What childhood memories can reveal about our age?

[Dembadon]

I remember when they turned GI-Joe into this sissy little plastic man. ...

That happened about the year I was born ('83). I thought you were much younger than me. The G.I. Joes prior to the version about which you are speaking died off around '78 or '79. I was never much into G.I. Joes. I spent a lot of time with Legos.

 

[Andy]

Anyone remember manta force?

 

[turbo]

Anyone remember manta force?

Nope, but when Saturday mornings rolled around, Sky King, Lone Ranger, and Roy Rogers were a pretty good break from cartoons, even if the plots were thin and dorky.

 

[Andy]

Roy rogers? He's john mclanes alter ego isn't he?

 

[turbo]

Hmm, Roy and Dale...

 

[Ivan Seeking]

My first record player had a 78 setting... and I needed it.

We had 78s. For some reason, childrens records were released on 78s long after the music industry had moved to 45s and 33s. I also remember listening to my grandmother's Victrola. It was already very old... probably one of the earliest commercial versions. I think those were all 78s as well.

Lazy Mary will you get up...

 

[turbo]

We had a large collection of 78s, inherited from older relatives. Our console record player played 45s, 33s, and 78s. When the power failed, we sat out on the glassed-in porch and listened to our crank-up spring powered Victrola. 78 only.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

My earliest memories would give you no clue to my age. I think the first thing I remember that might date me is when Hula Hoops came out. Perhaps you can better guess my age if I tell you what I forget, like whether I took my pills or not.

 

[Astronuc]

In the news, today:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100212/ap_on_sp_ot/us_obit_frisbee_inventor

I loved playing frisbee at the beach with girls in bikinis.

and drinking beer.

I liked playing Twister with girls in bikinis.

Actually, I liked doing anything with girls in bikinis!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

and drinking beer.

I liked playing Twister with girls in bikinis.

Actually, I liked doing anything with girls in bikinis!

Uh oh, now don't get me started. I had forgotten about Twister... and volleyball...and 151

 

[turbo]

My earliest memories would give you no clue to my age. I think the first thing I remember that might date me is when Hula Hoops came out. Perhaps you can better guess my age if I tell you what I forget, like whether I took my pills or not.

I remember being invited to a cousin's birthday party when Chubby Checker's "Twist" was just hitting the airwaves, and I invited a cute gangly girl to come with me. I was of an age when some boys were not that interested in girls, but I had some frisky female relatives and neighbors that jump-started my interest early. By the time I got to be in my early teens and looked back on some of the girls that wrestled me and my friend Barry to the ground and tickled and kissed us until we hollered, it occurred to me that I had been incredibly foolish. They were cute and they gave us treats (when they weren't "tormenting" us), and they'd lose interest in a while anyway and go back upstairs to listen to Elvis and put on fresh lipstick.

 

[Math Is Hard]

My earliest memories would give you no clue to my age. I think the first thing I remember that might date me is when Hula Hoops came out. Perhaps you can better guess my age if I tell you what I forget, like whether I took my pills or not.

I still play with Hula Hoops. :)

 

[Astronuc]

I remember being invited to a cousin's birthday party when Chubby Checker's "Twist" was just hitting the airwaves, and I invited a cute gangly girl to come with me. I was of an age when some boys were not that interested in girls, but I had some frisky female relatives and neighbors that jump-started my interest early. By the time I got to be in my early teens and looked back on some of the girls that wrestled me and my friend Barry to the ground and tickled and kissed us until we hollered, it occurred to me that I had been incredibly foolish. They were cute and they gave us treats (when they weren't "tormenting" us), and they'd lose interest in a while anyway and go back upstairs to listen to Elvis and put on fresh lipstick.

When I was in 6th grade, my brother and I met a couple of frisky 8th grade girls - at an evening function at the church where my father was minister. A lot of wrestling and kissing. I didn't holler.

 

[Ouabache]

I remember that too. Our milkman used a horse drawn carriage - into the early 60's. Bread was delivered in a van. And some guy would show up periodically selling honey. Those were the days.

I also learned to use a slide rule. Used it during my freshman year of university, but transition quickly to a first generation calculator - with 3 memory address.

Slide rules are cool! We had a really big one hanging on the wall in high school.
(For those who haven't learned to use one, you're missing out!).
If you feel a little rusty on your skills and don't have your trusty one handy..
Try http://www.antiquark.com/sliderule/sim/n909es/virtual-n909-es.html" . (you don't just look at it, it works nice).

I seem to recall milk being delivered in glass bottles with http://www.rubylane.com/shops/charmingandcheap/iteml/8154#pic1" on top.
And bits of ice on the tab, to help keep the milk cold & fresh.
In cities by the coast, there was a fishman that came 'round hawking fresh fish.
We didn't buy too much from him though. Dad often caught saltwater fish
(e.g. tautog, cod, bluefish, striped bass & fluke).

We also had 3 strong channels on TV, but lived close enough to the next metropolis
to have 3 more (with a lot of fuzzy snow & white noise). If we turned the rabbit ears just so
and held onto it or just stood near it, we might get to see some programs through the snow.

(Why is that? -(uh oh geek alert ) the electrolytes in solution in our body affect RF signals,
making us part of the tuning circuit, affecting the impedance match mostly,
by our body's internal capacitance and altering the shape of the antenna,
effectively increasing its aperture).

Though I rarely stayed up late enough, through bleary eyes I do recall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoL-KCFbIpA" on one of the stations.
McGee recites the poem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gillespie_Magee,_Jr.#The_poem".

