I
am not sure exactly if you remember the blog entries that I did way
back in February 2012, but on February 18 of that month, I had a bit
of a discussion on the California Raisins, a group of Claymation
raisins that ended up becoming the mascot for the food of the same
name. The designs for the raisins were created by animator Will
Vinton.
Well,
did you know that the California Raisins were one of the main
fixtures in a Christmas special that originally aired twenty-five
years ago? It's true! Have a look and see for yourselves.
Now
this clip brings me great happiness in being able to see it again,
mainly because I remember being a kid and not being able to take my
eyes off of the television screen whenever it came on. The whole
television special was pure magic, and as far as I'm concerned, Will
Vinton created a holiday masterpiece with this special.
At
the same time, it makes me quite sad because I honestly can't
remember the last time I actually watched the special in its
entirety. It used to air on CBS when I was a child all the time for
about five years after it debuted, but around the mid-1990s, it just
seemed to stop airing. And for the life of me, I can't understand
why that was.
At
any rate, I really wanted to make sure that I brought up this
television special for “The Pop Culture
Addict's Advent Calendar”
for today because for one, a lot of the younger readers of this blog
may not know what this show is...and two, readers who are my age or
older might have some holiday flashbacks coming back to them.
It's
the least I can do for Will Vinton, the man behind “A Claymation
Christmas Celebration”.
It
seems almost hard for me to believe that this television special
first aired twenty-five years ago, on December 21, 1987! I was in
first grade then! My goodness how time flies.
But
you know, even if someone was tuning into the television special for
the first time, I don't think they would have ever guessed that the
show was 25 years old upon first glance. To me, that's how timeless
“A Claymation Christmas Celebration” was.
Critics
also praised the holiday special, and in 1988, the show even won an
Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program...a well-deserved honour
as far as I am concerned.
There
is nothing that would make me happier than being able to post the
television special in its entirety for everybody to see...but
unfortunately, I am unable to, because I simply cannot find a copy of
it online (and I am really, really regretting taping over the copy
that I had recorded on VHS).
Luckily,
there are some stand-alone clips on video sharing sites from the
special, so I'll just have to make do with those. Some will be
embedded onto the blog itself...others I'll post a link. I think I
can make it work regardless.
It's
hard to describe the way that the special is presented, but the best
way that I can explain it is that it's kind of like a cross between
television coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and a
Siskel & Ebert movie review.
Actually,
come to think of it, the two hosts of the program do sort of resemble
Roger Ebert and the late Gene Siskel.
You
know how on those Thanksgiving parades, you see clips of the two
hosts describing various floats before cutting to a scene of the
float itself? Well, that's similar to how “A Claymation Christmas
Celebration” runs. You see our two emcees hosting from an exact
replica of London's Christmas Square...the two hosts being Rex (Tim
Connor), a tyrannosaurus who is far gentler than his prehistoric
counterparts, and proves to be one smart cookie, and Herb (Johnny
Counterfit), a styracosaurus whose huge appetite overcompensates for
his lack of brain power.
Together,
they are the people who introduce the viewing audience to the clips
of the Christmas songs that are prominently featured in “A
Claymation Christmas Celebration”. I suppose that you could also
say that this Christmas special could be slightly inspired by
MTV...but it's kind of a stretch.
I
suppose that you want to know what some of these songs are. Fear
not. I'll hook you up.
Have
you heard of the song, “We Three Kings of Orient Are” (usually
just shortened to “We Three Kings”)? At first it seems like a
classic Christmas moment with the Three Kings singing as their camels
wait patiently beside them. But as you will see HERE, there's a bit
of a twist, and yes it involves those camels.
Sometimes
the Christmas carols don't even need to have lyrics presented with
them, provided that the soundtrack enhances a comical scene. When
you combine pair of walrus figure skaters and a half-dozen of the
unluckiest penguins that ever lived, with the song “Angels We Have
Heard On High”, you get a scene like THIS one.
I
think the most beautiful scene of the whole Christmas special is this
one below, set to the classic Christmas carol “O Christmas Tree”.
Come and sit down, and watch it with me, will you?
