thanks for the memories

One of my childhood friends has passed away. He was 95. How could that be? Well, any child that grew up from the 60s on thru the 90s that watched animation on television saw something that came from his animation studios. If you knew Fred, Wilma, Barney, Tom, Jerry, George, Jane, Yogi, Scooby, Shaggy...or any number of characters they created, you knew Joe Barbera. He and Bill Hanna were your friends. Perhaps I loved Disney and the boys of Termite Terrace and Tex a bit more, but that doesn't change the impact on me and love and admiration I have for Hanna-Barbera. Heck, just sheer exposure and quantity alone made them influential.
Tex Avery has been gone for a long time. Mel Blanc (sheer genius) has as well. Disney died when I was young. Chuck Jones passed away not too long ago. Bill Hanna passed away in 2001. Now Joe is gone. All childhood friends, all childhood heroes. All adult-hood heroes as well.
Now they are gone and I feel like part of my childhood has gone with him.
And yet... their legacy and work lives on. When my son "discovers" The Flinstones for the first time, my childhood is restored. When I watch Yogi Bear with my kids it all comes back.
Thanks Joe. For everything.





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