Casper & Friends

This was one of my favorite childhood cartoons. My favorite part was always when Casper would come up and be friendly and the other person (or animal) would shriek, "A GHOST!!!" More important is Casper's helpfulness and friendliness. He always was there for the downtrodden even when no one else was. An excellent example of this was an episode where a 5 year old boy wanted to play pirates with some older boys, who bluntly told him that he was too young to play pirates. But when Casper saw him, he became the boy's friend. If I remember the end of the episode correctly, the other boys accepted him by then. (Forgive me if I don't remember all the details right. I haven't seen this episode since Jimmy Carter was Preisdent.) For a time Casper appeared on this local children's program in Cleveland called BARNABY. That was the only part of BARNABY that my sisters and I liked, as the host was nearly inaudible. I've always really identified with Casper. Like Casper, I never scare people intentionally. But, like Casper, I've frequently scared people unintentionally. And sometimes people have refused to give me a chance, much like what happened to Casper.