Copyright ©1997, Gary

I was in kindergarten at the time and Jane, the girl down the street, had a Micky Mouse doll with dirty rubber skin. Since she was the first girl that I had sexual feelings for, these feelings symbolically manifested as a fixation for her Micky Mouse doll. The next Christmas, when I asked Santa for one, apparently he couldn't find the exact same doll because he brought me a Mighty Mouse, instead.

Since we didn't own a television set at the time, I had no idea who this 'Mighty Mouse' was. Once we finally did get a TV, it was one of those enormous console units made from red mahogany with sliding wooden doors that revealed a stereo record player and AM/FM radio. I remember the day very well that Ma tried tuning in the station just so I might watch the Mighty Mouse cartoon show. Although the image was non-existant, the sound came in loud-and-clear. They gave an address where you might send away for a Mighty Mouse Fan Club kit and I soon was waiting for the first of many mail-order surprises. So, Mighty Mouse was my first hero... and you might also say he was intimately linked to my first sexual experience.



.I used to carry Mighty Mouse around everywhere I went. One day I dragged my little red wagon the long deserted journey to 'the tracks' (a half-mile walk). I wasn't paying proper attention because when I returned home, Mighty Mouse had disappeared. Although I looked all over, he was gone for good. Later that night, a rather mean-spirited kid named Gatherum who lived on our street stopped by to say he had run it down with his car. Broken up, I cried and cried. I always thought it strange, though, that he never returned the remains.

The next Christmas, Ma tried as hard as she could to duplicate it, but the closest she could come was a cheap plastic flying Mighty Mouse that was stamped from thin plastic instead of having the sensuous rubber skin of Jane's Micky Mouse (I, of course, never told ma the reason I wanted to duplicate Jane's mouse). This is the Mighty mouse that I drew in this picture. I always liked Mighty Mouse because he always got the girl.

"Here he comes to save the day... Mighty mouse is on the way. On the sea and on the land, he's got the situation well in hand."

Mighty Mouse