Fall Previews and the Neilsen ratings were pretty much how they decided which shows stuck around. With Saturday morning cartoons, I think it was a question of which ones looked best on a cereal box. You might only ever see one or two episodes of a show before it vanished for good. Others would become fixtures of the idiot box. Two that I recall were called "Rotsa Ruck", which was kind of an early version of the Drew Carey Show, and "Open All Night", which was about a convenience store and the regular customers. You'd think there wouldn't be much to write about a convenience store, but it ran for just a little under a season.
Come the start of the next summer, we threw away our textbooks and our TV Guides because summer time was for reruns.
Now we have "year-round schools". I'm not sure how they work, but they don't sound very fun. I still see back-to-school ads, so I guess there are still traditional schools, and I guess maybe it's because I don't have to go to school any more that they no longer carry any dread. I wonder, though. Do kids still fight with their parents over school clothes? I hope so. It's nice to have some traditions!
The TV "season" has become a casualty of an inundation of channels, I believe. Imagine if we had hundreds of channels all competing in September to get their shows to be the most watched. TiVo can only handle so much! Still, it would be nice if a series ran for more than a handful of episodes before plunging into reruns. We tend to watch things like "Brink", "Dirty Jobs", "COPS", "Mythbusters" and "Weaponmasters", and it seems like they churn out five or six shows and then it's into reruns. At least "Deadliest Catch" has a reason for it. "Brink" is the worst of them. They rerun segments stuffed into the guise of a new show. Maybe one or two segments are new, the rest are rehashed from older episodes. We keep watching because the new stuff is pretty interesting.
Ahhh, the bittersweet olden days! I can either have three broadcast stations giving me fresh stuff every fall like "Chico and the Man", "Good Times" and the truly dreadful "Cop Rock", or I can have a plethora of channels throwing a mixture of diamonds and crap at me in a chaotic, unpredictable fashion via cable/satellite TV which, as a warning to you fans of Sirius and XM Radio, was promised to be commercial free because our subscriptions were supposed to pay for everything but now you can't watch for five minutes without another slew of commercials about herpes ointments and jock itch solutions (your day will come...).
Okay, whoever is sawing at the back legs of my rocking chair, you stop it right now you young whippersnapper... WAAAAAUUUUUUGH!!! *THUD*
Any crotchetty memories you'd care to share? ;)
as a warning to you fans of Sirius and XM Radio
Already chock-full of ad's. Usually for erectile disfunction and or natural male enhancment.
I remember when September 11 was memorable for being the debut of the new Super Mario cartoon.
I remember when we were more afraid of Russians than random terrorists, who weren't taken too seriously. I remember being concerned about the popularity of Tetris because I was told it was a communist plot to brainwash Americans...
I remember when Christian TV and music were novelties, not massive lucrative industries...
I remember when D&D was considered satanic and made kids either join cults, or kill themselves. Somehow giving young children comic books on this topic was considered not only appropriate, but a moral imperative.
I remember seeing the premier of Star Trek the Next Generation, while KCOP messed up the sequence of the countdown commercials...and commercials were entertaining but not more than the shows. Sci-fi was intelligent, not just special effects and actions.
I remember when Prodigy was being marketed, and not having an idea how it worked. Back when AOL was known as Quantum...
I remember when there would be a moral uproar every few months about something on TV. No one cares now...and I don't miss the rants.
M&Ms were in two flavors. There was only one kind of Mountain Dew.
It was still cool to like baseball more than basketball...
They could make ads saying things like "Lose weight with Ayds!" and it not be funny...
We knew superheroes were the good guys...not morally flawed people with mutations...
I once observed to someone that my generation would essentially be the only one that knew how to program a VCR without a manual...
If you missed a show, you wouldn't be able to see it again until the mercy of the networks...except for Star Trek The Next Generation, which was played twice a week.
Buying a new videotape cost nearly $100
Meal portions at fast food seemed a lot larger. And everything was served in cardboard boxes, not paper wrappers.
I remember life before the word biodegradable was commonplace
I remember a time before rap and rap-related R&B took over the airwaves. The same time heavy metal was considered Satanic...
I remember when Super Mario 3 was the greatest video game ever...actually, I think it still is.
Then my high school decided to switch to "accelerated block" scheduling, which lead to a lot of problems...
