Week 48: Cartoons at Lyric

I have to confess to a little bit of parental hypocrisy: there are things I did as a child that I won’t let my kids do. Case in point, I spent quite a few Saturday mornings parked in front of the TV, watching Scooby Doo and eating my way through a big bowl of sugary cereal. In my defense, that was before cartoons were available 24/7. If we missed them on Saturday, we had to wait a week until we had another chance. Actually having to wait for a show? Man, that makes me feel old.

But just because my kids don’t watch cartoons while they eat their breakfast (mainly because I can’t stand to have the TV blaring on a Saturday morning) doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten that cartoons and cold cereal are as much a part of childhood as grass stains and Silly Putty. The Lyric Cinema Cafe knows that, too, because they show classic cartoons from ten until noon every day but Sunday. Admission is free, and for a mere five bucks, a kid can belly up to the all-you-can-eat cereal bar.

After filling bowls with their favorite magically delicious cereals, my boys got comfortable on one of the Lyric’s front-row sofas. I skipped the cereal but hung around for the entertainment. I have nothing against cartoons and could probably watch The Simpsons until my eyeballs bleed. But those dysfunctional Springfielders aren’t always a great choice for family entertainment, and, as luck would have it, Donald Duck opened the morning’s show. No offense to DD fans, but that pantsless, mean-spirited fowl has never been one of my favorites. When his spastic, unintelligible quacking wore thin (after about seventeen seconds) I was tempted to scoot on out to the lobby to see what else was happening. But, as a dedicated blogger, I stayed put in the theater.

Half an hour and another bowl of cereal later, Looney Tunes continued the fun with…Daffy Duck. What is it with the ducks? Also wardrobe-challenged and speech-impaired, at least Daffy’s heart seems to be in the right place. Though how both Donald and Daffy could have misadventures with substandard aircraft on the same day is beyond me.

Ducks aside, spending an hour watching cartoons in a dark theater, sheltered from the growing heat of a summer day, was actually very enjoyable. While listening to kids laughing at cartoon tomfoolery and crunching on cereal, I found it nearly impossible to fret about the many fret-worthy things in the outside world. As we were leaving, my boys asked if we could do it again sometime, and I told them we will. But I might hold out for some Wile E. Coyote.