So NOT Cool!

Anyone else still upset about the Archie/Betty/Veronica fiasco????? Because I am. Shocked actually.

When I was a kid comics were part of childhood. Every corner store* stocked them and they could be purchased for 11 cents (25 cents for a double issue). Nowadays you generally have to frequent a speciality store and be prepared to fork over a healthy lump sum for even a single issue.

I read superhero issues (Hawkman was my favorite), Little Lulu, Richie, Archie, and pretty much any other kind I could get my hands on.

I preferred Betty over Veronica. I usually root for the brunette since invariably she is the maligned one but in this case it was impossible not to like Betty. She was sweet, kind, helpful and all without being cloying or annoying. Veronica was manipulative, sneaky, ungracious and basically a bit of a back-stabbing bitch.

I was shocked this past May when Archie not only finally proposed marriage but to Veronica????? VERONICA???? She was destined to be with Reggie, the equally duplicitous and egomaniac character. This August Veronica accepted Archie's proposal leaving the wide-eyed Betty devastated.

It simply is all too much; rather than providing gentle mindless entertainment, Archie has moved into the spectrum of hideous reality-type scripting ..... I fully expect Kate or John to invite the newlyweds over for a playground with the kiddies, nannies, and inevitable paparazzi.

As for Betty? If I could only find a way to introduce her to Hawkman...............

*Every neighborhood had a 'corner' store that was conveniently located, yes, on a corner and was a Mom & Pop business. It was usually owned by an Asian family who got to you know you by name. Pop bottles were glass and were stored in a large electrical cooler filled with cold water -- towel nearby for easy drying -- that had a built-in opener on the side.

Penny candy was a basic ware in all corner stores and it was common for kids to make the corner store an outing. A dime was all that was needed to fill a little paper bag of candy. Candy strawberries and bananas, caramels, licorice whips, bubble gum were standards.

Glazed doughnuts and eclairs were also stocked on the counter. This I knew too well; once when buying a Columbian paper for my parents when The Vancouver Sun was on strike, I accidentally knocked the entire carton of doughnuts down and was aghast. The owner however merely frowned and waved me on my way.

Nowadays 'the corner store' has been replaced by 7 11's and Macs and other chain stores. Similar convenience but I wonder today if kids have the same sense of wonder that we had when clutching a whole quarter in our hands and trying to decide all the things we could purchase. Those days it was okay for a group of kids to walk down the corner store and maybe then to wander over to the playground.

An afternoon with penny candy, a comic book, the monkey bars, all shared with a friend.

Simple times. Good times.