Accelerated block, disregarding the expert's misinformation, as someone who has gone through it, means twice the class time, so logically, you would think, twice the learning? Well, depends on the teacher, most would push the same amount of information, but have longer gaps, or take longer to discuss it. Some times they would just cram two lessons at once...imagine 2 hours of algebra from a boring teacher?
Intellivision, Atari 2600, TRS80, Vic-20, Betamax VCRs, cassette tapes, vinyl records, CDs were new and expensive, movies cost less than $5 (they were even a quarter on the military bases I was on), phones with dials, 5.25" floppy disks that you could make double sided by cutting a hole near the corner, non-high impact plastic dice for DnD.
I remember watching Star Wars the day it came out. I remember watching Indiana Jones in the theater. I remember calling my teachers by their past names. I don't know why the kids around here call their teachers by their first names.
I remember having a 300 baud modem.
I remember being scared of the Russians and nuclear attack.
I don't want to think about how old I am anymore. I work with someone who was born a couple years after I graduated high school. That means he wasn't even daddy's little squirt when I joined the Army.
Frame of reference (I'm 32). My nostalgic contributions (contaminations):
TV:
Show
Growing up on Nova, M.A.S.H., The Electric Company & Sesame St (before it got all preachy & lame), 3's Company, Miami Vice, Reading Rainbow, Thundercats, Robotech, & G.I.Joe, Inspector Gadget, Gummi Bears. Saturday morning cartoons still existed...
There was no Fox. You didn't really here "ass", "bi-ch", or "dick" on prime time TV. Smoking was a dramatic device not a Hell worthy tresspass. "Where's the beef?" and "Time to make the donuts" were staples. Donahue was the Oprah of that day. The news was about information dispersal mostly not entertaiment w/ a veneer of professionalism; Tom Brokaw was the man (integrity meant something) though Hasslehoff was starting to become a prick.
There was no Fox. You didn't really here "ass", "bi-ch", or "dick" on prime time TV. Smoking was a dramatic device not a Hell worthy tresspass. "Where's the beef?" and "Time to make the donuts" were staples. Donahue was the Oprah of that day. The news was about information dispersal mostly not entertaiment w/ a veneer of professionalism; Tom Brokaw was the man (integrity meant something) though Hasslehoff was starting to become a prick.
I walked to school uphill, both ways. No really, I did. God damn valleys...
If one lived in a Stanford torus, this would be entirely possible, with no downhill in the middle. The uphill propably wouldn't be noticable, but it would be there.
Or, if you're not into space stations but know Planescape, living in Sigil would have the same effect.
If one lived in a Stanford torus, this would be entirely possible, with no downhill in the middle. The uphill propably wouldn't be noticable, but it would be there.
Or, if you're not into space stations but know Planescape, living in Sigil would have the same effect.
Or if your family lived out of their car and your parents where *******s.
The Sony Walkman. Imagine! Who could even conceive of a cassette tape player that small? These weren't the 15 minute microrecorders you'd take to class, these were actual cassette tapes! My god! And those tiny little headphones! (I had a cheap knock-off, but I think I would have lost my mind if not for that little tape player and D&D.)
Heh heh, now I'm think about how everybody who had a black full-sized van suddenly had to paint a red stripe on the side and act like they were Mr. T as "B.A. Baracus" from "The A-Team".
I also remember having one of my older cousins who lived in NYC spend $50 for Missile Command for the Atari 2600 because you couldn't buy it around here at all.
I had a boom box portable tape player.
My father had a huge cabinet stereo that had AM/FM radio, a turntable and an 8-track.
I wore both flannel and spiked bracelets in junior high because there were no such things as grunge or goth, and anyone who acted "emo" would have gotten their whiny ass kicked five days a week.
I remember getting into fights on a regular basis, even a couple of knife fights, and never having to worry about any sort of zero tolerance policy.
I remember having to wear cranberry-and-white checked polyester pants in the first grade, five years after it was out of style, because they were my older cousin Chuck's hand-me-downs.
I remember little pastel candy dots on long strips of paper, where you ate more paper than candy most of the time, wax bottles filled with sugary syrup "soda" - we ended up chewing the wax like gum, Big League Chew shredded bubblegum that was supposed to be chewing tobacco like the baseball players used, Squirrels candy that wasn't quite chocolate and not quite toffee, Bit O Honey... I remember when gummi candy hit the stores and people thought it was revolutionary.
