I too am 41 now (born Apr 62) and while I was growing up, I had a "Chim Chim" stuffed monkey that was always at my side. Literally for years I would never go anywhere without him. As I got older, I believe my father felt I was a little too old to always have a stuffed pet animal and mysteriously, Chim Chim disappeared. I was depressed for the longest time (months), went on hunger strikes, and completely down on life and it showed. My father tried to replace Chim Chim with real live animals which included, fish, then hamsters, then parakeet birds, a minor bird, and eventually believe it or not a real live pet monkey (not a chimpanzee, but the other smaller kind of monkey that you see with a street vendor turning his music box). That particular monkey didn't work out because he was just way too mean and use to bite me every time I tried to pet him. This monkey believe it or not would go into the refrigerator, take out two or three eggs, climb up the drapes, and throw them at me. Needless to say, life after Chim Chim was never the same.

After thinking and thinking about it now in my 40's and of course watching Speed Racer and stirring up these old memories, I guess I saw myself while I was growing up like Spriddle rather than Speed like a lot of others might of taken after. I suppose the reason for this was because while I was growing up, I always wanted an older brother which unfortunately I didn't have being the oldest of the sibling's.

It's amazing how a show like this one that I loved so much while I was a kid can bring back all these memories.

Justin