My 70's Memories - Lemonade Stand

Today I was watching basketball when Madeline came into the house and asked if she could have some money to buy lemonade at a lemonade stand down the street.

I grabbed about $2.00 in change and found Sam and walked down the street, with the kids, to the lemonade stand.

The lemonade stand was a couple of kids who live on the street. The kids had a cooler and chairs sitting on top of the cement sidewalk storm drain cover that was between their homes.

The kids were selling plastic cups of lemonade for 25 cents. I gave them a dollar in change for a lemonade for Sam and for Madeline. The kids were collecting the money in a cup.

Soon, more kids and a few moms showed up and the kids had to go make more lemonade. They really had collected a lot of money.

Then, one of the kids dropped the cup of money in the street and most of the money rolled down the drain.

The kid was mad. He said "One Day I am Going to go down there and get that money!" He said it as though he had thought about "going down there" before.

That is when I re-lived a 70's memory and shared it with the kids.

I said aloud, "We used to climb down in the pipes and drain on my street when we were kids." (You didn't really think my memory would be about lemonade)

All of the moms immediately glared at me with a "Shut up, you idiot!" look.

Thinking quickly, I shared the rest of the true story, using the opportunity to teach a good lessen instead of incouraging bad behavior.

"One time, I climbed down in a drainage pipe like that one and couldn't get out. A bunch of older neighborhood kids lifted the cover and let me climb out."

The children were very interested. I got another round of "shut up already" glares from the mothers.

I finished the story, "As I was climbing out of the drain, they dropped that big heavy cover on one of the kid's hands and it broke his finger."

"From that day on, that older kid always hated me and I had to look out for him when I was out playing."

My 70's Memories - Sweet Tooth Sam

Can't go into a lot of detail right now about this scary puppet from my childhood, except to say that I have located and am working on gaining possession of Sweet Tooth Sam.

My 70's Memories - Which Witch?

Which Witch? is a 1970, Milton Bradley three dimensional haunted house race game. Players would move their children pawns around the game board trying to be the first to escape the haunted house by reaching the charmed circle at the top of the stairs. Players would pick cards with one of three witches on them. Wanda the Wicked would turn you into a mouse and you couldn't move till you got a good witch card and were turned back into a child.

If someone picked a Ghoulish Gerty card, then the fun really started. Gertie would drop the whammy ball down the chimney and it would shoot out one of four rooms of the haunted house. If you were standing on the staircase or one of the danger spots, a swinging broom, loose floor boards, moving wall, or the ball itself, might knock your child (or mouse) back to a safe spot.

My 70's Memories - Chew of Choice

Were you a kid in the late 70's early 80's?

If so, I have one question for you?




Bubble Yum, Bubblicious, or Hubba Bubba?

We are talking pre-Big League Chew, so don't even try.

For me, Bubble Yum all the way.

My 70's Memories - In Search Of...

"In Search Of..." was a sort of documentary show from 1976 to 1982 where host Leonard Nimoy traveled the world and probed the world's greatest & most enduring unsolved mysteries and natural and supernatural phenomena.

There was a disclaimer at the begging of the show:

"This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily the only ones to the mysteries we will examine."

As an attorney, let me translate the disclaimer to layman's terms:

"This show is made up. What we present on this show may, or may not, be true."

"In Seach of..." had creepy music and delt with subjects such as UFO's and and Easter Island. "In Seach Of..." was the predecessor to many of the fake science shows that are on tv today.

I loved this show as a kid. How else would I know that bigfoot is not just one big hairy creature, but an entire bipedal species, properly referred to as "sasquatch", who were endangered by man's encroachment on their forests.

My 70's Memories - Lego Spaceships

These are Lego baseplates from the 70's. Legos were my favorite toy as a kid. In my world, Lego baseplates served as the starting point for all Lego spaceships. I built some masterpieces.



The possibilities for Lego spaceships were limited only by the imagination (so long as the finished spaceship had engines, guns/rays, and bilateral symmetry).

My 70's Memories - Jackson 5 Cartoon

Before he was the biggest litigation target in the world, Before Neverland Ranch, Before he invented the moonwalk, Before "Jesus Juice", Before The Victory Tour, Before "She's Out of My Life" and the rumor that he cried while singing it, Before he married Elvis's daughter, Before he was the Scarecrow in The Wiz, Before Jermaine and Rebbi had hits, Before the "Say, Say, Say" video where he was romantically involved with his sister Latoya, Before his hair caught fire filming a Pepsi commercial, Before little kids slept in his bedroom, Before he dangled his baby over a balconey,

Before all the things highlighted above, Michael Jackson was a young black boy and the lead singer in a band with his brothers, called The Jackson 5.