I remember watching Patrick Duffy as The Man From Atlantis, Lee Majors as The Six-Million Dollar Man and as The Fall Guy, David Hasselhoff in Knight Rider, and Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. Hardcastle & McCormick, BJ and The Bear, Airwolf, Cover Up...
I saw Clash Of The Titans and Jason And The Argonauts as a double-feature in a drive-in. I also saw The Empire Strikes Back at a drive-in as well.
Tightrope (with Clint Eastwood) was the first R-rated movie my parents took me to that I didn't have to fight with them about since it was the second movie in the double feature with something nice and safe (that I don't remember, lol.)
I had almost all of the original 12-inch GI JOE action dolls and accessories, and shoplifted all six of the original team of action figures and all of the original Transformers and Gobots.
I remember when there were only 150 Pokemon.
I remember asking "Wtf is a pokemon?" while reminiscing about the time years before when I stole all the Cabbage Patch Kid dolls out of everybody's lockers in the 6th grade and hung them by nooses from the cabinets in homeroom... :D
I remember...
I may have been born in 85 but I still have a few scant memories of the 80s and being a toddler, the atari 2600 started my life off onto the path of virtual darkness and the technological hellhole I walk today, but oh how I love it.
Nintendo came along to my family within a few years (89? 90?) and it was like the greatest gaming system ever. I saved the princess, I destroyed the robot masters (mega man 3 = best game EVUH), I knocked out Mike (NOT MR. DREAM!). I remember the film trailer to terminator 2: judgement day and just being BLOWN AWAY.
I remember being 5 or 6 and power rangers hitting the american scene and suddenly every kid was all for it, including myself. Amy Jo Johnson is still incredibly hot by the way, he was our pre-pubescent dream girl back then.
Cartoons: Though past the time of their initial showing, I was more into watching reruns of transformers, GI JOE, C.O.P.S. (anyone remember that wonderful gem?) along with the cartoon of beetlejuice which was always a good laugh. We didn't have cable for many years so a lot of stuff was not even part of my knowledge. Sesame street was still big. Does anyone remember the video-game game-show Video power?
I remember the candy that was a strip of paper with different colored dots on it. I remember when the 3foot long gum roll was around (what the heck was it called, I can never find it anywhere anymore). A 20oz pepsi/coke/etc. was 50 cents at my local convenience store. There was a gummi/gelatin candy for everything it seemed like and they all tasted funky but you still ate them anyways. Double-stuffed oreos came around in the 90s (I think) and that was a big deal for us kids.
The organic/all-natural deal was only in it's infancy, back then when you had a "fruit drink" it contained in reality like 0.5% fruit juice, and it doesn't seem it's gotten any better for many other fruit drinks.
Oh, and the simpsons were still incredibly revolutionary for their time... and still good! There was just too many gems in the 90s to name, one of my favorites being the "last exit to springfield" episode, containing such lines as "DENTAL PLAN, lisa needs braces!"
i could go on and on o_o but i'll just depress myself, i almost NEVER watch tv anymore as it's become a cesspool of feces and low IQ. I catch wrestling now and then, yes it's MOSTLY fake but i've been in some of those holds like the figure-four leglock... THAT CRAP HURTS LIKE HELL but the stuff is still entertaining. I'll catch south park and family guy for kicks.
I remember being 5 or 6 and power rangers hitting the american scene and suddenly every kid was all for it, including myself. Amy Jo Johnson is still incredibly hot by the way, he was our pre-pubescent dream girl back then.
Well I never knew that about her...
i almost NEVER watch tv anymore as it's become a cesspool of feces and low IQ.
Ok. But you:
catch wrestling now and then, yes it's MOSTLY fake but i've been in some of those holds like the figure-four leglock...
Wrestling? Gee, wonder why TV seems like a cesspool. :P
Oh, and if what you mean by "MOSTLY fake" is really "TOTALLY fake", then we're on the same page. ;)
For your education:
Wrestling is fake.
Cuz it's, like, totally scripted. An' stuff.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's gone now. It never deserved to be a planet. I'm just saying I remember it...
And I remember the old Power Rangers- not these newfangled "Politically Correct" Power Rangers, but the first US ones. Ah,the good old days...
You know what? I've really had it with people putting the original Power Rangers on such a high pedestal. Have you actually watched the newer ones? I mean, really watched them then compared them directly to the original ones? The newer ones have better acting, more compelling characters, deeper stories, and better choreographed action sequences. The new ones are better in every way, shape, and form. Nostalgia can bit my shiny, metal ass.