I
think that this clip alone is probably the one that cements the
special as a holiday classic. I think that it is the one clip that
best displays the magic of the holiday season through the eyes of
children. Images that can only come from the imagination of children
who still believe in the magic of the season. I must say that Will
Vinton's interpretation of this clip wasn't too far off from the
image that I always pictured as a child (and I admit that as an
adult, I still carry that magic with me today).
And
Vinton's interpretation of the classic carol “Joy To The World”
is equally visually appealing to the audience. Have a look for
yourselves below.
I
think that's part of the reason why I love this special so much. For
a person like myself who is easily stimulated by bright colours and
energetic, happy images, this television special was the perfect one
to watch. That's why I am so bummed that the show is very difficult
to find now. I'd do anything to get my hands on a copy of the entire
special again...
...well,
within limitations anyway. I don't do public nudity.
And
would you believe that if it wasn't for “A Claymation Christmas
Celebration”, I would never have learned what the meaning of the
word “wassailing” was? In between the videos of the Christmas
carols, Rex was trying to clarify to Herb the true meaning (and
pronunciation) of the term “wassailing” (as in the Christmas
carol “Here We Come a Wassailing”). Unfortunately, the running
gag is that a group of characters would come down the street
completely butchering the main chorus of the song.
When
you have a kennel of dogs singing about “waffling”, a gaggle of
geese singing about “waddling”, and a herd of pigs singing about
“wallowing”, Rex gets slightly annoyed and is aggravated by Herb
caring more about the treats that the dogs, geese, and pigs feed him
than the actual meaning of the word. But just as Rex begins to lose
hope, a miracle occurs.
And
there you have it...our look back on “A Claymation Christmas
Celebration”. But before we end this blog off, there's one song
that I have left off the discussion on purpose. It's because the
song happens to be my all-time favourite on the whole special, and
you know what they say about saving the best for last...
I
think that about wraps things up.
Coming
up on DAY #9...we pay tribute to a man who died a tragic death
thirty-two years ago, and play a Christmas song that is still wildly
popular today.
It’s Day #7 in “The Pop Culture Addict’s Advent Calendar”,
which means that we’ve been going at it with the holiday spirit for a whole
week!And there’s still quite a few days
left to go yet!
You know, one thing that I always liked about the
holidays is the idea of holiday traditions.I’m a very traditional person when it comes to celebrating Christmas,
and I doubt that this will ever change.As much as some people like change and doing different things during the
holidays, there’s something comforting about knowing what to expect every
year.To me, if there wasn’t a turkey
and ham dinner on the table, a Christmas tree set up with hundreds of
ornaments, and watching countless holiday specials on television, it just
wouldn’t seem like Christmas.
Of course, no matter how much effort one puts into
having a one hundred per cent perfect holiday, there are always little things
that can make or break a holiday that people simply cannot control.Hams can get overcooked, or even burned.A single bulb blowing out on a string of
lights can make the whole holiday display pitch black, and the satellite dish
can malfunction with just the right amount of freshly fallen snow.
And depending on the situation, your holiday could
end up anywhere from a mild inconvenience, or complete chaos.
Mind you, in many cases, these imperfections in a
person’s holiday plans are minor, and although it might take a few months,
people can look back on those mishaps and laugh them off, wondering why they
got so upset in the first place.
After all, there’s always somebody else out there
who has it a lot worse than you do.
And that’s essentially what the theme of today’s
blog is all about.It talks about an
annual Christmastime tradition in the wonderful place known as the UK, in which
millions of people gather around the “telly” on Christmas night to watch other
people celebrating Christmas.
The catch?The people on the television are usually having the Christmas season
from hell.
Although this goes back to the earlier point that
I was making earlier.As bad as your
Christmas celebrations may have gone, there is always someone else who is
having a worse day than you.In fact, it
wouldn’t surprise me if that was the main reason why so many people watch this
particular BBC show on television every Christmas...to feel better about their
own holiday mishaps, knowing that they could never be as bad as the drama
surrounding their favourite Albert Square residents.
Yes, we’re going to be looking at the BBC dramatic
serial, EastEnders.In particular, the
many Christmas storylines that the show has done over its twenty-seven year
history.
Before we get into that though, let’s have a look
at a brief history of the program, shall we?
