1974

I was only on a horse 2 times in my life - the first was in 1974 at the Turtleback Zoo which mom took a photo of. The second time was in 1982 in Virginia on a girl scout trip. Our family enjoyed eating at Roy Rogers - my brother and I look like we were having fun on the horses there. The bottom lefthand photo is of mom, Mark, Grandma and I in front of our town's new fire truck. It's a shame that grandma got cut off in it though. Dad took the photo of us at Newark airport the day that we took a tour of it and also a TWA plane. Mark and I got TWA pins then which I still have.

Summertime 1975

These are some of my favourite photos and memories of the 1970s. Summertime was always so much fun. I love the one of my brother sleeping with his racecar. We were goofing off and playing dressup one day - kind of strange to be wearing such things on a hot day. The photo on the bottom right is of Mom who is standing by our swingset, Aunt Dorothy, cousin Sal, Grandma, my brother and I.

Favourite Games - Hangman

My brother and I really enjoyed Hangman when we were kids. I thought that we still had this game but when I went through the game tote in the basement a few months ago it wasn't in there which was disappointing. I wouldn't have gotten rid of this so I'm not sure what happend to it and a few other missing games. I remember this commercial and also that there was a picture of Vincent Price on the box. What was your favourite game? I know that I've already done one post today and I don't usually do 2 in one day but it might be a few days before I get to use the computer again so I figured I'd share this commercial with you. The quality isn't the best but I'm glad that I found it.

Beautiful Mt. Airy Lodge - 1980

This isn't the exact commercial that I remember but it's very close to it. I remember them playing the old version even up until the late 80's. I always wished that we could go there and also that Dad would take us to visit our friends in Allentown P.A. more than just the 2 times that we did go. Now it's the Mt. Airy Resort and Casino but I will always think of it as this.

My Hometown Carnival

Next week is the annual Winfield carnival which my brother is really looking forward to mainly because of the food like the ribs and zeppoles. Mom and I haven't been to this event in a very long time. We do enter the super 50-50 for it though. We've never won that or the regular nightly ones. I do have some good memories of going there when I was a kid, like going on the Tilt-a-Whirl and the Scrambler and playing some of the games. The food was always good there. My brother said that the selection isn't as big as it used to be. It is always held around the time of my mom's birthday on July 30th so Mark would treat her to some ribs as part of her gift. This picture of the 35th one is in my scrapbook. It's from the Daily Journal, the paper that we used to get before it went out of business. The photos from my family album are from 1972. I'm with my friend Theresa on the left and on the merrry-go-round with my brother with mom hidden in the back. They are the only photos we have of our hometown carnival.

My 4th Grade Camping Trip

Our fourth grade trip was to Camp Hoover in Northern New Jersey in 1979. That's the same place that we went to for our Girl Scout camping adventures. Mom kept all the papers that had information like directions to the camp, our daily activities and what to bring.I put these in my scrapbook many years ago. Mom took my picture with both my teachers, Miss Kiernan and Mrs. Davies. I had fun canoeing and doing a charchol drawing. I have a few other photos of some classmates and I that I was kind of embarrassed about putting on here - maybe I should've anyhow. We took about a mile walk to the general store and got penny candies. I'm pretty sure that one night some of the boys were looking into the girl's cabin. I haven't read that list of activities since the late 80's - now I'm curious as to what else we did so later I'll check this out.

Spring/Summer 1973

I remember my mom's friend Barbara James bringing over this adorable rabbit one spring day I loved petting it and wished that we could keep it. My brother and I sure had fun in our little pool in the summertime. I'm holding my favourite doll, Teresa. My brother was playing around in our Dad's shoes on our patio at the old apartment. That place seems to be in my dreams often, probably because I have such good memories of my childhood there. We still live in the same town, just on the other side of it where we've been for almost 18 years. It's hard to believe that it's been that long.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend. I feel bad that I did not devote time to reading and commenting on blog posts today. I shouldn't have spent so much of my limited time on my brother's computer looking up and saving recipes on disc. I probably won't be able to use it again until next Wednesday so I'm looking forward to catching up with my blog friends then.

My Girl Scout Camping Stuff

I was reorganizing stuff in my basement and in the totes down there and seeing these things brought back the memories of my Girl Scout camping days. I was in the Scouts for about 6 years - 1977- 1982. I really preferred it when we would stay in cabins instead of the tents. Camp Hoover in north New Jersey was the one that we went to. Our 4th grade trip was also there. I am pretty sure that we went to one called Camp Kettle Run which I think is in south Jersey once. We stayed at a couple of camps during our trip to Virginia in 1982 and one outside of Washington D.C. in 1981. I loved my Tupperware bowl/plate and the mug with the coaster/top. The 3 utensils held together as one are neat.I found a pair of undies in the blue bag that must've been in there since the early 80's because I haven't used that bag since then. Maybe that's too much information and I shouldn't have included them in the picture - they did look clean!

