a literary playground

By: Angela Lee Willard

About The Piece:

Highly autobiographical, this coming-of-age short story takes a look at the role cartoons play in the backdrop of growing up. Some of the simplest things can be touchstones of comfort and joy as we grow up and grow old.

Her eyes popped open and lazily she began to wake. She rolled over, prepared to linger longer under the covers, but then she realized it was SATURDAY. Any other day, when she had to get up by a certain time, she would lay in bed as long as she could get away with, and then some. But on Saturday, well, who wants to waste a day where you get to do what you want to do, not what you have to do? And now that soccer season was over, she had her Saturdays wide open for her own plans. Nobody in her house was awake yet as she snuck downstairs to the kitchen. With a practiced hand, she pulled out a large, light yellow popcorn bowl, a family-size bag of King Vitamin cereal, and a gallon of 2% milk. She filled the popcorn bowl halfway full and then poured in the milk until it almost covered the cereal. Giant spoon in hand, she settled on the floor with her back against the couch and grabbed the remote. It was almost 8:00am and she didn’t want to miss the first in her cartoon lineup.

Muppet Babies, we make your dreams come true / Muppet Babies, we’ll do the same for you / When your room looks kinda weird and you wish that weren’t there/ Just close your eyes and make believe and you can be anywhere

“And just what do you think you’re doing??” Her mom’s voice cut sharply into her revelry. “It’s Saturday morning”, she garbled through a mouth full of crunchy, milky cereal. “No, I mean what makes you think that is an appropriate amount of cereal for one little girl?” She turned and grinned at her mom with a knowing look in her eye. Of course, she knew she wasn’t supposed to eat cereal in animal trough portion sizes.

Her mom could only laugh and shake her head. Remembering her parental duty, she turned back and pointed a finger at her saying, “You got away with it this time, but don’t do it again. If it happens again, I’m not buying cereal for a month. This threat made the little girl very solemn. Cereal was a beloved and sacred food.

Sometimes her older sister might sit on the floor and watch Inspector Gadget, Doug, or Pepper Ann with her, but usually she sat gleefully alone while her family milled around doing various weekend tasks or hobbies. As the morning went on, she deftly switched channels to find each show she wanted to watch. The lineup would change over the years, but the commitment remained the same.

By the 10th grade, she continued to watch Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal, now usually Raisin Bran or Corn Pops, depending on her mood. Next month she would be 16, which meant she had to get a job. Well, she had to get a job if she wanted a car, and she did want a car. And she really wanted freedom. She contemplated what work she might be able to get in her small town, but then was distracted by something her younger sister said to her about what was happening on Digimon. She was passing down her love of cartoons to her younger sister, making sure the little one understood how to pick quality toons with stellar writing and art.

When she finally did get a job a month later, it was at the local flower shop. She would work 10.5 hours a week with Mondays off. Four of those 10.5 hours would be from 8am-12pm on Saturday morning. It seemed as if part of her childhood was coming to an end, and maybe rightfully so? Wasn’t she getting too old to be watching cartoons anyway? These thoughts only briefly crossed her mind before she pushed them aside. No, she wasn’t too old and she still loved cartoons. So instead, she told her parents and her sister that the living room TV would no longer be available on Saturday mornings. They had another TV in the front room and her parents had one in their room, they could make it work. She programmed the VCR to record each of her shows while she was gone. After work, she would come home, eat a bowl of cereal, and watched her Saturday morning cartoons on Saturday afternoon. She used the same VHS tape for 3 years
labeled “Ash’s Saturday Morning Cartoons – DO NOT RECORD OVER”.

College dorm life leaves very little room for privacy. Almost so little that it is almost impossible to be courteous because you live in a tiny 10×10 room with another adult, so no matter what you do you’re always in someone else’s space, and noises are inevitably too loud and too close. Luckily, her roommate often went home on the weekends, so watching her cartoons in bed with her bowl of Banana Nut Crunch on Saturday mornings was usually tranquil, as long as one of the other girls in her dorm didn’t come knocking on her door unexpectedly. However, this weekend both she and her roommate were there for the weekend, and things were not great between them at the moment. She suspected her roommate was jealous of her new boyfriend, but who could really know? The TV was up high at the front of their room where they could both see it from
their beds, but it would be too loud if she watched it like normal. She poured her cereal, grabbed her desk chair, and sat it as close as she could while still being able to see the screen, then she plugged in her tomato red over-the-ears headphones into the AV jack of the TV. For the next 2 hours she immersed herself in the world of animation. Teen Titans, Ed, Edd, & Eddy, and Fairly Odd Parents were some of her favorites these days. When the Eds made her laugh a little too loud, her roommate woke up.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you…”
“It’s okay. Are you watching cartoons??”
“Yeah, it’s kind of my tradition. Lame, huh?”
“No way. I love Ed, Edd, and Eddy. Take your headphones out so I can hear it, too.”

So they ate cereal and watched cartoons together that Saturday morning. And for at least a couple of hours, the weirdness between them seemed to evaporate.

She hated spring the most. Since birth to 30, it was her absolute least favorite season – the humidity, the rain, the pollen. Yuck. Yes, the blooms and buds were lovely, but what misery to get them! However, spring always put her in the mood for anime. Any other shows she was watching would be put aside, and her Saturday mornings would now be full of Ghibli, Ohkubo, Nakahara, or Shiina until summer. Sometimes she looked up what was new in the anime world, but mostly she watched old favorites, reliving the nostalgia of it all. Last Saturday, she watched Spirited Away again. It was, of course, brilliant as always; as if he story of Alice in Wonderland could be any more wonderful and weirder, leave it to some amazing Japanese studio to do so. This Saturday, she would rewatch one of her favorite series, Lovely Complex. Being a tall woman
herself, she always felt connected to the female MC struggling with her height and romance in high school. Still cozy in her t-shirt and boxers, she ate eggs and oatmeal on her brown velvet couch feeling perfectly content. The morning sunlight streamed in through the back glass door; the day stretched before her. She might see friends, workout, grocery shop, or go hiking. Or maybe she might just stay in this Saturday, eating cereal and watching cartoons.

About The Artist:

A writer and English teacher currently based in North Carolina, Angela has loved literature, writing, and art since as long as she can remember. An avid traveler, growing photographer, and self-taught artist, she loves to use these various mediums to connect with her own thoughts and emotions as well as others’, hoping to inspire others to do the same along the way. You can find her stories, poetry, and musings at www.anhelitalee.wordpress.com, and her photographs on Instagram @whatanhelitaleesees