Waxing Nostalgic for Gumby...

I was born in 1964. Back then, there was no such thing as "Cable TV."  We only had "rabbit ears" and TV Antennae on our roofs. When I was growing up in those late sixties and early seventies, there was not much to see on television anyway, and then we only got about three channels.  The first significant TV shows and events I remember are the following: The 1st moon landing, Casper the Friendly Ghost, The Flintstones, General Hospital, Pokey and Gumby and Davey and Goliath.  Later, some of my favorite shows were Land of the Giants, Lost in Space, The Brady Bunch, The Donny and Marie Show, and here's the big ones - ABC After School Specials, the annual Fall TV lineup preview show (whatever that was called), and Saturday Morning TV shows with School House Rock. (My kids now own DVDs of the School House Rock songs.) I really learned more about government, adverbs, and "E - LEC - TRI - CI-TY" than I ever did in school. That was cool stuff.

Because there were so few channels and shows, we kids HAD to actually play outside! The closest thing to video games I actually remember were games we played in arcades - what the heck were those games? Oh, yea, Pac Man and Pong.  Sadly, in those olden days, we had to leave our houses to go play video games, and we needed quarters to do it! So, mainly we climbed trees and rode bikes until our moms called us in for lunch; we then were ordered out to play "until dinner."  What a life. Fat kids were few and far between in 1970 - really. We had to be active or there was nothing to do. Oh, and God Forbid when Labor Day Weekend came along! There were only three TV channels and guess what was on every Labor Day Weekend for like, 50 years? Of course, the Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy.  Now, Jerry's cause was a fantastic one, and he raised TONS of money for that worthwile cause. I'm not putting him or his show down at all. However, if you were a kid, a whole 72 hour weekend with nothing but Jerry on all three channels got a bit boring. If all we looked forward to was Saturday morning TV, Jerry was instrumental in blowing that for us for three days a year.

Ahhhhh, but I digress. (I always do), because, heck, I have Adult ADHD (honest), and I am lucky to hold a thought long enough to Wait! Is that a fly????

Okay. So back to the reason for the Blog title. 

As a kid, I loved Pokey and Gumby. I had the bendable Pokey and Gumby dolls. They were cool. I loved Davey and Goliath - little clay-mation religious dudes. And the first movie I ever saw in a theater was Snow White. These are the things I really think about when I think about my childhood. I've said in earlier blogs that Snow White really ruined my life. She gave me a stupid idea of reality and a dream of Prince Charming some day riding up and taking me away to live happily ever after in his castle. (Yeah, right!)  Still, Snow White was my ideal. Beautiful, a good singer, friendly to midgets, and animals ate right out of her hands which meant she was gentle and loving, too! And, she was a brunette to boot! At five, she was who I wanted to be when I grew up...

Fast Forward to many years AFTER 1960-something. Along with my previous blog about Sea Monkeys, I began to wax nostalgic for the innocence of my younger years, which included Gumby and Snow White. At a yard sale not long ago I had a real rare find: A VHS tape of the Disney movie Snow White, and a DVD with cartoons of Pokey and Gumby!  Visions of my youth were before me...I raced home with my kids and told them how much they would love Pokey and Gumby and Snow White - how they would "Be great memories of your youth" blah, blah, blah. (Again, I live vicariously through THEM).

I anxiously sat down and watched first, Snow White. Second, Pokey and Gumby. I watched like five cartoons of Pokey and Gumby.  I was right! My kids LOVED these shows.  My two year old daughter is in a "princess phase" and now knows all the names and faces of the Seven Dwarfs. I beam each time she points out "Doc, Grumpy, Sneezy, Dopey, Bashful, Sleepy and Happy" in a book or the movie. My son thinks Gumby is "the bomb" and wishes he could "Have a pony like Pokey to keep in the back yard and ride to school because he actually TALKS." 

As for me, I was in complete shock. As with the Sea Monkeys, reality had set in. The fact of the matter was this - my whole perception of those shows was based on that of the five year old kid watching them - me. I carried that with me to now because I hadn't seen these shows in like, 40 years. My reality was a reality BACK THEN for a five year old. As a 44 year old, here's what I realized:   Snow White was a complete ditz  - (giggling like an idiot all the time and singing like Glinda the Good Witch of the North while gathering water out of a WELL AND whistling while she worked??????) Uhhh, DUH! What a dumb broad!  SOOOOOO unrealistic, don't you think?

Pokey and Gumby? Completely created and produced by a few guys on acid. Totally incredible! How did I not see this in 1969? There was one episode where Pokey and Gumby don't want to paint their house, but Gumby's mom says they have to. So, they go into the garage and build a robot to do the painting for them. But the robot goes out of control and punches holes in the house! No one could stop the robot!  And, Pokey and Gumby didn't get into much trouble for the hole THEIR ROBOT punched into the side of the house! Can you imagine?  I have never seen such stupid TV in all my life (well, except maybe for the JERRY SPRINGER SHOW). Amazing.

What a let down.  

I'm afraid to wax nostalgic for anything else. I may find out that that lovely robot from Lost in Space was not actually a real robot! I have been saying "Danger Will Robinson" and swinging my arms side to side all my life in any conversation in which I had to illustrate when I was fearful or when something wasn't a good idea. (Example: To a friend who is married and thinks the mailman is cute - (me) - "Danger, Will Robinson! Do Not Do It!"  Get it?)

So, here I am, let down by my own, ridiculous, five year old mind, which, sadly, came with me and stayed here until I was 44. Now, that part of me who idolized Snow White is long gone. If I hadn't watched the movie with my kid, I might be carrying that innocent part of me along for the ride, still. Sad.

I hope that Sigmund and the Sea Monster are still hiding in their cave by the sea, and that HR Puff-N-Stuff is still hiding from Witchiepoo.  Seriously, I'd be pissed if they got caught. That would ruin everything for me. At least let me have that...