EastEnders was created by the late Julia Smith and
the late Tony Holland in late 1984, and aired its first episode on February 19,
1985.The show itself is set in the East
End borough of Walford E20 London (a fictional address since London’s post
codes only go up to E18), and depicts the trials and tribulations of the residents
of Albert Square.
The best way that I can describe EastEnders is
that it is sort of like a daytime soap opera, only the program is much
grittier, deals with more controversial subjects, and airs during the prime
time schedule.
At the time that EastEnders debuted, it had to
deal with some tough competition.The
two main soap operas that were on at the time were “Coronation Street” and “Brookside”,
both of which were wildly popular in 1985.But by the end of the year, the program was the most-watched program in
Britain, and still manages to perform quite well as of 2012.The show is estimated to attract a 35-45%
audience share per episode and currently airs four episodes a week (each
weekday except Wednesdays unless otherwise specified).
EastEnders is quite popular in its native country,
but the show can currently be seen is quite a few countries all over the
world.Even some PBS stations are airing
episodes of EastEnders (albeit ones from 2004).As a result of me being so far behind, I actually had to do quite a bit
of research on storylines that aired after 2004.But, I do it for all of you because I love
writing this blog!
Anyway, I mentioned before that the most viewed
episodes of EastEnders were the Christmas episodes, and with good reason.You see, if you’re watching a soap opera in
the United States, you know that the good storylines will usually air during a “sweeps
month”.And in the United States, I would
say that May and November are the two months in which you’ll see all the
conclusions resolved and all the most explosive storylines and revelations
reaching their respective climaxes.
Not so in EastEnders.In fact, a lot of the British based soap
operas often air their best material the week leading up to Christmas, which I
suppose makes a lot of sense, since many people will likely be spending the
holidays at home together.
And while some American soap operas don’t even air
an episode on Christmas Day (or if they do, it’s some classic episode from
1989), in the UK, they air brand new episodes, sometimes even lasting 45 minutes
instead of the average 30 minute program.
In the case of EastEnders, the idea of people
having a very merry Christmas is...well...a rarity.
Okay, so those of you who saw the EastEnders 2003
Christmas episode where Kat Slater and Alfie Moon ended up getting married as
being a real heartwarming tale.And it
was.But as I said, that is a
rarity.And, in all honesty, that episode
became a bit of a letdown when you realize that nine years later, they’re on
the verge of splitsville.
You see, Christmas in Albert Square usually means
one of three things will happen.
-An affair is exposed destroying a
family forever
-A lie is exposed which sends a person
over the edge
-Somebody loses their life
Yep, those three things can destroy a holiday, don’t
you think?
Would you like some examples of what I mean?
Okay, so let’s begin with EastEnders’ first major
Christmas storyline.
CHRISTMAS 1986 – “HAPPY CHRISTMAS, ANGE”
Poor Angie
Watts.1986 just wasn’t her year.With her husband Den Watts having a
not-so-secret affair with his mistress, Angie was on the verge of a nervous
breakdown.She even almost commits
suicide over the whole mess.When she
learns that Den is planning to leave her to be with his mistress, Angie
concocted a rather devious scheme...tell Den that she has been diagnosed with a
terminal illness which has left her with only months to live.Feeling incredible guilt over the whole thing
after hearing Angie’s lie, Den ends his affair and stays with Angie.But when Angie accidentally blabbed her
secret out loud and Den overheard everything, he came up with a plan to get
revenge...and he did it at the Christmas party at the Queen Vic in 1986.His plan was so devious that you just have to
see it for yourself.With over thirty
million people tuning into the episode, it remains the most watched soap opera
episode in British history.
The
epilogue?Den was “killed off” in 1989,
brought back to life fourteen years later, and ended up being one of the few
EastEnders characters to be murdered twice!Angie meanwhile left Walford in 1988 and died off screen in the early
2000s.
(Also in 1986,
Arthur Fowler ended up having a nervous breakdown after stealing money from the
Christmas Club which saw him smashing up his own living room.Boy, 1986 was a rather bleak Christmas, wasn’t
it?)
