I was born in 1974 and therefore grew up in the 1970s and 1980s. There are a lot of things I remember very clearly from my time growing up (and some that I don’t). What I do know is that all of these memories are real. I can remember the color of the first telephone we had in our house… and how it had a long, dangling cord that I would sit on and swing back and forth when I was a wee, little child. I can remember the brand name of the flush valve handle that was on the toilet in that house, the tile pattern in dad’s den, the color of the carpet dad bought at the local hotel when they remodeled (I think it was then a Best Western and still is), the phone numbers as well as addresses of all of my local friends (y’know, within the square block I was allowed to travel without crossing Stephens street or Garden Valley Boulevard). I can even remember the toilet paper that we used at that time (and found some on eBay -which I purchased for my mother for Christmas, despite it not being produced for more than 30 years).
I have very definite and solid memories of all of this.
Since the three of us children were all of different ages, we owned all of the typical books of the day which a child of any age would possess: All the Golden Books, pretty much every Hardy Boys ever written (we were definitely missing some, but always checked at yard sales), a ton of Choose Your Own Adventure books, and the Berenstain Bears. The book list is in no particular order except to place the Berentstain Bears last. The point being that we had a lot of books that we read pretty much every night. Whatever time “bedtime” was, we could read for an hour before that to keep the lights on.
In the last several years, I have seen a lot of people posting about the “Mandela Effect”. The argument is basically that my memory is wrong because they remember it differently. That argument is about the biggest pile of excrement I’ve ever seen.
When I was still a wee lad, my brother Dan happened to find a Berenstain Bears log/house/fallen tree at a yard sale. He saw that sucker before I did and snatched it up for whatever price a second-hand, kids toy sold for in the 1970s (definitely less than a buck). You could fold down the front of that log/house/fallen tree to make the bears play within it and then fold it back up to make it look like a log again. I’m only saying you could fold it because I’m almost certain that velcro didn’t exist at the time and I can’t find an example of it on eBay or any vintage toy websites.
I was envious of brother Dan and Covetous of that toy. Yes, it was a much simpler time. One thing I know for certain is that when that log/house/fallen tree was closed up, it said: “The Berenstain Bears”. It did not say “Bearenstein”. I know that 100% and as viewed with my own eyes. If everyone else remembers it differently, that’s on them…
Next up: Looney Tunes…
TV back in the day wasn’t what it is today. You just had to watch what was on. For me, that was mostly cartoons on whatever network was playing them. They were pretty easy to find since there were only 4 real channels (ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS). Later, UHF started to offer some content more similar to what we see today (a bunch of random shit that appeals to a very small market) but at the time, it was just the 4.
I watched a ton of these cartoons growing up. They either displayed a “Looney Tunes” or “Merrie Melodies” logo at the start and end, depending on evidently a bunch of stuff I don’t know about and don’t care to educate myself about. They were called: “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” -see below.
It seems that now people are remembering “Looney Tunes” as “Looney Toons.” No. Just No.
I remember them firmly from my youth and always wondered why the focus was on the terrible music that was playing. And if you’re trying to emulate something with “melodies” in the name, does “toon” or “tune” make more sense?
I think I can explain this one…
Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes (same studio, same time period) were appealing to my parents. With the music, I guess?…
Somewhere around 1990, a new series was released called “Tiny Toon Adventures.” That series took away the “tune” and replaced it with “toon”.
And since those who believe the Mandela Effect is real aren’t great at looking back to determine if anything actually happened, there are claims that our minds were collectively wiped to “mis-remember” the names of shows from damn near a hundred goddam years ago…
If I had the power to alter people’s minds, I wouldn’t waste it on cartoons older than I am, or toys that no one cared about in the first place. I’d waste it on getting hot girls to send me nudie pix. That’d be a great use of time/resources.