Here's some stuff that I loved as kid that seems unimaginable today:
- After waiting a week, opening a package of newly-developed pictures from the camera store
- Bringing the arcade home by making a pinball machine out of wood, nails, elastic bands and a marble
- Coming downstairs Saturday morning - Mom and Dad still in bed - to watch the only available cartoons of the week
- Finally getting a chance to see a movie on TV, three years after I missed it in the theatre
- The sound of the mail dropping through the slot in our front door, and the anticipation of receiving a letter from a distant friend
- Enjoying a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at school
- Buying treats in the States that you couldn't get in Canada
- The satisfying click of the high-tech cable box while surfing our 13-channel universe
- Talking to EVERYONE about what happened last night on the TV show du jour
- Going to Ontario Place for free
- Playing outside unsupervised until long after sunset
- Being the first on my street with Pong - and later, Mattel handheld electronic football, featuring single-pixel dots as the players.
- How crappy my pictures were
- How my home-made pinball machine didn't work at all
- How totally awful Saturday morning cartoons were (H.R. Puff n Stuff and the Banana Splits, for example)
- The constant interruption of commercials when watching a TV movie (especially a major one)
- Never getting any mail
- Getting tired of PB&J day after day after day
- That US treats tasted no sweeter than Canadian ones
- That nothing was ever on in our 13-channel universe
- That the TV show du jour had a laugh track
- That there really wasn't that much to do at Ontario Place - until they started adding attractions and charging admission
- That I didn't play outside that often because I far preferred watching TV.
Except Ontario Place was really great. Remember those things like punching bags that you could walk through? Remember those little theatres where there were multiple screens about how great Ontario is? OK ... but remember the Forum? Remember the insistent hope that maybe - just maybe - this time Mom & Dad would rent a paddle boat? And your memory, I believe, is faulty. We had religious school Saturday morning, when all the really good cartoons were on. Like Care Bears and Smurfs.
ReplyDeleteOntario Place was great, then became a little boring, then got better when they started adding stuff, then they started charging for the new stuff...but yes, I loved it there.
ReplyDeleteI know I used to watch Saturday morning cartoons - summers, holidays, and before 9:30 all the other times. Sunday mornings on TV were a wasteland.