Way back
when I was a young girl, my parent’s would park us in front of the TV on
Saturday morning and toss us a box of Cap’n Crunch or Fruit Loops cereal (both
great for leaving a “trail of crumbs” a lá Hansel and Gretel.) Mom
and Dad would then slink off to the kitchen where they could enjoy a morning of
peace and quite with their coffee and paper. I know your first
thought is quite possibly, “Why didn’t anyone call Child Protective Services?”
But let me explain that 1) the cereal was fortified with 14 vitamins and
minerals (I think) and 2) there were some teaching moments on Saturday Morning
TV back in the day. Like Aesop’s Fables. I can almost
hear the music now as a cartoon fairy flies onto the screen and opens a
voluminous book of Fables, and I would watch with rapt attention as I learned
my moral lesson. You might remember the classics such as “The
Tortoise and the Hare” or “The Ant and the Grasshopper” or “The Boy Who Cried
Wolf” or “The Fox and the Grapes” (from whence we get the phrase “Sour
Grapes.) Classics, all.
