Monday, June 23, 2025
Families, fans and cosplayers packed the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale last weekend for the museum’s annual pop culture convention, Cradle Con. This year, a new attraction sparked particular buzz — and plenty of childhood memories.
Called “The Cereal Club,” the exhibit was tucked inside the museum’s Hangar Two, and cost an additional $10 to enter. Attendees were invited to relive a retro Saturday morning ritual: sugary cereal and nonstop cartoons. Dozens of vintage cereal boxes, from Mr. T (discontinued in the 1990s) to Count Chocula (now a Halloween exclusive) — lined the room, and a half-dozen small television sets played animated classics from the 1980s and ’90s.
Visitors young and old took a seat, bowls of cereal in hand, and watched “ThunderCats,” “The Adventures of Garfield,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and more.
The idea came from Seamus Keane, the museum’s creative director of special events. One young visitor, unaware he was speaking to the mastermind behind it all, summed up the experience best after watching his favorite show, “Looney Tunes.”
“Whoever came up with ‘The Cereal Club,’ tell them it is genuinely — it’s an awesome idea,” the youngster told Keane.
Keane said the concept came to him “just like that.” As the convention approached, he needed something “cool and niche” for Hangar Two, and decided to create a private, immersive experience.
“What did I do when I was a kid? I would wake up Saturday morning, sneak the sugar cereal out of the closet, drink all the milk, watch cartoons and play video games,” he recalled. “This generation doesn’t know what Saturday morning cartoons is. They don’t know what it’s like to eat sugary cereal to your heart’s content — I wasn’t allowed to. So I was like, let me give something to the generation below me.”
The golden age of Saturday morning cartoons began in the early 1960s, and became a cultural staple for children. Shows like “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons” originally aired during prime time, but later found a second life on Saturday mornings. It was a time when kids leapt out of bed early to catch their favorite animated shows.
Before Saturday mornings became synonymous with cartoons, children’s programming typically aired on weekday afternoons. Studios like Hanna-Barbera changed that by shifting animated shows to Saturday mornings, creating a cherished weekly ritual and reshaping TV history. The tradition endured into the early 1990s, but as cable channels like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon emerged, the Saturday morning block began to fade. By the early 2010s, most broadcast networks replaced cartoons with educational content to meet federal regulations, and the Saturday morning cartoon era soon ended.
For many kids today, it’s a piece of nostalgia they’ve only heard about — but last weekend, some got to experience it firsthand.
Friends Sophia Sfouggheakis and Morgan Hershinson, both 12, stopped by to grab their favorite cereals, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Captain Crunch. Morgan’s mother preferred Lucky Charms, while her father stuck with the classic choice, Cheerios.
Sophia and Morgan didn’t know what it was like to sit and watch TV while eating cereal back in the day, but after stepping into “The Cereal Club,” they said it was “really fun.” Morgan added a colorful touch to the experience by cosplaying as Hatsune Miku in her 15th-anniversary look from 2022 — a virtual Japanese pop star. Sophia came dressed as Tennis Princess Daisy from the “Mario” franchise.
Every Saturday morning, Keane recalled, he’d be in front of the TV watching “ThunderCats” — and, years later, he was inspired to bring its stars to Cradle Con.
Larry Kenney, the voice of Lion-O, showed up to meet fans and sign autographs. He said he appreciated Keane’s effort to recreate such a specific slice of childhood, and added that he never imagined the show would still be making waves.
“If you asked me 40 years ago if I’d be sitting here answering questions about the ThunderCats and signing autographs,” Kenney said, “I would have told you that you were nuts.”
Keane said that “The Cereal Club” event was a hit, and hinted not only that it might return next year, but also that its cereal-fueled nostalgia might just become a Cradle Con tradition.
