Friday
Mar162007
Follow Me Back to the 70's
Friday, March 16, 2007 at 12:19AM
I have mentioned before that my formative years were during the 1970's, the best decade of all time. Well, tonight I found this fantastic website that allowed me a trip down memory lane with all of my toys from my childhood. I have come to realize that my wife doesn't remember most of the toys (she lived a highly-cultured life out in California's central valley, while I was raised on high doses of Ding-Dongs, cartoons, and very fun toys). For your reading pleasure, I would like to point out a few of them for you...
G.I. Joe - now what I really liked about "G.I." as I liked to call him...was that he was a very cool toy, but he had a striking resemblance to my dad (see below).
The Big Wheel - a very cool plastic tricycle. We used to make jumps for our big wheels. We would start at the top of a hill and jump off a ramp that was made from old fence boards propped up on bricks. Note: there were multiple problems with this idea. First, you are only three inches off the ground with a Big Wheel, so you end up really damaging key organs after the crash landing. Second, The Big Wheel was made of plastic, so it wasn't really made for jumping. Third, and most important...the ramp was propped up by bricks, which would inevitably crash down and you ended up driving over splintered wood and a pile of bricks (it was very Wiley Coyote-ish).
Shrunken Head Creator - this toy was advertised by Vincent Price. You might remember him from the Hawaii-Brady episode. He was the weird man in the cave (another favorite 70's item). I had this toy. Don't know why it was important that I learned how to shrink heads? Kind of creepy if you ask me, but I have fond memories of shrinking and shriveling apples in the kitchen with my grandmother.
Operation - if you haven't played it, then don't comment about it...but this was a sweet game of concentration and fear. It was also a little weird, because the image was a fat naked guy with a bowl-cut hairdo. There was a neighbor girl named Jennifer that lived over our back fence. She loved to play this game in the dark, which just scared the tar out of me. She also told me that if you hit the sides with the metal tweezers you could be electrocuted. I am scarred to this day.
As i searched the site, I didn't remember all the games. Like Mystic Skull, which calls itself "a game of voodoo." Really? Do kids need to be "playing" voodoo. Don't parents get suspicious when they find their doll around the house, with pins in it?
How about this doll for little girls? Not only have i never heard of it, (thus the name: "Little Miss No-Name") it is just plain pathetic. Have you ever seen a doll so homely and sad? Seriously, why not create an action figure set of the Donner Party?
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
G.I. Joe - now what I really liked about "G.I." as I liked to call him...was that he was a very cool toy, but he had a striking resemblance to my dad (see below).
The Big Wheel - a very cool plastic tricycle. We used to make jumps for our big wheels. We would start at the top of a hill and jump off a ramp that was made from old fence boards propped up on bricks. Note: there were multiple problems with this idea. First, you are only three inches off the ground with a Big Wheel, so you end up really damaging key organs after the crash landing. Second, The Big Wheel was made of plastic, so it wasn't really made for jumping. Third, and most important...the ramp was propped up by bricks, which would inevitably crash down and you ended up driving over splintered wood and a pile of bricks (it was very Wiley Coyote-ish).
Shrunken Head Creator - this toy was advertised by Vincent Price. You might remember him from the Hawaii-Brady episode. He was the weird man in the cave (another favorite 70's item). I had this toy. Don't know why it was important that I learned how to shrink heads? Kind of creepy if you ask me, but I have fond memories of shrinking and shriveling apples in the kitchen with my grandmother.
Operation - if you haven't played it, then don't comment about it...but this was a sweet game of concentration and fear. It was also a little weird, because the image was a fat naked guy with a bowl-cut hairdo. There was a neighbor girl named Jennifer that lived over our back fence. She loved to play this game in the dark, which just scared the tar out of me. She also told me that if you hit the sides with the metal tweezers you could be electrocuted. I am scarred to this day.
As i searched the site, I didn't remember all the games. Like Mystic Skull, which calls itself "a game of voodoo." Really? Do kids need to be "playing" voodoo. Don't parents get suspicious when they find their doll around the house, with pins in it?
How about this doll for little girls? Not only have i never heard of it, (thus the name: "Little Miss No-Name") it is just plain pathetic. Have you ever seen a doll so homely and sad? Seriously, why not create an action figure set of the Donner Party?
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Reader Comments (9)
I can't even stop laughing at that doll. I am SO.SURE!
And I think it's the greatest that you write for Kendra to laugh! :)
~Stacy
We actually have Operation. My favorite which I think you can find today was that game with all the shapes and the timer and you had to put all the shapes in the hole before the buzzer went off. I used to play that over and over. I played with Barbies and i had this doll set that was more modest than barbie even in that day. It was kind of like a hippie family that had a treehouse or something like that. The funny thing is I still have the baby to that set. It is about 2 inches high and believe it or not the kids have it in their room. They have played with it off and on over the years.
Susan
Ha! I found it. It is the Sunshine Family and yes i have that little baby. What a hoot. I also have Mrs Beasley but i lost her glasses. She is in great shape and my youngest love to play with her. I had the Baby Go Bye Bye too. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
Susan
i'm glad i could give you the fun and memories. by the way...the game is called concentration...which was timed and got your hear rate pumping...which was nothing like the game "http://feelingretro.com/view_toy.cfm?id=25" rel="nofollow">boobytrap" which also had the thrill of snapping off your little finger.
Hey Susan! I had the Sunshine Family, too! I wasn't allowed to have Barbies, so I thought they were fantastic! I even had the house. I don't think they were hippies, because actually the mom looked like a homeschooler :D
Grandbro, speaking of how great the '70's were and that ever so fresh pic of your dad, Joe...whatever happened to "Joe'z Thing?" (I'm not sure I got the spelling right from license plate). That was a sweet ride!
JozThng is sitting about 10 feet away from me right now. it lives in my garage and is currently without the top, but still looking killer orange. no radio...still pulls to the right when you hit the brakes, but cool as ever. vinyl black seats that get killer hot out here in the valley, i've burned most of the skin off my thighs.
fletch
I had the exact big wheel that shows up in that picture! My brother and I used to spend hours and hours racing them in the basement growing up.
[...] I’ve mentioned before but G.I. Joe was one of my favorites [...]