Admittedly, I have a unique sense of humour. A few years ago there was a Christmas Commercial here in Canada. In it, Santa Claus is shown sitting down in a chair at one of the houses he was visiting for a quick rest and a nice drink of milk. As he sits and starts to lean back, the entire chair collapses underneath him, sending him sprawling. Every time I saw that commercial I couldn’t stop laughing at Santa getting tossed backward with his glass of milk spilling everywhere.
Yes, both my husband at the time and children all accused me of being cruel laughing at Santa’s misfortune. I also only laugh at the World’s Funniest Videos if someone falls, trips or bangs into something in a horribly embarrassing or ludicrous way. I am indeed sick.
It must have started when I was relatively young and impressionable. In other words, during my childhood and youth when I lived and breathed anything to do with horses or horseback riding. Also, I was living with my twisted Father, who happened to work for Methuen Publishing.
Methuen Publishing published some of the British Cult classic cartoon books, Thelwell by Norman Thelwell. Mr. Thelwell became known mostly for his charming and amusing cartoon depictions of The British youth’s riding cliche, and they’re very distinct and odd obsessions. As a treat, my Father would bring home any new or re-released publications of these books for me. I devoured them.
Although Norman Thelwell passed away in 2004 the Thelwell following is still alive and well. There are a Thelwell website and a Thelwell Facebook page.
Here are a few of Norman Thelwell’s classic pony cartoons. I hope you enjoy them.
Note: For those of you who don’t ride. Posting is the up and down motion that the rider does in time with the horses trot in order not to bounce all over the place. In other words, “posting” saves your butt!
Til next time……
