Here is why I am laughing today.  Not sure if I feel old, or just wiser and smarter.  (or is that, wiser and snarkier?)  I had a most amusing encounter with the kid bagging my groceries at the supermarket today.  After pushing Lulu around the market  in one of those humungo, unnavigable shopping carts with the car in front, I was checking my stuff out.  (Only at check out did I remember how impossible it is to get to the food in the cart with the germy car in front, when the check out aisle is too narrow to stand on the side of the cart).

One of my items was a small Transformers toy.  So the kid bagging the groceries said to me, "I can’t believe they still have these things.  They were popular when I was a kid".  When he was a kid.  Okay.  Trying really hard to not smirk or outright laugh, I reminded this high school kid of the recent Transformers movies, which revived the marketing blitz of plastic paraphernalia.  And then, he did something I thought was reserved for the AARP set.  He actually said, "you know, there are no good cartoons or TV shows anymore, like when I was a kid".  OMG.  Seriously.  OMG.  Who are you, someone’s cranky, old grandfather?  Shaking your fist at your television yelling about the crap kids these days are watching?

This is a young man who never watched The Flintstones, Honeymooners,  or I Love Lucy reruns on UHF channels.  He probably doesn’t even know that once, lo-o-o-o-o-ong ago there were only 13 or so channels, and most of those were UHF and the reception was fuzzier than an AM radio station playing all pop hits, all the time.  And sometimes,  you needed to hold the antenna (!) on the TV in just the right position.  But I digress… (again…)

So I took the bait, and asked him which are those irreplaceable cartoons of his "youth"…  Ready for his critically acclaimed answers?  Rocko’s Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy.   At which point I smiled.  

"You know", I replied, Rocko’s Modern Life is still on some Nick channel or Cartoon Network or something like that.  Still around.  So you can’t really say it’s gone".  "Yeah, but they are all reruns!" he bemoaned.   More condescending smiles.  (guess from who??)

"Those are a bit past my childhood, I was already in college", I said next (somewhat stretching the truth a bit).  To which he answered… get ready for it… without missing a single beat… "yeah, I know".   Ugh.  Sigh.  More ugh.  Bigger sigh.

So now we’re moving beyond a chat about old cartoons, and we’ve taken a quick turn into a lesson about manners.  "Look, I’m under no delusions about my age, but really – instead of replying and agreeing so quickly, next time you might want to just let that kind of thing drop.  Or maybe not be so quick to agree."  Laughter from Modern Life Boy.  

But, ahh…  Ren and Stumpy.  I can absolutely get behind the insane genius that was Ren and Stumpy.  Even when I hated it, was disgusted by it, I loved it.  Happy Happy Joy Joy, and all that.  So, American pop culture-loving, ex-English Major that I am, I headed into another with age comes wisdom comment.  "A lot of cartoons on today would not be here if not for Ren and Stumpy"  I figured I could skip the more cultish, less mainstream cartoons that paved the way for Ren and Stumpy, since my food was almost packed up, and Lulu was grabbing at every piece of candy she could reach from her little plastic "car".  

Suddenly, I really had his interest.  "oh yeah, like what?"  "Well, Sponge bob, for starters".  He pondered this for a moment, suddenly enjoying the challenge presented by this old lady with the kid  and Brussels sprouts in her cart.  We discussed the finer points of how this could be true, and then he pulled out the conversational version of the ace up his sleeve.  

"Did you know the guy who created Sponge bob went to school here?"  

Now seriously, that is kinda cool.  Although I’ve resided in East Ishkabibel for over ten years, I am still mourning my previous, more urban existence.  (please don’t laugh at that, I am currently trying to curtail my fourth generation potty mouth, and East Ishkabibel is the first thing I thought of after deciding not to write East Bumf***…)  (and for those of you familiar with my real location – you know I love it here.  I really do.  It can be beautiful here.  But I just spent time in Brooklyn Heights,  and East I. is no Brooklyn Heights.  I was meant to walk city sidewalks on weekends to pick up bagels and the Sunday Times, not drive 15 minutes to the closest convenience store for round baked things that are winning no awards for pretending to be bagels)

After more amusing banter about how much fun it would be to have this cool alum at Commencement, and his offhand mention of vague "guys who helped to create MTV" who are also alumni of this regional high school, it was time to go.  

_{[Unfortunate side note:  In the writing of this post, doing my fact checking, I wiki'd Stephen Hillenburg, creator of Sponge bob Squarepants.  Seems he graduated from Savannah High School in Anaheim, CA.  I tried to find someone attached to Sponge bob who did attend East Ishkabibel Regional High School, and the closest was Doug Lawrence, the voice of Plankton and Larry the Lobster.  And he's just listed as being from a town near the big college town where our state university is located.  Not too far from here, but not exactly here either).   I checked with a friend who teaches there, who will be getting back to me and of course I will update...]}

So why write about this either very fun or very inane,  exchange in the supermarket?  Good question.  For starters, I haven’t been able to rally myself lately, to ponder on these pages the following more pressing topics:

1. more rambling about my evolving relationship with my religion  

2. Obama’s disappointing, civil liberties crushing "preventative detention" proposal or his also disappointing support for the new Graham-Lieberman secrecy law 

3. Current Conservative attack on Supreme Court Justice Nominee Sonia Sotomayor as a racist, liberal, judicial activist, – oh wait, she herself is not personally a racist, just her words are racist  

4. The tragic and depressing news about the murder of Dr. George Tiller by domestic terrorist Scott Roeder  

5. Not even the very happy and exciting news about  Gay Marriage in New Hampshire 

Not like I don’t have plenty to say about these important pieces of news (you know I do!)  They are important issues – but this week, for me, it’s all about hanging onto the good energy.  Being grateful for family, friends, and the many blessings that abound in my life.  Various things have happened to a few people close to me recently,  and these events are prompting me to try and be aware, to be grateful, to breathe. And now you know how a funny piece about the teenage supermarket bagger and Sponge bob turned into a more reflective missive.  

Yes, discussing the influence of Ren and Stumpy on Sponge bob with a bright teenager, is totally something I can wrap my frazzled brain around this week.  Dissecting pop culture as though it is literature has always been one of my favorite things to do.  A stolen moment of thoughtful fun in the midst of mundane errands is a very happy thing.  Finding myself smiling and singing in the car when a Steely Dan song pops up on the radio – instantly propelling me way back into my distant past, into a dimly lit, sweetly smoky, cheap tapestry draped dorm room – that is something to savor, to hang onto.  

I open the floor to you, Lizzie – or to any of you reading.  What makes you laugh, amuses you, makes you happy in your day to day?  Recurrent or a one-off, I’d like to hear it.