And while we're at it, the same goes for Pokemon. If you actually try playing one of the newer ones and then go back and play the originals, you'll realize that the older ones weren't that great and that the newer ones are a lot better. Better graphics, more interesting creature design, lots more cool moves, great new features like double battles, the list goes on and on...
You remember the old stuff as better because you were a lot easier to impress back when you were 8...
1) Being stoned (with actual stones) while working my paper route.
2) Getting my face cut when I got hit with an ice-ball in a snowball fight.
3) Cutting my finger open on a bolt that protruded from my backway swingset.
I don't think I wanna play this game anymore.
I remember when a wiffle ball bat was your sword, rifle, bazooka combination. I remember digging a small mud hole in the back yard and lining it with toothpicks to simulate the monster from the Empire Strikes back.
I remember puffing on candy cigarettes like I was somekind of bad ass. I remember when comics only cost a dime and thinking that when they went up to a quarter that it was highway robbery.
I have more that those were just off the top of my head.
You know what? I've really had it with people putting the original Power Rangers on such a high pedestal. Have you actually watched the newer ones? I mean, really watched them then compared them directly to the original ones? The newer ones have better acting, more compelling characters, deeper stories, and better choreographed action sequences. The new ones are better in every way, shape, and form. Nostalgia can bit my shiny, metal ass.
And while we're at it, the same goes for Pokemon. If you actually try playing one of the newer ones and then go back and play the originals, you'll realize that the older ones weren't that great and that the newer ones are a lot better. Better graphics, more interesting creature design, lots more cool moves, great new features like double battles, the list goes on and on...
You remember the old stuff as better because you were a lot easier to impress back when you were 8...
The power rangers were better back then because they were so much funnier, now they're really trying to take themselves seriously.
Having badguys fire large laser blasts from 5 feet away and missing, made great tv time.
I remember when there was only one matrix movie...
I'm not sure what you're talking about. They never made any sequels.
I remember when there was only one matrix movie...
The power rangers were better back then because they were so much funnier, now they're really trying to take themselves seriously.
Having badguys fire large laser blasts from 5 feet away and missing, made great tv time.
I agree. Everything Crimson mentions has made it even worse. Taking yourself seriously and being that stupid is embarassing. A bunch of editors with chopped up Japanese videos reassembling them in the most ridiculous way possible is funny.
I remember when having a hologram of a robot unicorn flying through space or a breakdancing dude in a mesh shirt were the most awesome things you could possibly have your trapper keeper.
I remember when there was only 151 Poke'mon.
I remember when a giant Nerf gun made you THE coolest kid on the block.
I remember when DVDs were the "these sweet new video tape things".
I remember when the Playstation was the pinnacle of video game graphics.
I remember when riding a bike down the block was the fastest way to a friends house.
I remember when comic books were better than the 80's spandex steroid-fest but didn't have the depressing realism of the modern day.
I remember when Nintendo was synonomous with customer care and quality.
I remember when Starcraft was new.
I remember when you didn't need shock value for ratings.
Trapper keeper?
I had a couple o' them. You had to. Or else. They were basically a binder with pockets that had a li'l flap to close the thing with a velcro attachment. Cool Trappers and folders were a must-have - and, one of the fewer affordable ones I was actually permitted to have as a child.
EDIT: I think I still have one somewhere ...
Hypercolor shirts!! What a horrible idea! "Let's make fabric that changes color with heat, and sell it to young teens who are going through puberty and weird body issues!"
... I still had some, though. They were cool at the time. :P
Yeah, that's all Trappers were, too. Fancy three ring binders. They had colorful designs and pouches, pockets an' such, too. The rings were plastic but held together really well - I never broke one.
Really? Damn, my parents must have been buying the cheap ones. Mine came apart almost as easily as my Reeboks, so by the next year I had switched to manila folders and work boots.
Really? Damn, my parents must have been buying the cheap ones. Mine came apart almost as easily as my Reeboks, so by the next year I had switched to manila folders and work boots.
Heh. Yeah, I am terribly goofy with objects though. We didn't have a ton of money so getting stuff like that was always a real treat. And I knew that if I broke it, that'd be the end of the story. I remember breaking toys (most vividly, a Transformer or two) that never got replaced. Instead, they were glued - cuz mom an' dad couldn't justify buyin' me a new one. Glued so that they no longer functioned properly. I think that this kind of led me to sort of revere objects that I like. So I probably took extra care of my Trappers. :P It's behavior that continues to this day. And something that I can't shake.