CHRISTMAS 1992 – “DRINKING & DRIVING KILLS”
Pat Butcher may have been well known for her
no-nonsense attitude, her garish dress sense, and her larger-than-life
earrings...but on Christmas Eve 1992, Pat ended up adding another unwanted
label to her personality...drunk driver.That Christmas was supposed to be a happy one for Pat.She was in love with her then husband Frank
Butcher, and she had just started up her own taxicab business after financial
hardships forced them to sell the Walford Bed & Breakfast.Things were turning around for the Butcher
family...
...until Pat had one too many drinks and ended up
running over a teenage girl in the middle of the street.Paramedics tried to save the girl’s life, but
she ended up dying on New Year’s Eve, causing Pat to have a complete
breakdown.She eventually served a
six-month jail sentence in 1993 before returning to the Square later that year.She died peacefully on the first day of 2012.
CHRISTMAS 2002 – “ONE WEDDING AND A FUNERAL”
If it wasn’t for Martin Fowler, perhaps this
heading could have read “Two Weddings and No Funeral”.
It was a happy day for Billy Mitchell and Little
Mo Morgan, as the two tied the knot on Christmas Day, 2002 after a whole year
of battling Little Mo’s abusive husband.But that happiness was overshadowed by the fact that Sonia Jackson was
losing the love of her life.
You see...a week before Christmas, Jamie Mitchell
was innocently buying flowers for Sonia unaware that Martin and Spencer Moon were
speeding down the streets of Albert Square.Red flag #1 was the fact that Martin had just gotten his learner’s
permit, and Red Flag #2 was that Martin was texting and driving at the same
time.And this was in 2002, people!Let it be known that texting while driving
can kill!Just watch.
This was the end result of Martin’s stupidity.
Even more stupid?Martin and Sonia became a COUPLE two years later!I guess she forgave him for running over her
man?
CHRISTMAS 2004 – “KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY”
Technically, Sharon Watts and Dennis Watts weren’t
REALLY brother and sister by blood.Sharon was adopted by Den and Angie when she was just a baby.It certainly didn’t stop them from falling in
love with each other.One problem.Den was not going to take the news well at
all.One more problem.Zoe Slater was in love with Dennis as well,
and tricked him into staying with her by telling him that she was pregnant with
his child (even sleeping with DEN to try and keep the lie going).But as you’ll see HERE, secrets don’t stay
secret for long on EastEnders...
CHRISTMAS 2006 – “THE DEATH OF PAULINE FOWLER”
How do you say farewell to an EastEnders legend
after nearly twenty-two years of service?Well, in the case of Pauline Fowler, you turn her into a bitter shrew of
a woman who made everyone turn against her after spreading the lie that she was
dying of cancer.By that Christmas,
everyone had seemingly washed her hands of her.But that suited Pauline just fine, as she really didn’t want to spend
Christmas with anyone either.In fact,
she was planning to leave Walford to live with her daughter in the United
States and never come back.Dot Cotton
tried to get her to stay, but Pauline refused.Sonia confronted her with a slap that broke her fruit bowl.And by the end of the episode, Pauline was
found dead underneath Albert Square’s Christmas tree.And she didn’t exactly die of natural causes
either.She was murdered!
For weeks, everyone suspected Sonia was the
perpetrator, but in the end, the culprit was really Pauline’s second husband,
Joe Macer, who dealt Pauline a blow to the head which caused a hemorrhage.Joe met his maker in 2007 after being pushed
out of a window by...Dot, of all people?Oooh, I say!
CHRISTMAS 2007 – “MAX AND STACEY AND THAT DVD”
Once upon a time there was a boy named Bradley
Branning and a girl named Stacey Slater.At first they hated each other, but over time a friendship grew, and
that friendship blossomed into romance.By 2007, Bradley and Stacey were one of Walford’s happiest couples. And initially, Bradley’s father Max, and his
stepmother Tanya, were supportive of the couple.
But maybe Max was a little bit TOO supportive, as
within months he and Stacey embarked on a passionate affair that kept both
Bradley and Tanya in the dark.It didn’t
even matter that Tanya had given birth to hers and Max’s third child,
Oscar...for whatever reason, Max and Stacey could not stay away from each
other, and they thought that their secret affair would remain secret.