You may remember Michael for buying the Elephant Man's Remains, but I remember Michael as a Saturday Morning Cartoon Character, a young bell bottom wearing black boy with an afro who could sing and dance.

My 70's Memories - Classics Going Strong

In an earlier post, I talked about my elation as a kid in the 70's when 3 of my favorite things came together at once, UFO's, Bigfoot, and The Six Million Dollar Man. (link)

Well, I went to a party New Years day and while looking for a bathroom, I wandered into a kids room and it happened again...

...No, not eating pizza and then falling asleep on the couch while watching TiVo and not playing soccer with free beer at a Tragically Hip concert. Three of my favorite things as a kid ...

Legos,

Star Wars,

and video games.

That's right, these kids were playing a Lego/Star Wars/X-Box game, and I wasn't getting a turn anytime soon.

Six Million Dollar Man Trivia

No one has answered my SMDM trivia from - this post.

Six Million Dollar Man Trivia - Can anyone tell me:

1. How Jamie Sommers was injured so that she needed bionics?


2. How the SMDM destroyed the 2 Venus Death Probes?

My 70's Memories - 6 Million Dollar Man

Colonel Steve Austin, a NASA test pilot barely survived a near fatal crash.

Narrator: "Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive." Oscar Goldman: "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

Austin is "rebuilt" in an operation that costs six million dollars. His right arm, both legs and the left eye are replaced by bionic (cybernetic) implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above human norm. He uses his enhanced abilities to work for the OSI as a secret agent.

This show was on from 1974 to 1978 and I loved it and had the action figures (you could look through the bionic eye).

In the second season, Austin defeated the out-of-control seven million dollar man despite only costing 6/7ths as much. We also met ex-tennis pro Jamie Sommers who became the bionic woman, and love interest of Steve Austin. (She would later get her own show and there would be a bionic boy and bionic dog, Max.)

In the third season of The Six Million Dollar Man, it all came together for me, a zen-like convergence of three of the coolest things imagineable.

TV Nirvana.

Thats right: the Six Million Dollar Man fought Bigfoot who came to earth in a UFO. The only way it could have been better is if a Loch Ness Monster made out of Legos appeared, but that would have been far fetched and not believable.

The fourth season brought more Bigfoot and the first Venus Death Probe, while the fifth season brought yet more Bigfoot and a second Venus Death Probe.

SMDM trivia - Can anyone tell me:
1. How Jamie Sommers was injured?
2. How the two Venus Probes were destroyed?

The Cantonese-dubbed version of the show had the following opening narration: (English translation)

"Astronaut - Steve Austin, critically injured after the accident. After doctors' diagnoses, in their opinion that they can modify him... into a man whose left eye, right hand, both legs that are unlike anyone else's. This modification finally succeeded. Steve Austin is now strong, agile, wise and brave combined."

Ultraman - "Forget karate, Use The Ray!"

Ultraman was easily my favorite show. Ultraman, teamed up with the Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner show, formed the greatest 1-2 punch in Saturday Morning history.

Background - Ultraman, hailing from Nebula M78, came to Earth pursuing Bemular, who had escaped while being taken to the Monster Graveyard. While flying over Japan, he accidentally collided with a plane, causing it to crash. Remorseful, and knowing he will rapidly run out of life giving energy within the planet's atmosphere, Ultraman merged with the dying pilot Shin Hayata. This saved the life of the human, but also allowed his alien counterpart to survive on Earth and secretly live among the humans unnoticed except when he was needed. Shin was a member of the Science Patrol, a group armed with high-tech giant robots who routinely took on alien invaders and giant monsters which threatened Japan.

Synopsis of every Ultraman episode - Hayata and the rest of the Science Patrol are called upon to fight a giant monster (man in suit stomping on model landscape). Hyata uses the Beta Capsule (a bic pen) to turn into Ultraman, who then fights the monster, hand-to-hand for about 2 1/2 minutes. The light on Ultraman's chest starts blinking, signalling that Ultraman is running out of energy. At the last moment, Ultraman crosses his arms in front of him (in a plus sign) and an energy ray shoots out and kills the monster.

My 70's Memories - Big Wheel

Big Wheel

Q - You are coming down a hill so fast on your Big Wheel that you have to remove your feet from the pedals. What do you do when you reach the bottom of the hill?

A - Slam on the brakes (foot or hand, depending on the model), turn the wheel, and SPIN OUT!