Saturday morning

It's easy to recall your typical Saturday mornings as a kid; the cornflakes or Cheerios, maybe Fruit Loops with the easy going Toucan or "the magically delicious" Lucky Charms and smart ass, Leprechaun. Nestle's Quick chocolate mix in milk... a match made in heaven.

Cartoons included Top Cat and all the wise cracking cats who hung out together in alleys, on trash cans, always on the take, scheming and scamming, dodging danger and such, fantastic fun yet oh so simple. Mighty Mouse was the little Rambo of his ilk and always came out on top, loved that... the Super Man of mice if you will. The "Open Wide For Chunky" commercials about a chunk of chocolate candy, featured a draw bridge opening-up... brilliant and made perfectly good sense as a metaphor... because, if you wanted to gobble the chocolate square, whole, in one bite... you would have to open wide.

Some of the most memorable jewels we woke-up to in the wonderful world of cartoons & spellbinding animation also included: A group of guys who always seemed to be there, Alvin and The Chipmunks, featuring Alvin, Simon, Theodore and leader of the pack, David Seville... a nice bunch of fellas who hung-out and liked to sing. They made it big in show-biz and recorded many an award winning album. Quick Draw McGraw mozied along with side kick, donkey Bubba Looey, they made for an intriguing twosome, as the ten-gallon hat wearing horse, so laid back with an easy-going swagger, yet effective as a law enforcer, royalty of the Huckleberry Hound Program. Huckleberrry had a thick southern drawl, quite the blue smooth talking, straw-hat-wearing-dog. The Jetson's included George, Jane, Judy, Elroy, Astro ("rut-ro") and Rosie the Robot maid... very slick, very space age and futuristic. I thought my life would be that way in the future too. Live in outer space, zip around in those stealth, bubble-top & sporty, space cars? Seemed like that would be the natural sequence of events, as I moved along in accordance with the advancements in modern technology. Especially since NASA was getting off the ground in the early 60's. "Yup, you can live out in outer space if you want, by the time I grow-up." Well, since I don't really feel all grown-up yet... I guess it can still happen. Actually people do live out in space today, but not at all like the expanded, developed, metropolis in the sky that was portrayed in The Jetson's.

The Flinstone's were tremendous, pre historic fun with all the cave man/women "Yabba-Dabba-Doo" goings on. Course Underdog was no slouch in our cartoon landscape... always managing to save the day for one Miss Polly Purebred. She kind of bugged me, a little too helpless for my taste, but that's just me. Yogi Bear, "smarter than the average bear," and his little buddy Boo Boo were quite the twosome who only wanted to snack, therefore always on the friendly hunt for a nicely packed pic-a-nic basket, which kept Ranger Smith on his toes in Jellystone Park. Porky Pig needed a little speech therapy and was another sharp dresser, about as nimble a pig as you'll ever find. Rocky and Bullwinkle, were a good looking dynamic duo... but a moose and flying squirl? Talk about your odd couple... a good team and great fun to see them outsmart evil doers, Boris and Natasha. Tennessee Tuxedo, sported a sharp bow-tie and was an enterprising penguin who cruised around with loyal pal Chumley, the tie-wearing walrus.

The Canadian Mounty, Dudley Do-Right, always hot on the trail of the bad guys while making it appear effortless. The list goes on. One more thing to note that comes to mind, is this; "George, George, George of The Jungle, Watch out for that tree!" Definitely a simpler, slower time when our world revolved around crazy kid-stuff, cornflakes, chocolate milk and the kooky characters in cartoons.