Even More Toys and Childhood Fun- Part 2

Our Mom’s friend Helen J. gave us some of her son’s old toys, including a couple of car racing tracks; one set was light blue and the other was orange. My brother had a black and silver set too but this was made of a rubbery type material, not hard plastic.

   Grandma-at-the-Farm got us the kid’s edition of Trivial Pursuit one Christmas. I was not that great at the regular one; entertainment was my best category. We also have a few other editions and the M*A*S*H trivia game.

   I have been looking at photos of toys and other retro 1970s and 1980s stuff on the internet lately. This has been fun. It is also reminding me of items that I had not really thought much about for a long time, like our neighbor’s croquet set. We played this a couple of times with their grandkids, Cindy and Jessica. I am sure that we weren’t really following the official rules though.

   Some people might think that such reminiscing is kind of foolish. It is nice that Sharon and I enjoy sharing our childhood memories. I sent her one of my Toys and Childhood Fun photo documents which she liked a lot. She wishes that she still had many of her toys and other things or even just photos of them. I feel the same way about this.

 

The only photo from the internet is the race cars and tracks.

 

December 15, 2016- More School Days- Part 2

-8^th Grade- The parents did such a great job of decorating the gym for our “M*A*S*H “dance. This took place not long after the final episode of that show in 1983. Mom and Dad were there as chaperones. I should have kept my 2 “M*A*S*H” shirts.

   I accidentally threw out my yearbook. I do still have the t shirt with my classmates’ signatures on it that everyone got. The girls also received a necklace; I don’t remember what the boys got. I have my class president pin too.

   My parents gave me a Brother typewriter as a graduation gift. They got Mike an in-ground basketball set for his.

   I’m pretty sure that Confirmation was after graduation. Mrs. P was my sponsor. I don’t remember much about this only that afterwards we went to a nice restaurant, The Sleepy Hollow Inn then over to Mrs. P’s house.

-Good Deeds- I don’t remember which particular ones that I did, probably help mom with chores. Mike lied, saying that he took out Mr. K’s trash for him. He was going to do so but never got around to it.

-Science Fair- Someone always did a volcano as a project. I did one on the weather in 6^th or 7^th grade. It wasn’t anything that elaborate, just posters about various types of clouds and some other stuff.

-Games and fun- Operation, Candyland, Perfection, hopscotch, line tag, jump rope, flipping trading cards (Mike won some” Happy Days” and Grease cards), Musical chairs; Duck, Duck, Goose; and Red Light, Green Light. I didn’t like when our class would play Seven Up or the Telephone Game.

-Hot Lunch Friday – Ellio’s pizza, Sabrett hot dogs, potato chips, soda, and Carvel Flying Saucers (ice cream sandwiches). I can’t remember if the milk was just then or every day.

-Gertrude Hawk – We first had this brand when it was part of our fund raiser for grade school at Easter and Christmas. Mom would always get us a white chocolate cross and the Smidgens. We liked the peanut butter filled ones a lot.

-Birthdays- Classmates would bring in either cupcakes or Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins on their birthdays. I am pretty sure that Mike and I brought in cupcakes for ours sometimes too.

-We would have bake sales to raise money for our school. Mom made cupcakes most of the time. My brother said that there were a couple of plant sales too. I do remember buying a few plants that we put in the garden.

-Mom covered our text books with brown paper grocery bags.

-Mom was a member of the PTA for a few years but quit after she and the principal, Sister HF, had a disagreement over the fact that she wouldn’t let mom take us out of class to go to the funeral of one of our classmates’ parent.

  I remember that Mom liked working at the bingo nights; sometimes she would take Mike and me. We would be in the teacher’s lounge with a babysitter and other kids. They served some of the same foods that we had for our hot lunches.

2011

1972

hopscotch

 

Photos 5-18 are from the internet