stuffing, right?), the large, hard, oversized head with obnoxious dimples, and a head full of yarn hair...  we had to be able to sing along to the Kids' favorite songs too.  And if you click here, you can sing along as well :)  Click on the "play" button to the left of each song title to preview the song.  Make sure to pay extra close attention to MY FAVORITE: #6, The Bunnybee Song-- you'll find yourself buzzing along in no time.  However, the preview on Amazon doesn't do it justice-- you'll have to go to the YouTube video (here) to get the whole song-- my favorite part, the buzzing, starts around 1:00 into the song.  All the songs, for some reason, feature some pretty strong banjo music... so be prepared.

THEN I asked my sister if she remembered Disney's "One Saturday Morning" (and yes, even as I type it, I still have to sing it the way it was meant to be sung-- if you know One Saturday Morning, you know the jingle to which I'm referring).  She had heard of it, but wasn't totally familiar-- but I think she was a little older when it aired.  Anyway, One Saturday Morning was the block of Saturday morning cartoons on ABC-- featuring shows like Recess, Pepper Ann (one of my favorite theme songs of all time), and Doug.  The hosts of One Saturday Morning were a girl named Mimi and a talking elephant named Jelly Roll... why not? 

Recess-- one of my all-time favorites.  A show about the "dramatic" lives of fourth graders at Third Street School.  Whether in class or out on the playground, they must deal with peer pressure, stormy weather that moves recess inside for [what seems like] eternity, and the evil regime of Miss Finster, a staff member whose main purpose in life is to ruin recess for the students at Third Street.  There is an elite group of "the Ashleys," which is only fair (if you're around my age, how many "Ashleys" did you go to school with?  Popular name...).  Ah, a good show.

Okay, one last nostalgic comment-- long ago and far away, ABC featured a block of television shows airing on Friday nights-- appropriately named "TGIF."  Shows like Perfect Strangers, Full House, Family Matters, Hanging with Mr. Cooper, Step by Step, Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Clueless, Two of a Kind...  those were good days.  A block of family-friendly television on Friday nights?  What happened to that?  Look at ABC now--  Friday nights feature Supernanny and Wife Swap, with the occasional rerun of Grey's Anatomy.  Not quite the same.

Nothing will ever be the same, though, will it?  Gone are the days of simple cartoons, actual dolls, Teddy Ruxpin (yes, a breakthrough teddy bear that ACTUALLY TALKED, with the aid of 4 batteries, not included), banjo songs about children born as produce, and family-friendly primetime shows.  Now every 8-year-old kid is wrapped up in an iPhone and a PSP.  I guess we can say good-bye to creativity and intelligent thinking.  As long as our thumbs work, who cares about the brain?