The Nostalgia Thread

[Nobody]

Nobody is ever too young or too old for nostalgia. Even when you aren't looking to reminisce, you come across things once in a while that just make you wish things would go back to the good ole days.

It can be food, movies, tv shows, gadgets, clothes, music, anything. I love this stuff, and I have found that most people do too and that's why a lot of stuff makes a comeback after decades in seclusion.

I was just thinking about something, for no reason at all, that I haven't thought about in years. My son was sitting here slamming all of his Hotwheels cars into each other and I was like damn, when I was your age, we had these cars called crack-ups. When you'd slam them into each other, the side or front panel would flip over to reveal a side that made it look like it had been in an accident. My son would love those things, I can't believe they quit making them.

I miss all of my old toys, because I had the good fortune of parents that got big enough work bonuses that at Christmas and Birthday time, they'd go all out, and we had some pretty sweet toys. I still remember when I first opened my NES Power Glove, I was the king of the neighborhood. It sucked and failed to live up to the hype, but damn you, I had one

I'm at that age where I remember a lot of the stuff from people in the 40-50 year old range that my wife who is only 3 years younger has no clue ever existed. I'm sure we could come up with at least a thousand things like this if we try.

So pull up your tv dinner trays (I know it takes 45 minutes to cook in the oven, it's not like they can make something that will cook it in 1 minute), crank that knob on the tv to UHF 3....No, not the big tv - the little one on top, that old one doesn't work anymore.....use the vise grips if you have to, crimp the foil a little tighter on the rabbit ears and stir up a glass of Tang and take a walk down memory lane for a minute. It's always good to relive childhood.

 

[China]

Superelastic bubble plastic. A tube of multi-colored goo that you squeezed out, put on the end of a straw and blew up. Then it would harden into a multi-colored balloon. Always nice to give your kids some VOC compounds they can huff on starting from an early age.

 

[Nobody]

Superelastic bubble plastic. A tube of multi-colored goo that you squeezed out, put on the end of a straw and blew up. Then it would harden into a multi-colored balloon. Always nice to give your kids some VOC compounds they can huff on starting from an early age.

I saw some little tubes of it in a quarter machine the other day, and my only thought was, "man that stuff made me high as a kid."

 

[Nobody]

Atari 6400. If you were a child of the 80s like me and got one of these things you were the ****. No ands if or buts. I remember when Pac-Man came out and the lines for this game were off the charts. I had it and the damn game sucked but we played and played, and played. That, missle command, asteroid, tank, defender, pitfall, etc, etc etc.

Damn right, we were treated like our parents were millionaires when we got it. My dad was working as a route salesman for Hostess at the time, and made a killing for those days (over $30,000) so we got damn near every game available, even the worst ones

When our friends would come over and saw our cases of games, they'd all say the same thing - MAN, your parents must be rich

 

[Sarge]

Behold

Department store Christmas cataloge goodness

http://www.megomuseum.com/megolibrary/department/index.html

 

[Henry]

I remember when we got our first VCR. It cost us $600 and the 'remote' was attached to the machine by a long cable. My friends came over and we recorded some drag racing. Then we'd play it back and pause at the crashes. It was the coolest thing ever.

 

[Nobody]

Behold

Department store Christmas cataloge goodness

http://www.megomuseum.com/megolibrary/department/index.html

I remember the two catalogs we anticipated the most were JC Penney and Best.

when cable TV came out we would all pile over to whoever had it and watch MTV all day. I think there were only like 5 videos and they jsut kept replaying them over and over but it didnt matter. that was michael jackson on stage and it was AMAZING!!

ooh..and i would watch boobies thru scramble vision..

I was the guy who's house everyone went to, because I figured out the alternating buttons on the remote for the Tocom converter trick to get descrambled Spice TV lol.

I remember when we got our first VCR. It cost us $600 and the 'remote' was attached to the machine by a long cable. My friends came over and we recorded some drag racing. Then we'd play it back and pause at the crashes. It was the coolest thing ever.

This took me back to one of my fondest and most hilarious moments of my childhood. My parents had gotten a big tax check for the time (about $2,500) and had a babysitter watch us while they went shopping.

