Feeling Old

For the first time in my life, I'm starting to feel old.

It started a couple of days ago...back on Thursday, I was reading the news story that it's the 20th anniversary of when Rick Hansen began the Canadian - and final - leg of his Man in Motion world tour. Wow. His Man in Motion world tour actually came through Entwistle...he stopped and gave a speech. School was closed for the morning so we could all go see it.

Actually, it started back in May...when I saw that it was the 20th anniversary of the opening of Expo 86. I didn't go, but I remember all the hype and hoopla. Yup, even here in Alberta, advertising for it was pretty intense. My parents seriously considered going to it...but a trip to Vancouver just wasn't in the summer vacation budget that year.

So, what's been making me feel so old? The fact that all these seminal events in my childhood happened 20 years ago. I'm remembering things that happened 20 years ago. That feels like such a long time....

So, I"m feeling nostalgic. Enjoying going through YouTube. No longer satisfied going through the stuff I loved, like G.I. Joe and the TransFormers, I'm now going after stuff I vaguely remember.

Like this. when I was a kid, it was always great going to my grandparents house in Red Deer. They had something called "cable TV," and all my 6 year old brain really knew was that "cable" meant tons of cartoons on Saturday morning that I'd never seen before.

Being 6 years old, one of the most popular TV shows of the day was The Dukes of Hazzard. My brother and I loved that show. We had to go to bed every night at 8, except on Friday, when we could stay up late and watch The Dukes of Hazzard.

And then, one fateful Saturday morning in Red Deer, my brother and I got to see this cartoon. Just one episode:

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And then, there was the summer of 1989. There was no more monumental summer in my life than the summer of 89. the end of elementary school and the start of junior high...we moved into a bigger house, so I finally got my own room...my parents decided to go for cable TV...and playing in the background, constantly, pervasivly, was hype for a little Tim Burton movie called Batman.

I want to do some kind of creative project someday set in the summer of 89...throw in the death of a best friend, and an awkward first kiss, and you've got a classic coming-of-age story.

Anyway, as I mentioned...got cable TV that summer. And, in the fall of 89, one of the first new cartoons I was treated to was this little movie tie-in gem:

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And then, who could ever forget this TV spot?

(Sorry, Kenten)