I can't speak to the quality of Reeboks, though. I don't think I ever had a pair. I know I didn't have the pumps. I recall lusting after a pair of Nike Airs. See, the li'l bubbles were, like, totally rad. Didn't get a pair of even base Nikes 'till I was a teen (or near). I did have a couple of pairs of shoes that looked like cool Nikes or whatever that were just knock offs from the Payless on Rockside Rd. I loved them. And I thanked my mom for caring enough about me to at least try to get me to look like I had more than ill-fitting hand me downs and dimestore kicks. ;)
Heh. Yeah, I am terribly goofy with objects though. We didn't have a ton of money so getting stuff like that was always a real treat. And I knew that if I broke it, that'd be the end of the story. I remember breaking toys (most vividly, a Transformer or two) that never got replaced. Instead, they were glued - cuz mom an' dad couldn't justify buyin' me a new one. Glued so that they no longer functioned properly. I think that this kind of led me to sort of revere objects that I like. So I probably took extra care of my Trappers. :P It's behavior that continues to this day. And something that I can't shake.
I'm similar, actually. Despite the fact that I played with my He-Men and transformers every day, I have all of their parts and none of them are broken. They're a little dirty and well-loved, but in far better condition than you would expect a kid's toys to be in. I never threw them or melted them on the barbecue or anything like that. I was a fastidious child when it came to things like that. I guess I just didn't care about trapper keepers.
I can't speak to the quality of Reeboks, though. I don't think I ever had a pair. I know I didn't have the pumps. I recall lusting after a pair of Nike Airs. See, the li'l bubbles were, like, totally rad. Didn't get a pair of even base Nikes 'till I was a teen (or near). I did have a couple of pairs of shoes that looked like cool Nikes or whatever that were just knock offs from the Payless on Rockside Rd. I loved them. And I thanked my mom for caring enough about me to at least try to get me to look like I had more than ill-fitting hand me downs and dimestore kicks. ;)
The only Reeboks I ever owned were pumps. I don't know why I let myself succumb to a sneaker fad just that once, but it was a mistake. They literally lasted two weeks before they could no longer be considered sneakers. And when I say literally, I mean the literal definition of the word. I was (and still am) very hard on my shoes. I wear a suit to work, but I got work boots on my feet. Only for my wedding did I wear dress shoes, because it was specifically requested by the bride.
Sometimes I think about that scene from Die Hard III where John McClain realizes that the bankers are wearing combat boots and shoots them all, and I hope to god I never run into a cop like John McClain.
Goodness, the first pair of shoes that I've ever really cared about were my cowboy boots I got two years ago. They were also my first pair of footwear that cost more then $20.
Eventually, I kind of just relaxed. By the time I could get all that stuff, I didn't care so much about it. And wouldn't ya know it, the cool kids started to accept me again. Not that I gave a damn. ;)
You'd never know how many lawns cut, toilets scrubbed, floors vaccumed and so on just to get, what, like the 3rd variation on Snake Eyes. Yes, G.I.Joe was my bag (though the movie, uh, not so much). And yes, it tastes sweeter from the sweat of your brow.
And yes, like the Transformers (had a few), they did break (thanks big bro for f'ing over your little brother time and again). Thumbs, particularly, Swivel Arm Battle Action Grip⁚! (not Eddie Murphy's Kung Fu Grip) or no, they'd snap right the Hell off.
Interchangeable Parts (E. Whitney, kiss my @ss! :D):
Upside was, they were just about the right size to fit w/ bro's Star Wars figures. Both 1st gen, so, hopefully E-Bay might be a venue...
So, classic scenario, after a harrowing battle w/ Cobra infantry & some Storm Troopers, Snake Eyes heroically steals an X-Wing just in time to fly over to my friend's house in the building adjacent to infiltrate Castle Greyskull where Cobra Cmndr has usurped the throne by decapitating Skeletor, Roadblock is his personal bartender, and Scarlet & Lady 'J' are his lady friends (hos).
Trapper Keepers, yeah, I had one or 2
. I remember when the plastic when get cold and brittle, snap or flang and become razor f'ing sharp...just in time to drench your homework on multiplication tables in blood. A far more convincing lie is enroute w/ DNA evidence in lieu of "My dog ate it".Good times (waitin' in a chow line!)...
Reeboks? Nike? Wait, you people actually cared about shoes?