 

[Ouabache]

We had a large collection of 78s, inherited from older relatives. Our console record player played 45s, 33s, and 78s. When the power failed, we sat out on the glassed-in porch and listened to our crank-up spring powered Victrola. 78 only.

That crank-up sounds awesome! Wish we had one of those..
I still have quite a stack of 78s (pile has become bigger after also inheriting older relative's collections). I looked at online auction sites and found they are not worth much, due to their physical condition and availability (too many of them were pressed).

As a kid, we had 78s & 33 1/3 LPs. Not too many 45s though. We played them on a Magnavox console that looks a lot like http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/bapix/Magnav1.htm" ,
with the green tuning eye.

I say looks, because it is still in the family. I recently restored the radio section (AM and SW) and amplifier (replacing broken caps, burned resistors & weak tubes). I particularly enjoyed (and still do) the short wave tuner. Lots of fun hearing different tongues around the world. The original turntable is long gone, but recently found a suitable replacement, I will wire up. If you look at the last image on that link, you will see it (like ours) has an AM loop for an antenna, and a SW dipole stapled to the frame.
Ours Magnavox has space for the 'new' technology FM (but the tuner was not yet available at the time purchased).
There is an FM position on the mode switch.

 

[Ouabache]

I remember this... and I called the pre-broadcasting fuzz in the morning (before "Popeye" came on) "the ants"... and would "watch" it while I ate Cheerios and played with Legos. My favorite afternoon cartoon was "Tom And Jerry"... later "Voltron" (the lion one).[/B]

The ones I watched after the fuzz, was some sort of fractal or fractured http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB1EE-FDgMk".

 

[Ouabache]

I remember the Water Wiggle and super balls, and that plastic ring..

I had http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/en_US/" . I guess that's still around though. I don't remember seeing that Giant-Puff-of-Air toy, I would have wanted one of those

Super Ball
We used our driveway like a baseball batting cage, hitting out softballs, whiffle balls, baseballs & tennis balls. I remember the day we tried a superball. One smack and I don't believe we ever found it again

 

[Ivan Seeking]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1b/Magicrocks.jpg

 

[Ivan Seeking]

My brother just called and was telling me that he still has one of those translucent colored 45s that were released for a time. In this case, it is Tom Petty in pink. A twenty-six year old saw it and didn't know what it was. He asked if it's a CD on steroids.

 

[Pythagorean]

I remember "in living color" the show whereni first saw Jim Carrey and Keenan Ivory Wayans and Damon Wayans.

 

[lisab]

Did anyone ever get http://www.sea-monkey.com/" ?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Did anyone ever get http://www.sea-monkey.com/" ?

Nope, had a barrel of monkeys... at least the siblings did.

Did anyone ever read the book, Animal Train, as a young child?

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27705790

Clickety Clack, Clickety Clack
The Animal Train goes down the track...

My mother would turn the pages while I recited the book from memory.

 

[noblegas]

I remember when the kids network nickelodeon only had 3 nicktoons

I remember when our classrooms provided only computers where floppy disks were the size of CD's and I remember you could only load one computer program up at a time rather than have computers programs open up simultaneously, which I later in life fondly referred to as the stick shift computers because you always had to swtich computer programs if you wanted to load a new computer program onto the PC .

I remember playing my first video game , bayou billy and being half way decent at the racing level and terrible at the walk through level
I remember NOT wanting to be in school and everybody noticing it.

I remember gettng all excited about changing from cable to satelitte service not realizing that most of those channels were sports or extra movie channels.

I remember OJ simpson being talked about on the news everyday and trying to understand why this guy was getting so much news coverage.

I remember when playstation was such a big deal and being enthralled there being playstation games that offered story lines that you could follow like a movie

I remember having sleepless nights due much to the bloodshed presented in mortal kombat 2 and 3 games , and being afraid that the mortal combat characters would jump out of my tv screen but ironically not being terrified by resident evil 2 games that came out on the playstation which were even more violent.

 

[Astronuc]

I in addition to no running hot water at my grandparents house, we had to go outside to the loo (outhouse). We used to play with the daddy-longlegs or spiders while sitting on the loo.

 

[rootX]

I loved playing with ants, and making sand castles and tunnels.

 

[drizzle]

I remember that I loved this little horsey I’m holding in the pic

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/984/p10005788.jpg

Can’t recall the name of that cartoon though

 

[Ouabache]

Did anyone ever get http://www.sea-monkey.com/" ?

Were they something like brine shrimp?

 

[Ouabache]

Nope, had a barrel of monkeys... at least the siblings did.

Did anyone ever read the book, Animal Train, as a young child?

Clickety Clack, Clickety Clack
The Animal Train goes down the track...

My mother would turn the pages while I recited the book from memory.

I didn't have that one, but did have similar ones.
One of my favorites was a Seuss book called http://www.best-childrens-books.com/mcelligots-pool.html" .
My brother & I would recite that one without opening the book.

 

[Astronuc]

I remember that I loved this little horsey I’m holding in the pic

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/984/p10005788.jpg

Can’t recall the name of that cartoon though

My little pony? I think my children watched that.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Here a few early memories of TV shows. I remember the night when Disneyland, the TV show, moved from Wednesday to Friday night. I loved Walt Disney. He would come on at the end of the show and talk for a while. He was like a third grandfather. I remember the Mickey Mouse Club. I remember Howdy Doody. I remember a lot of TV westerns like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, and others. I remember Sky King.