A Song of my Childhood
It was the middle of September in 1993, a small wheezing child with terrible allergies, and extremely large glasses comes hopping off bus 4, in the small village of Verona Illinois. He walks into the house after completing a hard day of first grade, the only thing on his mind at this point is watching some cartoons and getting a snack. This day however was different, a new cartoon is about to premier and this young boy was not prepared for the love he would have for it. The crazy antics of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, the ever scheming duo of Pinky and the Brain, and of course the pigeons known only as the Wise Feathers resembling the Chicago mobsters of the 20’s. Oh yes my friends, the Animaniacs premiered that year and it was nothing short of Amazing.
I did love this show for the crazy things they did, and how funny it was, along with a lot of the friends in my grade. We would come to school and quote lines from the cartoon, and act like the characters. I would say “Hello Nurse!” to the school nurse, not knowing the context or reason as to why they said it in the show, I just thought it was funny. At the time all it was to me was a funny cartoon that I enjoyed when I got home from school, a time waster before my mom made me do homework and eat dinner before it was bed time. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought this cartoon, or the people that acted in it would have such an affect on me 25 years later.
On August 24th of this year Chris and I went to Wizard World Comic Con Chicago, we enjoyed buying comics we needed to fill our collections, looking at all of the different cosplay, and checking out artist alley to try and connect with fellow creators. It was an amazing experience just doing that, but there is another part of the show where actors and entertainment people will take pictures and sign autographs. I was dead set on meeting Kevin Conroy, the voice behind my all time favorite comic book character in Batman: The Animated Series. To me this was going to be the highlight of the event, and while it was something i will never forget, and made me a happy, still wheezing adult, I wasn’t prepared for the next person we would meet. Rob Paulson, while we were headed over to his booth I wasn’t as excited as Chris, but I was still very interested in meeting him. On the way over we had the idea of filming him and maybe getting a character out of him, then it struck me. The song with all the countries in it from the Animaniacs cartoon, I wonder if he’ll sing that? It was a long shot, so I thought. We simply asked if he would sing the song, and to our amazement, he said, absolutely!
We stood next to him and as he immediately got into character, Yakko Warner was then standing in front of me singing a song I can vividly remember watching all those days ago after stepping off of the bus from first grade. My mom making dinner in the kitchen, and me sitting on the floor in my living room laughing at Yakko sing all of the countries of the world. The nostalgia hit me like a ton of bricks, I was that kid again. I got awkwardly emotional, and honestly could not believe this was happening in front of my eyes. That was a moment I will truly never forget, it was a voice of my childhood, and a song that will always make me smile. So thank you Rob Paulson, for the work you have done, continue to do, and the generosity of taking the time out to do that. It was an incredible experience to say the least, and one I will cherish forever. You can watch that experience below from Snarf Comics Youtube page.
Jerry