Sounds like you don't spend much time on your feet. I care excessively about shoes. I need to be able to walk and stand for hours without crimping my back, and I need my feet to stay warm in the winter. I have huuuge feet for my body size, so I need a lot of ankle support or I'll twist it for sure. I also have very wide feet, so I can't even wear most shoe brands. Also, I need my shoes to be comfortable enough to wear for 24 hours at a stretch if necessary. (Which, yes, is really unhealthy for your feet, but my foot odor is far more unhealthy for anybody around me, so I need privacy when I first remove my shoes. Even my Japanese friends allow me to keep my shoes on in their home now.)
My Trapper Keeper was full of D&D notes interspersed with the occasional page of homework.
I remember Tolkein-inspired murals on the side of full-sized vans. Unless you get one of the body-wraps for cars, you just can't do that with a Minivan, I don't care what Honda says!
I remember my dad swearing that disco was the devil's music, so I brought home a Sex Pistols album...
I remember my friend's dad swearing that Cheech & Chong were going to rot our brains. Oh, wait, they did...
I remember cars with no airbags, no crumple zones, no anti-lock brakes...and no seatbelts!
I remember that Evel Kneivel was the sole reason we wanted motorcycles. He was also the sole reason our mothers said 'no'. :D
I remember my dad swearing that disco was the devil's music, so I brought home a Sex Pistols album...
I would have to agree with your dad on this one.
I remember that Evel Kneivel was the sole reason we wanted motorcycles. He was also the sole reason our mothers said 'no'.
Speak for yourself...my mother once rode a motorcycle up a tree...
You remember the old stuff as better because you were a lot easier to impress back when you were 8...
It was seven for Pokemon...
I'm not sure what you're talking about. They never made any sequels.
Yeah, I was thinking of that one as I was writing. Funnily enough I had also just watched the matrix again just before I read it
Lets see, lets see. I remember...
...when I was allowed to walk ten blocks to reach a friends house and no one thinking that was irresponsible.
...when cutting through the neighbor's yard into the woods in the back to shorten the trip was ok too.
...when parents would say "Go play in the woods" and not wonder if we'd be kidnapped.
...when at recess we would invent a game with the big red ball because we didn't have hoops or goals or yard lines.
...when a bed shaped like the spaceship was the coolest damn thing ever!
...when Legos were the best toy ever.
...when Legos actually approximated a shape with smaller blocks, instead of molding a new one for just that model.
...when the Nintendo came out and it was like so cool and I like so totally wanted one but I couldn't have it because my parents thought I would use stupid basketball hoop more and I was all like arrrggggg!
-addendum: That basketball hoop was cemented into the ground, on the side of our sloped driveway, where we parked the cars.
...when early morning cartoons weren't always educational.
...when it was ok for parents to let kids do things that didn't teach them a school subject.
...when alegbra was a high school subject.
...when the class was called Sex Ed.
...when you had to actually write your school papers up by hand! *cramp*
...when girls were yucky (but not that yucky).
...when I got in trouble for saying "Dang" or "Darn".
...when I played soldier by running around with the neighbor going "bang bang bang, hey, I got you. Yes I did. Yes I did. No you didn't roll out of the way, cause I saw you and you didn't roll the right way. You're a cheater! Cheater! Bang bang. I just got you. It did too count. Yes it did. Yes it did."
...when the school bus smelled like pee (has this changed? I don't actually know.)
EDIT
...I remember when we were bestest buddies with France.
Sleeping in the living room because the house only had 2 bedrooms and my sisters where already shareing one.
Playing in the dirt driveway with sticks and rocks because its all I had.
Sliding down the side of an overpass with my sisters on a cardboard box for fun.
Digging up elephant ears from the nearby swamp to plant beside the house.
Gathering peices of scrapmetal to build a fake robot with a kid from down the road.
Falling off my bike and busting my head open on the asphalt when that 9ft long piece of scrapmetal got caught in the spokes, then stumbling 2 blocks home, putting a towl on my head, and sleeping it off.
Ah, good times.....
[So I don't want to hear about how you where so poor your parents couldnt afford to replace your toys when you broke them. I'm the kid who picked your broken toys up out of the gutter and played with them. :} ]
.... Gamesworkshop miniatures were reasonably priced.
.... when schools actually taught you information rather than how to meet government standards.
.... when laws didn't protect the criminals.
...when Legos were the best toy ever.
