Flashback to Childhood Heroes

One of the nice thing about kids are the memory tripwires they trigger now and again; some of them painful/bittersweet, some of them warm and tender.  I’ve had a few of those memories bubble up over the last few weeks, one in particular I couldn’t help but talk about today—mostly  because I laughed myself silly remembering just how passionate I’d been on the subject.

The topic?

Superheroes.

Like a lot of other folks, we recently got a wave of winter weather which resulted in three consecutive snow days.  Now, with the advent of tablets and You Tube, my kids don’t gravitate to DVDs as much as they used to, but their inability to get out of the house had them stretching their normal boredom boundaries.  It was when my youngest came down with a boxed set I picked up several years ago as an impulse Christmas buy that I was jolted down memory lane.

Yeah, baby.  Wonder Woman – The Complete First Season.  It even includes the pilot episode.  I still remember that first show, the one where Steve Trevor ends up on Paradise Island and the women all compete to see who’ll be the one to take him back.  Something about the big reveal when Linda Carter took off the cheesy wig and her mom learns her kiddo’s about to fly the coup stuck with me for months as a kid.  I wanted to be Wonder Woman.  I even had a scrapbook, dedicated to Paradise Island.  (I know–weird, right?)

That got me thinking about another, far more embarrassing, amount of superhero adoration…albeit on a much different level.

The Six Million Dollar Man.

<Sigh>

Lee Majors was my first love.  I was seven and still pretty untainted by reality.  So much so that, before the show would come on at night, I would literally straighten up the living room so it would be nice and neat in case he saw it through the TV.

Yeah, like I said—far more embarrassing.  But, man, those are good memories.  Sheer, innocent joy.

What about you?  What were your favorite superheroes growing up?  Any fantastical memories you can look back on and still feel that unique tingle of amazement that only comes with the innocence of childhood?

One thing’s for sure.  Me and the little one are gonna be doing some mother/daughter bonding with a certain DVD set this holiday season.  I can’t wait.