They wouldn't tell us what they were getting, but they said we would love it and they wanted it to be a surprise.

After spending a couple of hours at the store, they show up at the house with one medium sized box and one huge box. When they opened the smaller box, it was a VCR, and we were amazed We went nuts, we thought it was the coolest thing ever. Until they opened the second box. It was a microwave. Not just any microwave, but the biggest ****ing microwave I have ever seen to this day. So big, that my parents had to clear out a corner in the kitchen to put the wooden microwave stand together to put it on

We thought we were rich, and it was amazing that we could heat things up so fast. At the time, we thought it was money well spent. It wasn't until years later when I was told that they spent the entire $2,500 on the microwave and VCR that it sunk in - they got screwed lol. They paid $2,500 for what was then a big deal, and for what you could get now together for $50-$75. Man, things sure have changed.

I remember when I was a teenager and I mowed lawns all summer and plopped down over $100 on a discman and thought I was the ****. What a waste that was is hindsight.

 

[Nobody]

I don't know if the Toys R Us catalog came around later, or if I just never noticed, but I don't recall ever seeing one until I was about 16 and it didn't matter at that point.

The Sears catalog was huge, I don't know how I forgot that one. My dad always laughed because instead of circling toys, I'd circle all the Craftsman tools and toolboxes I wanted. I never was a big fan of toys, and plastic tools just didn't cut it for me.

To this day, Toys R Us is still by far the most overpriced place to get toys. I never step foot in there unless the kids get a gift card from someone. It's a pretty safe bet that whatever they have is 25-50% cheaper at most other places.

 

[Sarge]

http://www.bgobsession.com/showthread.php?t=28755&highlight=mall

 

[Lanky Livingston]

Mike, that reminds me of the McDonald's contest where they put a record (made out of vinyl, LOL) in the Washington Post, and if they sang the Big Mac song all the way through you won a million dollars or something like that.

 

[China]

Here's a flashback: I recall riding on planes when I was a kid. There was little if any security. The planes were seldom full. People smoked on the plane. As kids we'd get invited up to see the cockpit, and they would give is a wing pin (metal of course). They would also give out free decks of cards. And the food...served with real metal knives, forks and spoons. Somewhere I think my father still has a couple that he absconded with.

 

[Sarge]

For the locals

http://captain20.com/

http://kidshow.dcmemories.com/twenty.html

 

[Sarge]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbG6MxAv3yw&feature=related[/media]

 

[Henry]

For the locals

http://captain20.com/

http://kidshow.dcmemories.com/twenty.html

Oh man, Captain 20 was the coolest.

I totally remember that flying PSA.

 

[Sarge]

Does 1991 count as nostalga?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOQ4t9xESPk[/media]

 

[Nobody]

I could watch In Living Color all day every day and not get tired of it. They destroyed SNL in sketch comedy, it's a shame everyone left.

 

[China]

I can still sing the toys-r-us, big mac and jhoon rhee commercials as if i heard them yesterday.

When I think of old McDonald's songs I think of this one we used to sing when we were kids:

McDonald's is my kind of place.
Hamburgers in your face.
French fries between your toes
Dill pickles up your nose.
Ketchup running down your back.
I want my money back,
Before I have a heart-a-ttack.

Don't get me started on the Oscar Meyer theme songs:

Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weiner,
that is what I'd truly like to be.
For if I were an Oscar Meyer weiner,
everone would be in love with me.

Oh, I'm glad I'm not an Oscar Meyer weiner,
that is what I'd truly hate to be.
For if I were an Oscar Meyer weiner,
soon there would be nothing left of me.

 

[Boone]

You forgot...

Comet...will make your teeth turn greeeeeen
Comet...it tastes like gasoliiiiiine
Comet...will make you vomit
So get your Comet, and vomit, todaaaaay

 

[Nobody]

You forgot...

Comet...will make your teeth turn greeeeeen
Comet...it tastes like gasoliiiiiine
Comet...will make you vomit
So get your Comet, and vomit, todaaaaay

Lol, reminds me of the bobos song, same tune.

Bobos will make your feet feel fine, bobos they cost a nickel and a dime