Saturday Morning Cartoons and Waffles with Maple Syrup (Week 18 of Fireflies at Dusk: A 52-Week Project)

This weekend my family and I ate waffles and watched a sampling of old-school Saturday morning cartoons.

Cartoons I watched as a kid that immediately come to mind...

Rocky and Bullwinkle, Rainbow Brite, Scooby Doo, The Smurfs, The Care Bears, Richie Rich, He-Man, Pac-Man, Looney Tunes, Heathcliff, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mighty Mouse, The Jetsons, The Flintstones.    

Sometimes, in 2nd grade, I'd get up in the morning and then proceed with following events:
1) change the channels and try to find cartoons on TV
2) get mad because cartoons were not on
3) realize it was not Saturday
4) realize it was Friday
5) panic
6) scarf down a bowl of Rice Crispies
7) grab my Snoopy lunch box, throw it in my backpack, and run to school as I put my hair in a side-ponytail

As diverse and multi-ethnic as Gen Xers are, the ultimate common thread of our experience is what we watched on TV.  The most common experience of our childhood may be a very important ritual we adhered to - Saturday morning cartoons.  This kind of collective experience is what makes a generation.  Although we didn't realize it at the time, all of us 46 million Gen Xers ate our waffles together....


(c) 2011 photo and writing by Chloe - all rights reserved