Well, that is until Max’s thirteen-year-old
daughter, Lauren, accidentally recorded a kiss that took place between Max and
Stacey.Lauren, feeling disgusted by the
whole thing, initially took the video, recorded it onto a DVD, and wrapped it
up as a Christmas present for Bradley!She did have second thoughts at the end, and tried to retrieve the gift
back...but somehow the package got opened anyway, and well...this is what they
saw.
CHRISTMAS 2009 AND 2010 – “WHO KILLED ARCHIE MITCHELL?”
This storyline was so huge that it lasted an
entire year!It began at Christmas, and
ended the following Christmas!
Everyone in Walford wanted Archie Mitchell
dead.Archie after all had raped one
character, was indirectly responsible for the death of his own granddaughter,
and ended up humiliating Peggy Mitchell, Ian Beale, Phil Mitchell, Janine
Butcher, and countless other Walford residents.Is it any wonder that he met his demise on December 25, 2009?
For the next two months, viewers tried to figure
out who the murderer was.Was it Ronnie
Mitchell?Phil Mitchell?Peggy Mitchell?BEN Mitchell?
Turns out, it wasn’t a Mitchell at all.And when EastEnders aired a live episode on
February 19, 2010 to celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary, we watched
Bradley’s life come to an end as one character confessed all.
Yes, you heard right.Stacey Slater-Branning, the woman who became
a widow on her wedding day was the person who killed Archie Mitchell.I mean, if you ended up getting raped by
Archie Mitchell, would you not want to get revenge too?
For months, only Max Branning knew the truth about
Stacey being the murderer, and life went on as normally as it could.But by September of that year, things were
beginning to fall apart.
Stacey ended up accidentally telling Peggy
Mitchell that she had killed Archie, and Peggy was about to go to the police
with the information.But then the Queen
Vic burned down, and Peggy left town, keeping Stacey’s secret, but urging her
to plead guilty for burning down the pub (in an effort to protect her own son
who DID start the fire).Meanwhile,
Lauren ended up discovering the truth about Stacey, told Janine Butcher-Malloy,
and Janine, noticing how Stacey was trying to steal her husband Ryan away from
her (Ryan actually fathered Stacey’s baby, Lily), revealed the truth about
Stacey killing Archie exactly one year after the fact in the very same spot
where Archie died.
The story ended when Janine and Stacey got into
one last confrontation and Janine stabbed herself in hopes of framing Stacey
for attacking her.But with help from
Ryan and Max (and with the blessing of Ronnie Mitchell who felt that everyone
had suffered enough from Archie’s evil mind), Stacey and Lily got away.
So, there you have it.Christmas on EastEnders.Doesn’t it just make your Christmas
celebrations seem a little bit more peaceful?
Coming up on Day 8...we’re going to be celebrating
Christmas...claymation style!
“The
Pop Culture Addict's Advent Calendar”
continues with Day #6. This is another edition of the brand new
feature known as the Thursday Diaries, and I'm going to keep these
series of personal reflections somewhat holiday themed for the next
few weeks.
In
today's edition, I talk about something that I really want out of
life...as well as the realization that as of right now, I am nowhere
near ready for it. Confused? Read on.
December
6, 2012
It's
hard to believe that Christmas is less than twenty days away now.
You know that's one downside to growing older. It seems as though
the older you get, the faster time flows.
I
remember being a kid and thinking that it would be forever before
Christmas came around. The anticipation of waiting for Christmas was
almost maddening. And now as a thirty-one year old, it seems as
though Christmases come at me with the speed of a bullet firing out
of a gun! Of course, that could partly be related to the fact that
stores often set up their holiday displays on the first of November.
Now,
I get that some people seem to believe that I am a bit of a Scrooge
when it comes to the holidays. And yes, I do tend to take popular
Christmas songs and redo them in the style known as the
“Bastardization of Christmas Past”. But, hey, if you were forced
to listen to holiday music for eight and a half hours in a row at
your workplace, it would drive you crazy too.
The
truth is that I love the holidays and everything about them.
Holidays are a time in which you enjoy people's company, and you do
nice things for people just because you feel like it (although to be
fair, one should be doing these sorts of things all year round).
