I remember waking up Saturday morning to Pop Tarts and Scooby Doo.  My mom use to have to drag me out of bed by the band of my Under-roos on a school day, but not on Saturdays.  Saturdays were “Cartoon Day” and I would get up faster than Speed Racer.  I would let my parents sleep in, make my own breakfast, and the TV was mine from Davey and Goliath to The After School Special. It was my first stabs at independence, my first attempt at taking a turn at responsibility.  It was a land of make-believe with a vast ocean of education thrown in.   I never knew it was happening.  I sang along to Conjunction Junction or when Time for Timer told me to add cheese to my diet in a catchy tune, which was not as blatant as a logo like Got Milk?

I’m going to say this and it is going to sound like Foghorn Leghorn coming out of my mouth but… I miss simplicity.  I say…I say…I say…I miss simplicity, boy.   See I told you, Foghorn Leghorn.    Yea I’m a dad, and I was going to eventually say things my dad has said sure, but what is scarier then quoting dear old dad is when it becomes the truth. It seems the days of taking the simplicity of Saturday Morning Cartoons and the break it gave my parents of nearly six hours of good sleep, has been taken over by the video game, the 24 hour Cartoon Network, our babysitter named Disney or her brother Wii.

In turn we have taken out a sense of having something of my own, something to look forward too, and something to build upon. Cartoon Days helped us to mold those ideas into adulthood, the idea of owning a home, looking forward to the weekends after a long week of work and working to build a family with compassion and promise.  Some may argue this is an antiquated way of thinking and maybe,  it is.

I will say this though I have played current video games, I am still unsure who the hero is in HALO.  I have watched a few episodes of SpongeBob and I think he is funny, but place a message in there somewhere.  It was still visible in the 90’s with NBC’s The More You Know…  They just boxed it up pretty again to my generation in an episode of Friends ( not the super kind) or Seinfeld.

I am sure my children will look at SpongeBob and Master Chief with the same fondness as I have with my Saturday Superfriends.  They will have the same nostalgic longing I feel at this time.  They too will probably quote their equal to Foghorn Leghorn.  The only difference is I went to bed Saturday Night knowing that the Superfriends would return next week and that they had my back.