One Banana Two Banana Three Banana Four
Saturday morning cartoons...do you remember the Banana Splits? What a hoot! These crazy guys enlivened many Saturday mornings for me. Along the same lines, I liked H.R. Pufnstuff too. And, who could forget Underdog?
It seems that my kids can have any cartoon they want any day of the week...heck, any HOUR of the week. It's cool that we can watch Tom and Jerry after supper. This is a minor reflection of American life today.
My perception is that with this change of freedom of cartoons of any hour comes at a price. My kids don't look forward to those delicious Saturday morning hours like I did. If the cartoons were only on during those hours, I bet I'd get to sleep in Saturday mornings, too. It's almost as if the general schedule, the general pace of life has blown up from the center or something.
Remember the blue laws? No stores were open on Sundays in Pennsylvania. None. No grocery stores or drug stores or gas stations or department stores would think of intruding on their employees day of rest. It was expected and it was polite. People planned their shopping for other days of the week, even those who worked different shifts. Now we have everything available 24/7 in some form. I cringe when I see folks working on holidays, especially Christmas and Easter...and Thanksgiving. This is freedom, though. Hmmmm...I wonder who is getting the freedom...certainly not those cashiers or retail sales clerks.
Doctors and nurses are on call...sickness doesn't take a break for holidays. (Do you remember when doctors made house calls?) Crime continues, too, so the police work long hours. As a professor, I usually can't take a vacation in September or October and that's okay. I love what I do and it comes with the territory. I hope others feel like that.
The schedule of our current cultural climate is everything all the time. I'm not sure I like that. I do like being able to choose when I can shop, but my freedom is imposing on somebody else's Sunday. I guess I like the cartoons available anytime, but that freedom is depriving my kids of learning that good things come to those who wait.
"H.R. Pufnstuff...ya can't get a little and ya can't get enough."
It seems that my kids can have any cartoon they want any day of the week...heck, any HOUR of the week. It's cool that we can watch Tom and Jerry after supper. This is a minor reflection of American life today.
My perception is that with this change of freedom of cartoons of any hour comes at a price. My kids don't look forward to those delicious Saturday morning hours like I did. If the cartoons were only on during those hours, I bet I'd get to sleep in Saturday mornings, too. It's almost as if the general schedule, the general pace of life has blown up from the center or something.
Remember the blue laws? No stores were open on Sundays in Pennsylvania. None. No grocery stores or drug stores or gas stations or department stores would think of intruding on their employees day of rest. It was expected and it was polite. People planned their shopping for other days of the week, even those who worked different shifts. Now we have everything available 24/7 in some form. I cringe when I see folks working on holidays, especially Christmas and Easter...and Thanksgiving. This is freedom, though. Hmmmm...I wonder who is getting the freedom...certainly not those cashiers or retail sales clerks.
Doctors and nurses are on call...sickness doesn't take a break for holidays. (Do you remember when doctors made house calls?) Crime continues, too, so the police work long hours. As a professor, I usually can't take a vacation in September or October and that's okay. I love what I do and it comes with the territory. I hope others feel like that.
The schedule of our current cultural climate is everything all the time. I'm not sure I like that. I do like being able to choose when I can shop, but my freedom is imposing on somebody else's Sunday. I guess I like the cartoons available anytime, but that freedom is depriving my kids of learning that good things come to those who wait.
"H.R. Pufnstuff...ya can't get a little and ya can't get enough."
posted by Reading Reader | 10:44 PM
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