There's
just something about the month of December that makes me smile for
whatever reason. Even if a person were to get in my face and yell at
me, I'd still smile happily like a goon because its the season to do
so.
(Besides,
the more I show a smile to a disgruntled person, the more disgruntled
the person gets. Merry Christmas!)
Still,
there's one thing that I feel that is missing when it comes to the
holidays. And that's what I want to talk about here.
You
know, I do a lot of social networking to try and promote myself as a
writer so that I can get people to read my work, enjoy what I have to
say, offer me a job...
...okay,
so that last one hasn't happened yet. At least I'm hopeful.
Anyway,
part of the appeal to promoting my work on social networking sites is
being able to share my thoughts with hundreds, maybe even thousands
of people who might not have been able to before. And, while I'm
having fun posting my work, I'm also enjoying reading other people's
posts, and seeing what people I haven't seen in years are up to.
I
must admit that it is a bit surprising to see how many of my
classmates from elementary school have settled down with a spouse and
children of their own. Now, don't get me wrong, I am very happy for
my friends, and I'm sure that every one of them are happily putting
up the Christmas tree and taking their little ones to see Santa at
the mall.
I
guess what I'm trying to say is that I want that too.
Yes,
the holidays are all about spending time with loved ones, and don't
get me wrong, I'll be spending this holiday season with my family
members. And, yes, I do get a lot of joy wrapping up gifts for my
niece and three nephews.
You
know, I'll come clean right now. At Christmastime, I spoil them
rotten. And I make no apologies for it.
You
see, quite often around the holidays, I often get lectured by other
family members about going a little bit overboard in terms of holiday
shopping. Last year, I actually remember feeling quite terrible
after certain members of my family sort of responded less than
favourably over the idea that I did give a lot of gifts out to my
nephews and niece. Whether it was because they felt that I had
upstaged them in some manner, or whether they were concerned that I
had spent so much money (which I really didn't because I know how to
shop on a budget), I don't really know. I might never know.
To
be honest, they didn't understand why I would be so generous to my
nephews and niece. But for me, the answer is crystal clear. Since I
don't have kids of my own, I suppose I spoil my nephews and niece to
fill some sort of void in my life.
I
guess I'm one of those people who feels that the holidays would be
made even more special if there were kids around. I suppose that I
could have the same feeling if I was the photographer at a “Take
Your Picture With Santa” display, or if I was volunteering at a
hospital for sick children. But I don't know...I guess I just always
had the image of having my own family by now, and really immersing
myself in the holiday spirit helping my kids trim the tree, bake
cookies, and singing Christmas carols around a fire (or at the very
least, the DVD of six hours of continuous Yule log burning).
However,
with that dream comes the harsh reality of my situation. As much as
I want a wife and children, I know that I am in no position to have
them at this stage in my life.
Let's
talk reality here. My living situation is such that I can't afford a
decent place to live. It's cramped, tiny, and my neighbours are not
exactly the most friendliest crowd in the bunch. I don't like where
I am at right now, but it's all that I can afford. Certainly not the
kind of place where I would ideally want to raise a family.
And
while we're on the subject, in order to have a child...I kind of need
to have someone to have a child with. And I'm nowhere near at the
stage of my life or have the emotional maturity to so much as get
involved in a serious relationship with anyone. I've made a lot of
progress in trying to figure out who I am, but I still have a long
ways to go. I would ideally need to feel as comfortable as I can
about myself before attempting to bring someone else into my life to share it with me. To
some of you reading this, you may be scratching your heads at that
one, but others of you will get this right away.
I
guess what I'm trying to say is that I do want to have a family of my
own...but at the same time, I know that it can't happen right now
because I'm not ready. I always told myself that if I ever got
married and had a family of my own, I would make it work. And maybe
one day it will happen, and I will make it work just fine. But the
responsibility of having a family is a really big one...and at the
age of thirty-one, I don't know if I can handle it.
And
who knows? Maybe being a husband and father just isn't in the cards
for me at all...and if it ends up that I leave this Earth without
that, so be it. But, as of right now, I still would like that dream
to come true, so I have no choice but to hold on to it unless I have
that realization.
Even
if I have to wait until I am fifty to make it happen.
