FFA: Saturday Morning Cartoons

Friday Free for All Topic of the Week: Saturday Morning Cartoons

My memories of the joy that was Saturday morning cartoons illustrate the true difference between kids and adults. When I was a kid, not only did I not sleep in on Saturdays, but I would get up even earlier than a weekday just so that I could camp out in front of the TV for a couple of unhindered hours before my mom made us do our chores.

I always associate watching Saturday morning cartoons with my brother Cody (who is only a year younger than I am). We were the only ones who actually chose to get up at an obscene hour like 6:00 in the morning on Saturdays. Okay, I take that back. My dad did, too, but it was to go play basketball, and he's kind of crazy, so that really doesn’t count. My older sisters were teenagers (the lure of the Saturday morning cartoon had lost its magic) and had come to appreciate the value of sleep, and our youngest brother TJ was too little during the golden age of the Saturday morning cartoons.

And seriously, you can’t tell me that cartoons were better back then. They weren’t. They were just as crappy as they are now, and we totally didn’t care. I mean, I hate those Tom and Jerry cartoons or the Roadrunner now because they are so violent, and that really bugs me. Seriously, I wouldn’t let my kids watch them. But I didn’t seem to have a problem with them back then.

Here’s a list of other crappy cartoons that my brother and I loved to watch:

• He-Man (and the Masters of the Universe!)
• She -Ra (or was she just a character in He-Man? I forget.)
• Jem and the Holograms
• Thunder Cats (seriously, what kind of creepy show was that? Yeah, it was a favorite.)
• Smurfs
• Transformers
• The Bugs Bunny and Friends
• G.I. Joe
  

Now my feelings on Saturday morning cartoons have changed, but they are no less appreciated. Ellis and I discovered when our oldest daughter was about 3, that we could train her to head down to the family room when she woke up on Saturdays rather than wake up her tired parents who just wanted to sleep in that ONE day (is that asking too much?) We’d make sure the TV channel was set on PBS and showed her how to turn it on when she got up in the morning. Then we’d get up an hour later or so, and you know, give her some food or something. It was a win-win situation.

Life really hasn’t been as good since we stopped getting cable . . .

And That's Why I Love Him

So, I was looking through old photos for a high school dance picture for the Class of 1994 blog, when I came across some pretty great pictures of Ellis. Of course, I immediately thought, "I have GOT to post these on the blog!"

Ellis has a long and notorious history for taking some pretty fantastic pictures during his childhood. Let's just take a walk down Ellis's memory lane, shall we?

Exhibit A: Ellis's 3rd grade class picture. This is a personal favorite of mine. In this shot, Ellis had come up with this great idea to just casually reach out and tickle the really ticklish kid standing in front of him right as the picture was taken. The best part? No one would ever know it was him. . . (See back row, 5th kid from the left, and his victim, middle row, 4th kid from the left).

Exhibit B: 4th grade class picture. Yeah, it didn't get much better the next year. (Back row, 3rd from the left. . . if you need it pointed out.)

Exhibit C: The Fem-Hand Picture. Ellis is going to kill me for posting this one. He "claims" he was not intending to make this, uh, feminine gesture here.

Exhibit D: I had to post this one just because it's kind of freaky how much this looks like Marley.

Exhibit E: Ellis and Joe Sing "The Rainbow Connection." Ellis and his older brother Joe were roped into dressing as Kermit the Frog(s) and singing for their town's Homecoming talent show. I think it's pretty easy to see why I married the guy.

The Return of the Friday Free for All

Okay, I have to apologize for neglecting to post my FFA topic on Friday. I was busy helping Peggy paint, and then Saturday we had a big yard project involving tearing up the front section of the grass (my arms still hurt). Sure, I could have posted Sunday, but I was emotionally distraught after discovering my niece's car was stolen. From my house. Yeah, more on that later. But here it is -- the FFA topic (from last Friday) you've all been waiting for . . .




FFA Topic: Memories of Junior High (repressed or otherwise)

Let’s just face it – the Junior high years were not my best. My hair had suddenly gone curly (so I had no idea what to do with the frizzy mess), I had braces until 8th grade, and I was taller than most of the boys until about 9th grade. There was friend trauma, boy trauma, and probably just a bunch of made-up trauma because frankly, that’s what junior-high age girls do best.

So here are some of my best/most horrific/confused memories from the good ol’ days at Spanish Fork Jr. High:

1. Singing Valentines – this is definitely a favorite memory of mine. Every Valentine’s Day, the Drama Club made tons of heart-shaped sugar cookies which people could purchase and have delivered to the person of their choice, along with a little Valentine’s ditty. We got to skip classes most of the day, so that we could take these cookies around to the different classrooms. We’d sing ridiculous lyrics that we’d made up to songs like “Lollipop” to the poor, unsuspecting Valentine recipients.

2. Gym class – really need I say more? The absolute horror of having to take showers in the locker room with only a dishcloth-sized towel to cover you up after was almost enough to make us all a little neurotic. And who can forget Mrs. Perkins’s lecture on using deodorant?

3. The “snack line” at lunch. For some reason, the school district felt once we were in junior high, we were now old enough to have some choices at lunch . . . the favorite of which was the infamous “snack line.” The food choices in this line included a big pile of greasy fries with a greasy burrito, greasy cheeseburger, or greasy slab of pizza. Um, yeah, because kids this age are notorious for making healthy food choices . . .

4. Sewing class. Most of the girls took sewing and cooking classes while the boys took wood and metal shop. I’m still confused, though, as to how we’d benefit from learning how to sew a stuffed animal pillow, the most hideous jacket known to mankind, and a nightgown (okay, I actually wore that one for a while . . .). Even more confusing, though, was the day Mrs. Benson showed us a video with Christie Brinkley showing us how to put on makeup. Um, huh?

5. For some reason, Jenni and I decided to convince Chad Vest during Algebra class that Jenni’s middle name was “Liberty Bell.” I’m not sure whether it reflects more on our powers of persuasion or his, um, common-sense that he believed us.

6. “Going with” someone. Junior high kids didn’t date. We would “go with” someone. Go where, you might ask? Well, that is a very good question. I never really found out. I used to really like Scott Christensen until the fateful day that he asked me to “go with” him. For about a week, we painstakingly avoided talking to each other or crossing paths in the halls at all costs. Then we broke up. It was a short-lived but highly dramatic relationship.