Ode to the Saturday morning cartoons of yesteryear

Do you remember waking up early on a Saturday morning and plunking down with cold cheerios to watch Bugs Bunny? Or maybe HR Puff n Stuff? I loved it.

Sara and I would be up at the butt crack of dawn, only to find my dad already cooking bacon and watching Bugs Bunny. We would sit and laugh for hours. Or what seemed like hours. Probably only about 30 minutes. But happily munching cold cereal or eating bacon and eggs. My parents were ahead of the times with a small black and white dial tv in the kitchen. It was pure bliss.

After breakfast dad would go and rouse mom out of bed (it was her day to sleep in) and Sara and I would go downstairs in pj's and finish our smörgåsbord of cartoons. Land of the Lost, the Buggaloos, Fat Albert, and Woody Woodpecker. We would rock out with the sprinkling of School House Rock. I know about conjunction junction and how a bill becomes a law. Do you?

Ryan said he would watch GI Joe, He-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Funny. I don't remember those as a little kid and as a matter of fact, Sara would have loved them. She was a real tomboy growing up.

So yesterday, Saturday morning, as I was getting ready for a long stint at the hospital with mom, Miles woke up and said to Ryan with big eyes and a grin the size of the Atlantic Ocean, "dad, didn't Clone Wars DVR last night?"

Ok so a few things made me think. First of all, DVR? He knew that? Of course he did. Tivo and DVR make it easy to watch cartoons pretty much all the time. Second, the simple fact that he knows what day is Saturday, surprises me as he and Claire have so many cartoon channels all the live long day. I never thought he would know what 'Saturday morning cartoons' were. But he did. And only because Ryan was home and up early. He knew Star Wars cartoons were on from the night before and they had been DVR'd.

I do miss that feeling of waking up to watch cartoons. It was only one day a week and I loved it. It was a special time Sara and I had with dad where we could watch tv uninterrupted. No mom telling us to go outside and get exercise so we wouldn't bug her. But I guess that was a different time. My parents COULD send us outside without reservation and without them.

Hopefully my kids will be able to remember something as special as a Saturday morning cartoon fest. Who knows. Maybe they will tell their kids about how they had this old fashioned contraption that DVR'd and TIVO'd things. Ha, it's like records and cassette tapes. I loved them, and they have no idea what the hell they are. Shit....I'm getting old.