you’re looking for a theme, aren’t you?
Well, at least SOMETHING to tie together a toilet paper ad and early Kevin Bacon films, besides possibly the extent of fluff involved and the close relationship with… well… crap.
But the ACTUAL theme for the rest of the week here at the ‘Com is Things We Were Obsessed With As Kids.
In my case, two of those things were fluffy television kittens and Kenny Loggins kickin’ off his Sunday shoes.
For you, it could have been Transformers or an EZ Bake Oven or a BB Gun or Lego or the stone you used to write on the cave walls. Especially since the age range of people coming here stretches from 15 to 83! And my dad, somewhere in the middle.
So…
1. What stands out in your memory as the favourite toy of your childhood/early teen years?
2. What song do you remember listening to repeatedly as a kid?
3. What item of clothing sticks out for you as something you a) wore too often and b) didn’t wash enough because it was so cool and you had to put it on every day?
January 31st, 2008 at 3:20 am
1. Wasn’t actually a toy but my sisters and I would take my mothers cereal bowls, sit in them, put our hands on the ground and with one giant motion spin ourselves in circles. We must have been really small to fit our butts in those bowls. After that my mom just put them in our toy bin because we were laughing so hard she knew it would be a daily game.
2. So ashamed but it was Hanging Tough - NKOTB
3. My vuarnet tshirt or my hyper-colour tshirt.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:37 am
1. What stands out in your memory as the favorite toy of your childhood/early teen years? Had to be my baseball cards. I’d split them up in teams and spend nights playing games with a wadded up piece of paper and a straw and keeping score. Ruined the value of my cards, but oh well.
2. What song do you remember listening to repeatedly as a kid? Time of Our Life from Dirty Dancing.
3. What item of clothing sticks out for you as something you a) wore too often and b) didn’t wash enough because it was so cool and you had to put it on every day? I had (what started as) a dark blue polo that one of the cute girls said made my eyes look beautiful. Now as a 12 year-old overweight boy, I think it was in a rotation of every-other school day.
January 31st, 2008 at 5:17 am
I’m not sure I wanna fess up to these… *grin*
Toy - my bathtub GI Joe, complete with scuba gear and his own mini-sub (I would make the waves…)
Song - oh sheesh; that’d be “Do It To Me One More Time” by Captain and Tennille
Clothing - a pair of flared jeans (and yes, I had the platform shoes to go with it)
January 31st, 2008 at 7:09 am
The Toy - My G.I. Joes. I would play football with them, have epic battles in the dirt pile in the back yard, and take them apart to make new species of Joe. These were the action figures (with kung-fu grip) and not the larger dolls.
The Song - I was a white southern boy, and all I listened to was Rap and break dancin’ music. The songs that stuck out as the ones I sang and danced to the most were “No parking on the Dance Floor” by Midnight Star and “Jam on It” by Newcleus.
The Clothes - Not really clothes, but shoes. I had two pairs of Chucks…navy blue and red. I used white out to paint stuff on the blue ones and bleached out the red ones in spots to make them kinda tie-dye looking. I was styling in those and my parachute pants.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:15 am
1. toy - for some reason i remember these things called clackers. two urethane balls on each end of a string with a washer in the middle. you’d hold the washer between thumb and forefinger and rapidly flick your wrist. the spheres would smack into each other at the top and bottom of their arc. we had lots of things like that. we’d do them 16 hours a day for a couple of days then move onto someting else, like the tennis ball on an elastic string attached to a piece of plywood that i’d use to pretend i was in the wimbledon finals.
2. song - money, by pink floyd. on a single speaker cassette player recorder, turning the sound down each time he got to the line “don’t give me none of that do-goody-good bullshit” so my mom wouldn’t hear it.
3. jeans and plaid flannel shirts with desert boots. setting fashion trends even in 1978, i was at least a decade ahead of grunge.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:23 am
The Toy - Happy 50th LEGO! You were and are my fav. I’m so happy to have a 6-year-old, so I can play with you and not get laughed at ;-)
The Song - The most vivid is “The Cat Came Back” - only because I loved all animals, yet the song was so dang annoying.
The Clothes - I always remember my mom coming back with a huge smile on her face from the bargains she found at Sears. She would play colour favourites, blues for my brother, reds for me. Maybe because I was prone to bleeding noses?
January 31st, 2008 at 8:51 am
TOY? a deck of cards.
SONG? Forever in Blue Jeans, or Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show. (Mom was a Neil Diamond freak.)
CLOTHING? A blue and gray windbreaker that I wore every day. I don’t know if it started getting gamey, and I didn’t care.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:54 am
1. my easybake over
2. natural man by lou rawls. for some reason i was totally obsessed with lou rawls.
3. rainbow colored toe socks.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:55 am
0) I love this post and this excercise
1) favorite toy - GI Joe with a Kung fu grip
2) Stroke Me - Billy Squier
3) three-quarter sleeve baseball shirts!
