Way Back When: Tom & Jerry

We recently bought the boys a “Tom & Jerry” DVD—something we found at Target for $5. I guess as a concerned parent, you could argue it promotes violence, not playing together well or not being kind to your neighbor. And from the more prevalent smacking of things against other people's heads by B2 here lately, some of the arguments may have a very valid point. But it is funny. And slapstick. Plus you can always justify certain episodes as lessons in loving your enemies—especially the ones where Tom and Jerry team up, working together to overcome a shared nemesis, like Spike the bulldog…

OK, maybe not.

But anyway, I loved these cartoons growing up, watching them over and over each weekday after school. And much to my delight, the boys loved them too. The DVD had 15 episodes on it, and with each one, they cracked up—huge belly laughs. Sure, aside from the animated bedlam, they also have their share of other things that aren’t entirely appropriate for little ones (especially those occasional racial caricatures, and to a lesser degree all those loaded guns in the house—did they live in a militia’s compound, or what?), but overall I think it’s pretty harmless. And much better than the crazy crap you see on Cartoon Network.

I actually found myself still enjoying them too, as brought back a lot of memories, and any time a part of your past generation reconnects with a new one, it’s a very cool thing. Unless it’s my parachute pants. Or mullets. Or one of these (though I never had one. No really, I’m serious).