Scooby-Doo, with the many different versions and even at least two live action movies, we are all aware of this goofy dog and his mystery solving gang. For me reminders of home are waking up on a Saturday morning to the smell of the biscuits my mom was cooking for me and my friend after a sleepover, and the sound of Fred and Velma’s voice on the TV reaching my bedroom from the living room down the hall. My friend already two episodes and biscuits in before I could even open my eyes to the morning sun shining in through my window.  As a kid the original Scooby-Doo cartoon was my all-time favorite show! To say I just liked this show would be an extreme understatement. Throughout my childhood I had Scooby-Doo themed school supplies, my lunches always included the Scooby-doo fruit snacks, and the tv in my best friend’s house was always playing one of the movies.

 This franchise had a chokehold on my childhood, and my best friend Mady and I saw Scooby and his gang as not only a show, but a lifestyle. We spent years embarrassingly obsessing and making this children’s show our entire personalities. From the original cartoon to the straight to DVD movies, we watched it all.

 As any child growing up in the early 2000s mine and Mady’s favorite thing to do when we were together was play on our Nintendo DS. Over time we collected a vast assortment of games for these devices half of which were Scooby-Doo themed. If we had dedicated the same amount of time to anything important that we did to mastering these unimportant video games, we could have changed the world. The competitive nature of the two of us meant hours upon house and practicing and mastering these games, making sure we could always beat the other.

 One of my favorite childhood memory’s also hinges on this love for a cartoon dog. One year as any proper self-proclaimed best friends would do, Mady and I, for our ninth birthday, begged our parents to let us have a joint birthday party. After weeks of imploring, and guilt tripping our moms, they finally agreed to let us have a joint Scooby-Doo themed birthday party. The party, which was of course complete with a giant inflatable Scooby-Doo, was the party of any nine-year old’s dream. I can feel the slight chill in the air from the early spring afternoon as we sat on her deck and opened the presents our classmates had gifted us. As a kid my family was not really into hosting or big parties, mostly just opting to take me on a short-day trip or get me a gift every year. However, on this particular year, with the inspiration from Scooby and his gang, my best friend and I fought for that birthday party, having the best time any nine-year-old could have.