Saturdays in the 1970’s were the BEST

Saturday morning is my favorite time of the week. I love waking up early, enjoying a hot cup of coffee and enjoying the thought of having two whole days off work. I might take an exercise class, spend some time outdoors, or do whatever else that sounds like fun. At 56 years old, the things that excite me about Saturday are quite different than they were when they were as a child. 

Growing up in Stevensville, MT in the 1970’s, we had two television channels and cartoons came on at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.  The only time other than Saturday morning to watch a cartoon was during a holiday when you could catch Rudolph or one of the Christmas cartoons that came on every season, or a Charlie Brown holiday special.  My little brother and I would wake up early every Saturday morning and head out to the living room to wait on the couch for Jabberjaw, Super Friends, and Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels to begin.  My brother and I would stand a couch cushion up in the middle of the couch so that our feet would not touch, avoiding a sibling brawl that could potentially put an end to our access to the cartoons.  We were glued to the television for the next four hours enjoying our cartoons and we were always disappointed when Bugs Bunny came on around 10:00 a.m., effectively ending another round of Saturday morning cartoons. 

After we were done with our weekly cartoon binge, we might be able to have a glass of orange or grape Tang and a bowl of Count Chocula or Cookie Crisp cereal. We had one grocery store in town when I was growing up and it could take several weeks for the latest items that we saw on television to hit the store shelves. I waited and waited for the day Cookie Crisp was made available and begged my mom to buy us a box. I had been watching commercials for Cookie Crisp for weeks and I could not wait to sink my teeth into that chocolate chip looking cereal. In the 1970’s boxes of cereal served a dual purpose, the boxes held our chow and served as entertainment because I would read the back of the cereal box while eating. There was not a television in the kitchen to watch while we ate and the only phone we had was glued to the wall and was for talking only and you may have to wait your turn if you were calling someone on the party line.  

After a good sugar filled breakfast, we were usually outside on our bikes, playing basketball or on the lookout for neighborhood friends. If we did not do anything stupid to embarrass the family, we were free to roam the streets until the need for Kool-Aid or a Hostess Twinkie hit and then we fueled up and were back outside for the rest of the day. As an aside, how many of you remember measuring a big cup of granulated sugar to mix up the Kool-Aid? If we were told to do so, we would check-in at home during the day and that had to be done physically. Mobile phones were things that we saw on the Jetson’s or that we saw Dan Tanna talking into as he drove his car on the television series Vega$. 

We were always home by dinner time and that was between 5:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. If it was a good night, we might get to have a Swanson’s T.V. dinner (the Chinese meal with the little egg roll was my favorite) or a box of banquet chicken. I am not certain what part of the chicken the meat in that box came from, but it was always delicious. A not so good night in the 1970’s would consist of my mom’s salmon patties and a side of corn or peas that had been cooked on the stove for a good 30 minutes at a full rolling boil. 

A sobering fact is that I am closer in age to 80 years than I am to 20 years. So much has changed in the world over the past 50 years, some of it has been good and some of it has been not so good. It is the memory of the excitement that came with Saturday morning cartoons or getting to watch a Christmas cartoon on a weeknight in December that I look back upon and smile. Those were the days!