Uncle Wiggily

A week ago Saturday, I visited Winterthur, the estate of a branch of the DuPont family. Those DuPonts really did things in a big way. The estate not only featured its own gardens, greenhouses, fishing ponds, and dairy herd, but it had its own railroad station. Beat that, Louis XIV and Versailles!

Winterthur's theme for this holiday season was Christmas, 1920. The estate was decorated as it would have been eighty years ago replete with Christmas trees and gifts of that era. The gift that struck me was the Uncle Wiggily board game. Uncle Wiggily's adventures on his way to Dr Possum's office for his rheumatism cure were a big part of my pre-school years. One glance at the board and sixty years melted away.

There in all their glory were Skillery Skallery Alligator, Woozy Wolf. Pipsisewah the Rhino, and the dreaded crow Skeezix ready to pounce. All featured gaping mouths full of sharp teeth. Surely, a rheumatoid, aged rabbit like Uncle Wiggily wouldn't stand a chance unless through capable card drawing, I could bring him to such friends as Peetie Bow Bow or Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy who would help him on his way.

Then I realized the differences between today for modern kids and 1920 for the DuPont kids or 1950 for me. Comparing today's "Candyland" to yesteryear's "Uncle Wiggily":

There's inherent violence (the rise of fascism or the Red Menace) in the toothy carnivores of the past but wholesome consumerism in the calorically-laden Lord Licorice, Princess Frostine, and Grandma Nut of today. We had to be slender and ready to combat the world's evils back then. Now we can sit back with Gloppy in the Caramel Swamp.

There was sexual repression back then. Uncle Wiggly's friends and foes all wore pants and shirts. How did Disney ever get away with a pants-less Donald Duck? Candyland's human characters are fully-dressed, but its animals let it all hang out. Thank you, Hugh Hefner and the 60s.

More was expected of kids and adults back then. It required some reading skill or adult supervision to interpret "Petey Bow Wow helps Uncle Wiggly along four hops". Today, kids get by with color-coded game cards. I'll bet pre-schoolers in Singapore and Korea don't have color-coded game cards which is why they get into MIT and American kids don't.

Finally, after sixty years, the Skeezix in "Uncle Wiggily" still freaks me out. That crow is evil incarnate. Look out, Uncle Wiggily! Ar-r-r-gh!