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Poking around Pokemon
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___ They came out of nowhere. Before we knew it, they invaded our neighborhood, our school and our household. Pokemon cards have taken over.
___It started innocently enough. The boys  were given some cards for their birthdays this summer. Their
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ALISON WINGFIELD
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friends watched the show, but we had not let the boys watch it, because I remembered reading about the introduction of this show in Japan. Seems it was so frenzied it caused numerous children to have epileptic seizures. So, even though they had changed it, I was skeptical. And it’s not as though we needed one more TV show to watch.
___ But the cards seemed harmless. The boys liked to look at them, and then they ended up spread out in various places in their room. We waltzed through the summer blissfully unaware that the popularity of these cards was quickly gaining momentum.
___ When school started, we were hit with it full force. The boys came home with a mission: "We need more Pokemon cards, Mom, so we can trade them."
___ Kids at school and on our street began appearing with books of cards which they would all gather around and show off and make deals to trade.
___ And we’re learning a whole new language. Charizard, Blastoise, Zapdos and Venusaur (I had to ask a second-grader how to spell these) are just a few of the names flying around our household, along with all their characteristics and how they evolve into other characters.
___ My first tactic was to ignore it and hope this would all go away soon. Wrong.
___ But, not having seen the show and with only two packs of cards, the boys were at a definite disadvantage in this new phenomenon. So, I finally broke down and let them buy some cards--with their own money.
___ The next problem we encountered was that the boys’ friends were taking advantage of their ignorance and trading them "bad" cards for good cards. So I let them get the Pokemon Handbook, which tells about all these wild creatures.
___ The next step was the TV show. I finally watched it with them to see if it was OK and decided they could watch it--occasionally. So that’s where we stand.
___ Oh how I miss the Beanie Baby craze. At least I understood that.
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__I’ve decided rule No. 1 of Pokemon is that grown-ups are not supposed to understand it. To adults, this complex world of odd-named characters and the lists of who can do what to whom and who evolves into what is like reading or hearing Swahili.
___ I’ve only run into one adult so far who
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MARK WINGFIELD
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even claims to understand Pokemon, and I’m still skeptical whether she does or not.
___ Life was so much simpler with Beanie Babies. The trend watchers are telling us the Pokemon phenomenon has replaced Beanie Babies as the trend du jour of American kids. I believe it, but I don’t like it. Give me one of those soft, silent animals any day over a squeaky thing with a name I can’t even pronounce.
___ It’s amazing, though, how infectious a trend like Pokemon is in the kid community. It takes on a life of its own and becomes all-consuming to boys and girls alike.
___ Pokemon cards quickly became such a distraction at our elementary school that the cards were banned from the school building. So now kids can’t wait to get home to start trading again.
___ There might be a positive side to this, though. During the soccer game last Saturday at which our team lost for the sixth straight time (but what kind of parent would count?), another dad proposed bringing a set of Pokemon cards next week and offering two cards to every kid who scores a goal and one card to every kid who blocks a goal by the other team.
___ Sounds like bribery, but it just might work. We’ll call it a motivational technique.
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He Said/She Said is a new regular feature of the Baptist Standard's on-line edition. Mark Wingfield is managing editor of the Standard. Alison Wingfield is a freelance writer. The Wingfields moved to Texas in January from Louisville, Ky., where Mark had been editor of the Western Recorder, in which this column appeared weekly. |
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