I guess for now, I'll just have to be content spoiling my nephews and
niece. Who knows? Maybe 2013 will completely change my whole
perspective.
Until
then, happy holidays to you and yours!
Coming
up on Day #7, we're going to be taking a look at a BBC dramatic
series that knows how to ring in a holiday season...only their
Christmases are filled with affairs, scandals, and murder!
I thought that I would begin Day #5 of “The Pop Culture
Addict’s Advent Calendar” by explaining what I will be doing on
this, and the next three Wednesdays.
As many of you know, I have been devoting
Wednesday blog entries to a feature known as the Wednesday Gift Shop.And it basically focuses on items that can be
found in a gift shop.You know, toys,
games, magazines, books...things like that.
Because we’re getting into the holiday season (and
because a lot of kids out there are likely asking for toys in their stockings
and presents under the tree – or near the Hanukkah menorah if you please), I
thought that I would talk about toys and games that I received as Christmas
gifts, as well as a loving story about family and tradition in the process.
So why don’t I begin with the story, and work my
way up to the topic of discussion?
I’m sure many of us remember grabbing a piece of
paper and our best red or green crayons and making out our lists for Santa
Claus.We would list a few items that we
really wanted for Christmas morning so that Santa could have an idea of what to
bring us.As children, I bet many of us
made lists that were quite lofty, filled with dozens of big ticket items.I know that I certainly asked Santa for the
impossible a few times when I was a kid.
But that was part of the surprise.A lot of times I would make a Christmas list
filled with some of the most expensive items that I could think of, and to my
surprise, Santa ended up bringing at least a couple of them.
Of course, some of the items that I put on my
Christmas list in the past were quite silly, and I knew that I wouldn’t get
them no matter how good a boy I was.I
suppose it was kind of unrealistic to expect my own boat, to star in an Archie
comic, and to own the entire state of Hawaii.At least nobody could fault me for having a vivid imagination as a
child.J
Anyway, I suppose you’re wondering where this
story is leading.Well, it dates back to
the second grade.Our teacher handed
everybody in the class a sheet of paper, and we all had to record at least
three things that we wanted for Christmas 1988.Now, 1988 was a rather bad year for me.Not only did I start the year off by finishing up first grade with a
teacher I openly despised, but in September of that year, I was hospitalized
for a week due to a severe asthma attack.Somewhere in my childlike mind, I believed that because I had gone
through so much that year, I could really go crazy with my Christmas list that
year.
It didn’t matter that my parents tried to explain
to me that the North Pole was experiencing a recession and that Santa was
shopping on a strict budget that year.I
had it in my mind that Santa Claus was going to find a way to make a miracle happen
that year.
When it came down to making my list that year, I
settled on what I believed was three items that were reasonable for Santa to
bring.I think this was my list.
1.Every board game in the world
2.A life-sized playhouse for me to play
in
3.My very own computer
Keep in mind that all three of these items in 1988
would probably have cost upwards of at least a couple of thousand dollars
(well, okay, maybe the board games wouldn’t have cost that much, but then
again, do you know how many board games there are on this planet?).
Oh, and did I mention that my teacher decided to
take all of our letters to the local newspaper and that the local newspaper
printed all of our letters in the newspaper’s “Letters to Santa” section?
Let’s just say this.Most of the kids asked for Hot Wheels Cars,
skipping ropes, G.I. Joe action figures and Barbie dolls.And there was my list which looked as if one
of Donald Trump’s children had written it!I suppose that looking back on that time of my life, it did seem sort of
greedy on my part...but I was seven years old, and I didn’t know any better.At the time though, I was still convinced
that I would get at least one of the things on my list.I kept hope alive.
So, December 25, 1988 came around, and I was half
expecting to see the room overflowing with perfectly wrapped board games, a
computer sitting in the corner of the living room, and a life-size playhouse in
the middle of my backyard.
What I ended up getting wasn’t exactly what I had
wanted though.
Instead of every board game in the world, I ended
up only getting two (“Don’t Break The Ice” and “Don’t Spill The Beans”, in case
you were wondering).Instead of a
life-size playhouse, I ended up getting a miniature one that was manufactured
by Fisher-Price.
And this is what I ended up getting for a computer.
