What was your
Saturday morning
ritual?
My Saturday’s started as soon as I could pry my eyes open, which sometimes meant finding nothing but test patterns on the 13 available stations. Instead of going back to bed, I’d just wait until the first show aimed at kids would finally start playing. Airing on a channel originating from Spokane, Washington (then the source of all of Edmonton’s American programming) it was called The Sunday School of the Air (I never questioned that it was clearly airing on the wrong day). It featured a matronly older woman ventriloquist who shared biblical wisdom via lessons she taught her young girl dummy. Despite my precocious atheism I didn’t resent the show because I knew that as soon it was over, the action would begin.
And once it did, I did not leave the immediate vicinity of the viewing area–not even for a quick bite of breakfast (I was never a big fan of cereal or other traditional breakfast foods). At most I might dash to the bathroom for a quick bladder refresher during a commercial break, but even that was risky because I might miss an awesome toy commercial or a Schoolhouse Rock.
This would last until the good stuff starting drifting away and be replaced by boring sports stuff, leaving me with another 7 day wait until I could do it all over again.
Saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog, not to be confused with Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, was the thing for me and my brother. There were a couple of other cartoons we watched afterward that I’d be giddy if I came across, but I don’t remember them very well. Reboot was one of them, and my husband and I watched through it last year. Funny how it was easy to wake up at 07:00 for Sonic, but waking up at 06:30 for school was torture.