Yup, I grew up in the 70’s - 80’s. ;)
January 31st, 2008 at 8:57 am
Toy - there was this variant on a Lite Brite… It had a horizonal base with a light bulb in it and a color wheel that you could turn. There were clear plastic rods of various sizes and shapes that you could stick into holes in the base and the light would shine through them. I made many fantastic space cities with that thing. No clue what it was called.
Song - as a kid, “The Witch Doctor” and “Purple People Eater” were big faves. In high school I was into Queen, Styx, Yes, and Boston.
Clothes - don’t recall any favorites as a kid. But in high school I had a couple of Quiana shirts… :-) And the cream turtleneck that I always wore with a Chinese medallion.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:59 am
Toy - LEGOs baby!
Song - Livin’ on a Prayer. Bon Jovi was so cool back then.
Clothing - I didn’t really have any specific piece of clothing, but I do remember pinning the cuffs of my stone washed jeans so they were really tight at the bottom. What the hell was I thinking?
January 31st, 2008 at 9:10 am
1. I was really crazy about Electronic Detective. You could play it alone (or up to 4 people) and I have a big family, so I was always playing it. I still have our game, matter of fact, and another one I bought years later, *just in case*. haha
2. No single song sticks in my head, since the family was always singing something, usually whatever Dad listened to. There’s one memorable time singing to “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” at the top of our lungs (’cause we were allowed to say “damn”) in the station wagon on the way to Grandma’s…. love that memory.
3. Well, I was a fat kid, and I never had any clothes that I liked on me (that I can remember - maybe I’ve blocked it out.)
This was fun. :)
January 31st, 2008 at 9:11 am
1. i had this stuffed animal that was some sort of duck-type creature. i cut a hole in its mouth and would cram popcorn and other crap into it, so it could eat of course. i think my mom threw it out when the odd-shaped pungent mass that collected by the animals foot got a bit out of hand.
2. music was usually lynyrd skynyrd and queen and styx and reo speedwagon and blue oyster cult. when i hear songs from these artists as an adult, i am thrust back in time to a living room with circle-mirror walls where i’d witness the ritualistic passing of some kind, stinky bud. whoa-oh, that smell. can’t you smell that smell?
3. my fluorescent Vuarnet muscle-shirts because i was just sooo cool. terrible.
January 31st, 2008 at 9:13 am
Showing my age here…
Toy: I had an original Barbie,life-sized baby doll, and a few other toys, but honestly don’t remember having a favorite toy at all.
Song: Besides the childhood classic (did you ever know when a hearse goes by…), Que Sera Sera and The Star Spangled Banner.
Clothes: Can I switch to my quilt? I slept under it every night from age 4 until 12 and believed it held the magical power to protect me while I slept. I wore holes in it. When I came home from 7th grade to find my mother had burned it, I didn’t sleep safely for almost a year.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:10 am
1. although I am now ashamed to admit it, I did
have quite the Barbie collection. Also we were the first kids on the block to have an Atari.
(okay, I’m old)
2. Da Do Ron Ron by Shaun Cassidy (my sister loved him) Jesse’s Girl by Rick Springfield, and my mom liked Neil Diamond so we listened to Hot August Night a lot (on 8 track)
3. Don’t recall having a favourite item of clothing, but I seem to remember having a number of knit/crocheted ponchos that my estranged father would send my sister and I (matching ones, of course)
January 31st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Toy - Barbie airplane (stewardess trolley!) and tent trailer (fake campfire!)
Song - I’m with Jen on ‘Jesse’s Girl’ (*sigh* Rick Springfield!); also lots of Air Supply
Clothing - pair of navy polyester pants in Grade 4, stitched ‘crease’, white/blue patterned ‘cuffs’. Every day without fail.
January 31st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Toy: I loved my He-man action figures, and my Strawberry Shortcake dolls.
Song: If You Leave - Pretty in Pink soundtrack
Clothing: my “princess dress” with lacy frills and gold trim
January 31st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Toy - Lionel trains. They were my dads back in the 30’s, and I still have them today.
Song - Superstition by Stevie Wonder, and Dream On by Aerosmith.
Clothing - Khaki Green Army shirt given to me by our family friend Art who served in Vietnam. Complete with sergeant’s stripes and unit insignia on the sleeves. I wore that thing almost continuously until my mother finally tossed it out without my knowing. I still haven’t forgiven her for that.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Toy: loved my 10-speed bike and my yellow skateboard; when I was little, I loved my fisher price little people city block.
Song: I memorized freeze frame (J.Geils) and you can’t hurry love (phil collins’ version) and when older, became relatively obsessed with BonJovi and Wham (yikes.)
Clothing: I, too, pegged my pants; and I loved my fluorescent yellow sweatshirt.