The elementary schooler whose heart was stolen by Ken Matsudaira and Go Kato

The other day, my first-year middle school son was watching
Brush Up Life, which was super popular two years ago
, on Netflix. It's his favorite drama—I've lost count of how many times he's watched it.
After dying, the protagonist gets to live her life over again, accumulating merit to ensure a better next life. In the process, there are scenes of the protagonist as an elementary schooler. Trading stickers in sticker books, forming a drama research club because she loves dramas so much. Even though our generations are a bit different, it brings back a sense of nostalgia and memories of my own elementary school days.

My parents both worked, so the routine was to go from school to my grandfather's house, where my mother would pick me up after work. My grandmother had passed away before I was born, and my grandfather lived with my aunt, but since she worked too, it was just me and my grandfather after I got home from school.
As the Showa era was transitioning into the Heisei era, entertainment after school meant television.
However, my grandfather's control over the channel was incredibly strong, and no matter how much I complained when I got home, he wouldn't budge.

So, the TV shows I watched were:
Abarenbo Shogun
Hissatsu Shigotonin
Oedo Sosamo
Ooka Echizen
Mito Komon (Eijiro Tono)

Plus, for detective shows, there were:
Abunai Deka
Tokuso Saizensen
Akakabu Keiji, and so on.

If there is anyone who understands all of these, I would love to shake your hand.

Even as an elementary schooler, I felt like I had no choice since my grandfather was watching, but I still wonder how I managed to go along with it.
But as I was forced to watch, I gradually got hooked on that world and eventually started watching them because I actually liked them.
Watching my own child now, I feel like there's no way we'd ever watch period dramas together, so I wonder if I was a pretty unusual elementary schooler...

As for what I liked about period dramas:
the coolness of the sword fighting,
the elegance of the women's speech and
their manners,
and in terms of the story, the absolute sense of security that the good guys always win in the end,
and the world of Edo-style human kindness depicted in the tenement houses, where people help each other out when in trouble.

Everything was so different from the world today that I would fantasize about time-traveling to the Edo period, wearing a kimono, and eating dumplings at a teahouse.

By the way, I absolutely loved Ken Matsudaira and Go Kato. But there wasn't a single kid in the first or second grade who even knew who Ken Matsudaira or Go Kato were.
So, I couldn't show my love for these two, and
at school, I remember talking a lot about my other obsession, Hikaru Genji.
I was already reading the room back then. I had these desires bubbling up—not wanting to be thought of as a weirdo, wanting to be popular, haha.

While all this was happening, I became a fifth grader. I still didn't talk about period dramas with anyone, and as girl talk increased, various trendy dramas like
Tokyo Love Story and Sugao no Mama de
came out, and I became obsessed with those. This part is just like Brush Up Life, haha.

Then one day, I became fixated on a sixth-grade senior who was emceeing at an all-school assembly. He looked just like Ken-sama. Especially the square structure of his face!
I even found out his name was Inao-san, and I confided in my close friend Kii-chan.
Kii-chan was confused, asking if he was really that cool, but then she said,
That guy lives in my neighborhood!
With that incredibly valuable information, even though it was a long detour on the way home from school, I went toward Kii-chan's neighborhood and had her show me Inao-kun's house.

There was a thick wooden nameplate and a wooden gate that looked like a magistrate's office straight out of Ooka Echizen.
I remember thinking, 'This is seriously the world of Abarenbo Shogun!'
And standing in front of that gate, where you couldn't see anything inside, I felt like I was vividly confronted with the reality that I was just a commoner. I remember my crush just fading away—not that I had any real plans, but I felt like, 'A town girl like me? No way,' and my heart was kind of broken, haha. Even in modern times without a class system, I guess I felt a wall. I still don't know why his house was so grand.

You were feeling things like this in the fifth grade (lol).
Interesting.