Children's music...? #3

10-09-07 Children’s music…? #3

Yes, of course there is more to talk about with the topic of children’s records / music. Uber-collectors (such as Don Bolles) have dug up ultra-strange children’s records – things like the ‘Christian ventriloquist’ genre, for instance. I can also understand how original pressing of mint (i.e. unhandled by children) copies of some 50’s and 60’s children’s records got for big bucks, in collector record stores and at auctions. You had the record as a child – played it to death, handled it too much etc. – the cover fell apart, it got thrown away etc. Now you’re an adult, and you want it back!

I will confess to entertaining this form of collector nostalgia – once in an antique mall in Orange, CA (“Orange Circle”) there was a place selling old kids’ games – I saw a childhood favorite of mine, “The Merry Milkman Game”…but it was now something like $400+! Of course, the copy of that game at our house was probably missing the rules, and some of the small plastic pieces (the butter, milk bottles, eggs etc.) were missing, having been thrown under the bed, accidentally down the furnace (“Eeew, that stinks!”) etc. And for only $400 plus tax, I could take home a likely-incomplete piece of my past – or somebody else’s past.

The current century DVD market must think that ‘boomers’ are willing to pay – I was told recent by a cheerful expectant parent-to-be that what appeared to be the premier season of “Sesame Street” was now available as a DVD boxed set. Wow, pre-Elmo!

So, kids’ records, TV shows…what about comic books? In L.A. there at least 3 or 4 large selections of comic books available – and we’re only 2 hours away from “Comic Con”, the big convention in San Diego. I was a reader of DC Comics – Superboy, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane etc. Justice League of America. After that, it was Mad Magazine, then – into the 70’s – National Lampoon…then Viz. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Don’t get me started about what cartoons kids should watch. I grew up with Warner Brothers cartoons – the Roadrunner & Coyote, Sylvester the cat, Foghorn Leghorn etc. – also saw Felix The Cat, Atom Ant etc. I also enjoyed ‘young adult’ U.S. network TV programming of the 1960’s – things like “Lost In Space”, “The Time Tunnel” etc. My parents let me watch weird stuff too – “The Avengers”, “The Prisoner” etc. – but that’s a bit later.

I am anxious for all new citizens to enjoy all of the same junk that I did when I was a youngster. Is there anything I should leave out? How P.C. can you be – and still be considered “fun”? I don’t know much about raising kids – but, as previous stated, I was once a kid myself. I have decent childhood memories – and I wish that for everybody – minna-san.

So, hurry up, “Peanut”!