You are looking at the classic children’s toy
known as the Whiz-Kid computer.It was
quite popular in the 1980s, and I think that many kids ended up owning
one.But I remember the seven-year-old
me being very disappointed in the gift.I didn’t want a computer like a Whiz-Kid.I wanted the same exact computer that was set
up in the classroom, where we could play games like “Pick-a-Dilly Pair” and “Number
Munchers”.
In fact, when I first looked at the Whiz-Kid, I
didn’t even know how to turn it on.And
to be completely honest, my parents didn’t know either.It actually took a couple of days before
anyone figured it out.Luckily my eldest
sister showed all of us how to turn it on and get it working.
And I will be the first to admit that aside from
getting the plush version of Simon from “Alvin & The Chipmunks” that year,
the Whiz-Kid computer was my favourite gift from Christmas 1988.
Released in the mid-1980s by V-Tech Electronics,
the Whiz-Kid was designed almost like a desktop computer, complete with a disk
drive (albeit a non-working one), and keyboard.The screen was a brilliantly coloured one with a picture of an owl
dressed as a professor, and had bright, cheerful music playing each time you answered
a question right or wrong.
An interesting looking machine, don’t you think?
So, here’s how the machine worked.You see that stack of cards that are
displayed right next to the Whiz-Kid computer?Each card was a link to a various activity.As you can see in the diagram, card #A-1
appears to be a card about learning how to play music.
And if I could find a way to blow up the image of
the keyboard, you’ll see that some of the letter keys have writing underneath
them that have the words “do – re – mi – fa – so- la – ti”.If you had the music card inside of the
little card holder, the keys would play music.If you had a different card that featured the subject of spelling, then
the keys would be the corresponding letter.
You see (and here’s the genius of the Whiz-Kid
computer), each card must have had some sort of hidden barcode within them that
caused the card reader to determine the kind of activity that the card was, and
programmed the keys accordingly.It was
a neat piece of machinery.I suppose one
could say that the toy was ahead of its time.
The Whiz-Kid computer also came with a generic
cartridge that one could plug into the side of the computer (kind of similar to
the same technology that Nintendo used to plug their video games into a Game
Boy).By the late 1980s, there were
several cartridges available, along with individual packages of cards that were
specifically designed to target a particular subject.There were packages that dealt with word
games, packages that dealt with mathematics, and packages that dealt with just
making music.There were also packages
that catered to different age groups making the level of difficulty vary as
well.
(Note to one self...I made the mistake of buying
the blue cards which focused on junior high school level geometry...which as an
eight year old boy, I knew nothing about.But hey, by the time I did enter seventh grade, I always ended up acing
geometry.I guess it was the power of
the Whiz-Kid computer!)
Oh, and if you happened to lose one or all of your
cards?No problem! The Whiz-Kid computer also came with an
instruction booklet which not only showed you how to use the computer, but also
came with a list of codes.Each code
corresponded with a card.All you would
have to do is enter the code at the title screen, and voila...the program would
start up without the card.The
instruction booklet also came with a selection of tunes that one could learn to
play using the music card.You could
learn how to play “Ode to Joy”, “Happy Birthday”, and even a Christmas carol!
And in the late 1980s, V-Tech even released a
Talking Whiz-Kid machine, which worked almost the same way as the original
Whiz-Kid, only the machine talked back to you!I never ended up seeing the Talking Whiz-Kid, but I hear that it was a
neat little toy.
So, that’s my story regarding the Whiz-Kid
computer.It might not have been exactly
the computer that I requested for that Christmas, but it ended up providing a
lot of wonderful memories and good times regardless.I suppose if you look at it from that
perspective, Santa brought me everything that I wanted that year.I suppose that getting the Whiz-Kid computer
also taught the seven-year-old me a big lesson...not to ask for the impossible,
and to be happy with what I ended up getting.
I think that’s a lesson that we could all stand to
learn.
So, that’s Day #5 out of the way.The fun continues tomorrow with the sixth day
of the Advent Calendar.It’s the first Thursday
diary entry of December, and I talk about a dream that I have always wanted to
come true...but unfortunately it’s also a dream that I am nowhere near ready
for.
Confused?Don’t worry.It will become clear
on Day #6.