My K-tel Albums

I had the K-tel album Wings of Sound which I got as a gift in 1980. I played it on my record player alot. I remember some of the songs on it - Rock With You - Michael Jackson, This Is It - Kenny Loggins, Escape (The Pina Colada Song) and Gold. I should've kept it despite the fact that it started skipping eventually. I got these 3 albums and the 2 tapes in the late 80's and early 90's at flea markets and a record exchange store. I actually had the Soundwaves one on an 8 Track that my friend got me for Christmas in 1980 or 1981. I like these and a few other songs on it - Upside Down - Diana Ross, Steal Away - Robbie Dupree and Let Me Love You Tonight - Pure Prarie League.

I went to the Wikipedia site to find out some info on this company. Their first album was 25 Great Country Artists Sing Their Original Hits in 1966. They were started in Winnepeg, Manitoba and then in the U.S. in Plymouth, MN and also in the UK and Germany. In 1984 the US division filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. They had compilation series such as Super Hits, The Number One Hits and Dynamic Hits. I can't help laughing at the titles of some of their albums. One called Power Hits had a Carpenters song Yesterday Once More on it. I used to like that song. Summer Crusin' had 1950s music.

My favourite songs on Hit Express are Do You Believe in Love - Huey Lewis and the News and Don't You Want Me - Human League ; from Blast Off - Hurts So Good - John Cougar. I used to like more of the songs on each of these albums and tapes but I guess I kind of lost interest in them after a while. I'd love to see which other albums that this company had. A disco one called Night Moves from 1979 was mentioned. Maybe I can look into that somewhere on the internet.

6th Grade - 1980 - 1981

The photo at the very bottom is of my 6th grade class. The one above that is 5th grade. For class photos we usually got to dress up. I'm not sure why they made us wear our uniforms that year. I went to St. John the Apostle school for 9 years. I have some good memories of that place. It was much better than the Catholic high school that I went to. I was thinking about 6th grade as I was watching the very last launch of the space shuttle today because that's when I saw the first one. Our history teacher Miss Mead had it on in her classroom. The top photo is of the hankie that I painted an apple on during Apple Day in her class. I forget what other crafts that we did but I'm pretty sure that we made shrunken heads out of apples too. Our class trip was to Sandy Hook for that grade. I'll be doing a post on that in the future.

8th Grade Dance - 1983

The theme for our 8th grade dance at St. John's in 1983 was the television show M*A*S*H. I can't remember what month this took place in but I'm pretty sure it was after the big series finale episode of that programme. I was into M*A*S*H back then but really don't care for it anymore. My brother does though - he has the DVDs of all the seasons. All of our parents did a very good job of decorating the gym/auditorium for this dance. My main memory of it is not a nice one. A boy did ask me to dance but that was only because his friends dared him to. I overheard this and told that boy no. I am glad that my mom did take pictures of this event despite that upsetting memory.

My Holiday Shirt

I'll be wearing this shirt today. I got it in Kohl's about 3 years ago. I forgot to wear it last July 4th. My brother mentioned the holiday shirts with the bear on them that my aunt made for him, mom and I. I know that mom still has hers but we don't have ours. I usually keep everything that she made for me and feel bad that I got rid of that.

Books About The 1980s

I ordered both of these books from the amazon.com site a couple of years ago. I first saw the Totally Awesome 80's one at a bookstore back in the mid 1990s and kind of regretted not getting it then. My library actually had The Best of Smash Hits and a few weeks after I took this out I decided to look into purchasing it. I never did buy that magazine back in the 1980s but I did get some issues of it from ebay shortly after getting this book. I guess that I was making up for the fact that I was never like my classmates going ga-ga over Duran Duran and other performers back then. I was too busy studying and reading to care about teen idols, MTV and all that. It's kind of embarrassing that I didn't go through my boy crazy phase until my mid 30's. I did have little crushes on Tom Selleck and the baseball player Don Mattingly but it seemed tame compared to how crazy the girls were going over guys like Rick Springfield and all those other idols that were in Tiger Beat and those other teenie-bopper mags.

Patriotic Pooch

I was going to add this better, closer up photo of Mookie yesterday but decided against it because of Mom's foot being in it but today I figured why not do so since Mookie looks so darn cute in it. Another 4th of July memory came to mind also that wasn't a very happy one. My dad was mad at my brother for spending alot of money on fireworks down in either Virginia or Maryland and my mom left the car and started walking and when we did get her to come back my parents didn't talk during the entire ride back to Jersey. That was in 1986. I'm pretty sure that was the same year that our neighbor called the police when Mark was setting off the fireworks and he got in trouble for having them. He was so annoyed about that. We had sparklers and little tanks but I don't remember which other kinds that he got. I was kind of scared of all of these though. I didn't want anyone getting injured.