50 for 50: 1976

YEAR: 1976

AGE: Turned 6 on Nov. 6

LOCATION: Chicago, McVicker Avenue

SONGS I LIKED: "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees; "The Boys Are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy

TV SHOWS I WATCHED: "Chico and the Man"; "Emergency"

BULLS' RECORD: 24-58

Something that's disappeared from the childhoods of American kids -- and a concept I tried explaining to Ben a couple weeks ago -- is Saturday morning cartoons. They probably were only a thing for about 40 years; by the 2000s, network television programming specifically geared toward kids had mostly disappeared. With Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, DVDs, and now streaming, every day can be Saturday morning cartoons.

Of course, we had cartoons all week on channels 9, 32, and 44 -- after school and in the morning -- but they were all reruns and not that new. That was OK ... and made Saturday mornings even more special (even, in retrospect, most mid-1970s cartoons weren't as good as classic Popeye and Flintstones).

Saturday morning cartoons weren't simply mindless entertainment surrounded by brash commercialism aimed at children. In 1976, I was taking away life lessons from my time in front of the TV:

  • The bicentennial was in 1976, and I learned about it from the Schoolhouse Rock short "Fireworks," created specifically for the event. For a couple minutes every hour, I consumed valuable history, grammar, and math concepts that stick with me today. Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was written by Benjamin Franklin, Phillip Livingston, Roger Sherman, and Thomas Jefferson? That info (and, alas, incorrect info, it was Robert Livingston, not Phillip) I can sing to you all these years later.
  • The CBS answer to Schoolhouse Rock was "In the News" -- short news stories geared toward kids. These segments treated kids intelligently, assuming we could understand news important to  us. I can't say if this was my first exposure to TV news and sparked an interest in journalism, but I never changed the channel or left the room when these came on -- I watched.
  • Saturday morning cartoons taught kids at a young age the value of the weekend. You went to school during the week, and on Saturday, you were rewarded with something special. Kindergarten and first grade weren't necessarily taxing, but they were distinct from the weekend. I didn't sleep late on Saturday mornings as a 5-year-old -- I took advantage of the time off by watching TV that even then I probably sensed weren't Emmy quality.

The bicentennial summer was fun. The music was great; and though I don't remember the Fourth of July specifically, I do recall the buzz around the bicentennial. The summer was followed by the first election I actually understood, even if was a limited understanding (and for some reason, I wanted Gerald Ford to win). 

I kept enjoying Saturday morning cartoons into eighth grade (though by then, I was just watching the Dungeons and Dragons series on CBS and then going back to bed). The weekend just wouldn't have been the same without them


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