They still are dangnabit, the more thousands of pieces a model has the better it is
...when Legos actually approximated a shape with smaller blocks, instead of molding a new one for just that model.
I knew it, I'm not the only one who thinks that
[So I don't want to hear about how you where so poor your parents couldnt afford to replace your toys when you broke them. I'm the kid who picked your broken toys up out of the gutter and played with them. :} ]
Hey man, it wasn't an attempt at a ******* contest. It was an attempt at explaining where certain behavior posted about came from. I am fully aware that others had it worse (hell, I knew some). But just because your position was crappier than mine does not mean that I can't talk about Reagan cheese and how we couldn't get food stamps1 cuz the car my dad bought before he got locked out of his job was considered to be worth too much. Barely. In short, your superior suckitude in no way invalidates mine. Thanks. ;)
1I'm not one that's all about organized religion, but I'm also not one to deny credit where due. If not for those St Vincent DePaul baskets from our local church, I don't know where we'd have been.
I rember:Show
Sleeping in the living room because the house only had 2 bedrooms and my sisters where already shareing one.
Playing in the dirt driveway with sticks and rocks because its all I had.
Sliding down the side of an overpass with my sisters on a cardboard box for fun.
Digging up elephant ears from the nearby swamp to plant beside the house.
Gathering peices of scrapmetal to build a fake robot with a kid from down the road.
Falling off my bike and busting my head open on the asphalt when that 9ft long piece of scrapmetal got caught in the spokes, then stumbling 2 blocks home, putting a towl on my head, and sleeping it off.
Ah, good times.....
Things seem to be moving faster. Trends especially. What had a pop culture shelf life of 5 yrs back in the day is hip for a year at best now.
And retro six months later.
Seriously though, I don't think it was to illustrate cred or anything prior.
Yah I know, I was just screwing with em.
high fructose corn syrup nightmare
!!
Watcha got aginst corn syrup?
Yah I know, I was just screwing with em.
You know I like it when you do that. It feels good. ;)
You know I like it when you do that. It feels good. ;)
It's why I do it.
It's why I do it.
*smooch*
...haven't seen one of those in a long time
I remember choose your own adventure books.
...haven't seen one of those in a long time
I'm looking for the one with a Halfling holding a gem and looking at an encased unicorn with a drow of some sort in the background. What was it called so I can search better?
And I will swear blind that they weren't there the last time I looked at that rack of books.
But my FLGS is like that - look hard enough and you'll find the Necronomicon, The Neverending Story, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the dice that Moses rolled when he used to DM for the Pharoah... :D
I'm looking for the one with a Halfling holding a gem and looking at an encased unicorn with a drow of some sort in the background. What was it called so I can search better?
I know that print you're talking about. Drow is leaning on a staff IIRC and the 1/2ling is not unlike a Regis clone too.
I have it in eitiher,
-The Art of Dragon Magazine
-The ARt of D&D
I'm sorry I can't remember the namesake or the artist offhand, but I know exactly which image you're writing of.
Anyway... I REMEMBER...
When I was about 4, we had just moved to town and my mother was looking in the paper for work. Being typically pesky, I was reading the classifieds with her. I remember two main sections: "JOBS FOR MEN" and "JOBS FOR WOMEN".
In a town in Arizona that I used to live in, as late as 1983 the public swimming pool had a battered, weather-beaten sign hanging on one of the (formerly) nice entrances. It read, "Whites Only".
In a town in Arizona that I used to live in, as late as 1983 the public swimming pool had a battered, weather-beaten sign hanging on one of the (formerly) nice entrances. It read, "Whites Only".
When I was younger, one of my aunts showed me a paper sign that my grandfather had found in a closet of the building where he was a janitor when he first came to the US from Ireland in 1938 or 39...
It was a "NINA"...
Just the letters N.I.N.A., found in store windows and on the doors of factories all over the country, which everyone simply understood to mean "No Irish Need Apply".
They were sold in the Sears Catalogue up until 1906.
They were sold in the Sears Catalogue up until 1906.
Sears also used to sell heroin kits. No, not a kit to help a li'l girl live out her dreams of adventure, either. ;)
It's good to remember that stuff, though. So much discrimination gets forgotten about in America. Chinese, Irish, Poles, etc, etc, etc take a back seat (yes, intended :P) to Blacks, Jews, women, gays, etc, etc. In a way, that works - cuz these groups still face this crap on a level most of the others do not. We just need to remember the past.