It’s kind of weird how much I switch off holiday-wise after Halloween. Sure, there are aspects to some of the American holidays that get me excited, but there really is no other holiday that even remotely gets me jazzed besides the ‘ween. I like seeing my family during Christmas, but I’m getting to a near Scrooge level of bah-humbugging when it comes to the pageantry and gift giving. From a totally pop culture angle there isn’t much about Easter that floats my boat besides my first Cadbury Egg of the season (which is also subsequently my last as well.) I detest the pointlessness and card company greed of Valentine’s Day (not to mention that I can’t find sets of kid or cartoon inspired card sets that I dig anymore.) I don’t have the energy or interest in color-coordinating my clothing choices for St. Patrick’s Day. Fear of living in rough neighborhoods and a general Curmudgeon-ness has also deflated my love of the sound of fireworks during the 4th of July (not to mention my near non-existent general patriotism for being an American, and the fact that no one ever stops with the fourth to set off firecrackers and the like and it gets old real quick.) That leaves Thanksgiving, and again I find myself teetering dangerously toward falling out of love with the holiday.
I’ve never managed to wake up early enough to enjoy the Macy’s parade, I don’t watch football, and gorging myself until I pass out from all-too-rough heart palpitations isn’t as fun as it used to be (besides tarragon and thyme scented night sweats aren’t the most attractive prospect.) If the holiday has one thing going for it, it’s the autumn association with Halloween. Pumpkin iconography, sharing similar color schemes, and shelf space in a lot of stores in particular. This was a way-too-long intro for the following set of stickers in this week’s edition of Peel Here…
This sheet of stickers was released by Hallmark in 1984 and features a very weird video game theme that’s in line with the sort of made-up video games you’d find in an arcade in Springfield (in the Simpson’s.) I’m assuming (and this really is a stretch considering these are just silly stickers) that the Turkeyvision game was modeled after Pac-Man with a manic turkey (instead of our hungry round yellow hero) gobbling up candy corn in place of power pellets, and being chased by little pilgrims and Indians (instead of multi-colored speedy ghosts.)
Now that I’m thinking about it, I’d really dig a skin-able version of Pac-Man, especially if I could design my own character sprites. How much fun would it be to navigate a floating Charlie heard through a maze of candy pellets being chased by umpa lumpas (as a fer-instance?!?) Anyway, take these stickers as you will…
