All-Time Wonder Guy Popeye!

"I'm Popeye the Sailor Man,I'm Popeye that's who I am,I'm strong to the finish 'cause I eats me spinach, I'm Popeye the Sailor Man! (toot,toot!)"

The Popeye cartoons I used to watch on TV as a kid was still in classic black and white. Do they still show them today?

This Popeye guy must have been popular with the average Pinoy kids. Pinoy kids are typically small in build and very thin. Since their diet contains mostly starchy rice and vegetables rather than bigger meat portions, it would have been surprising for them to develop muscular physiques, unless they actually trained in athletics. After all, it is protein often lacking in their diets that build strong muscles, and not the vitamins and minerals (which is still important for a healthy diet) that they get from green, leafy vegetables such as spinach.

Spinach however, was Popeye's secret weapon. Fresh spinach to be exact. Although in dire cicumstances, he also retorted to the canned variety when Bluto (or Brutus) was dangerously pursuing the love of his life, his "goil" Olive Oyl.

The cartoon's plot was pretty much the same in every episode. Popeye romances Olive. Bluto kidnaps Olive and tries to take advantage of her. Popeye tries to rescue Olive but is overpowered by his arch-enemy, because Bluto is much bigger and stronger. The turning point is when Popeye finds a patch of spinach plant or a stack of canned spinach, and proceeds to gulp them down. If he used a can opener for the tins, I don't remember. Popeye flexes his arm and pops out his "muskels". He may have been a weak old-timer with that cackling gruff voice, petite frame, and signature pipe. But once he digests all his spinach, he is transformed into a superman and makes minced meat out of Bluto. Pow! Pow! Pow! A jab here, a big wollop there! He pounces on Bluto and recovers his sweetheart Olive.

Olive Oyl? Is it just a coincidence that she was named after vegetable extract?

All these hints on eating healthy food helped in stressing to us kids the importance of eating our veggies if we surely wanted to grow up strong and healthy, and hopefully to be smart as well.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the other character, J. Wellington Wimpy. I figured he was the teaching tool for the rest of us who do nothing all day but eat and sleep. He, of rotund figure, did nothing all day but chomp on his favorite burgers. Much like Jughead of Archie's except that Jughead retained his slim build. If you ask me, he was actually a walking anti-Mcdonald's crusade and a vivid picture of the sorry state of things to come if you end up overweight from eating high callorie and high-in-fat fastfood.


More Random Recall Machine: Kapamilya TV

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