My Life and Dreams: Smurfs

Showing posts with label Smurfs. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

September 17, 2016- Toys and Childhood Fun

Mike seemed disappointed that I didn’t want to stay downstairs with him for longer. I was surprised and also touched when he said that he feels more depressed when I am not around. He wanted me to watch “The Incredible Hulk” and “Wonder Woman” with him but I really wasn’t interested.

I am kind of embarrassed that I would sometimes twirl around and wear cuff style bracelets on both arms trying to pretend to be her when I was a kid. I still have my Wonder Woman, Barbie and other dolls. I wish that I hadn’t gotten rid of many of my stuffed animal friends; I liked them much more than those.

I recently saw Snoopy Colorforms at a flea market and was tempted to buy that. I used to love playing with these. Play-Doh, Coloring Books and Crayola 64 box crayons (brick red and maroon were my favorites), colored pencils, pastels, Silly Putty, Magic 8-Ball, our board and other games, Mad Libs, Construct-o-Straws, and Mike’s Little-Van-Go (like a Fashion Plates for boys) were also lots of fun.

I still have the Etch-a-Sketch that Aunt Ann gave me. I was never really that good at it or drawing. I kept my sketchbook too. Mike and I did like using chalk to make sidewalk drawings sometimes.

We had the Fisher Price house, airport and barn. I liked the Family Tree House even more than these. We gave them to charity in the mid-1980s. One Christmas, our parent’s got Mike a Radio Flyer red wagon and me my first bicycle(with training wheels and a basket).

Mike lost his King Kong figure at the Bonanza restaurant in the mid-70s. He had Inspector Gadget, Mr. T, dinosaur, and He-Man figures in the 80s. We each had some Smurfs. I kept 4 or 5 of mine. The Rocky and Bullwinkle bendable figures were both of ours.

There was a box of toys that we would play with at Grandma’s farmhouse at Thanksgiving. I only remember 2 of them- the Pillsbury Dough Boy and a metal car (1950s?) We enjoyed playing auto bingo during the car rides there and elsewhere.

I had a Tomy Waterfuls game – a dolphin with rings. Our cousin Missy had 2 of these. We were a bit jealous of some of the toys that she had, including Don’t Spill the Beans, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky, and Simon. I wasn’t that good at the latter though.

Toys were made much better in the 70s and 80s. I saw Care Bears in Target and they didn’t look as nice as the ones that we had/have. Same with the Cabbage Patch Kids, not that they were ever adorable. We still have 4 of these but used to have 8 or 9. I’m so glad that I kept my Pound Puppy, Chip.

My brother and I and our friend Kelly went to summer play camp at our town’s community center. We did ceramics and other crafts there. I made a small wishing well out of Popsicle sticks. We would glue macaroni/pasta in patterns on paper plates. I am pretty sure that glitter was a part of that. We might have done either pot holders or hot plates too- perhaps both.

1978

1986

1976

1981

Henry, Beary, and BB

Ted-not original

1985

Cinnamon and Mrs. Koala

1985

1984

1985-Fox and Poochie

1986

Care Bears

Raccoon, CPK-Premie. and Pound Puppy-1985

Wildwood Prizes-1986

Gerald and Myrtle 1985

1985

Smurfs

He Man 1984

Family Tree House 1976

Family Tree House Girl

Fisher Price Airport 1975

1974

1975

Ceramics

Lincoln Logs 1974

My sketches

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Dreamtime

January 5, 2012- A Nightmare Vacation

I was sitting on a lounge chair by a pool at a hotel. I looked over at the one next to me and saw John Taylor there. He was in the middle of talking about Donna Summer’s song “I Feel Love” with me. I had been in my living room watching TV just seconds before being teleported to this setting.

I could hear “Escape- The Pina Colada Song” on the stereo system. I mentioned to John that this song was on one of my K-Tel compilation albums. It was nice but also odd that the two of us were having such a conversation in this environment. I discovered that we were in Panama City Beach, Florida.

Only 15 minutes later, however, some strange and scary things began happening. I saw a man turn into a cartoon character, The Pink Panther. He was still drinking a beer afterwards. He must have also lost his human personality because he didn’t seem to be upset about this.

A woman changed into The Creature from the Black Lagoon. She chased after a few people but then just sat down on a chair. A girl screamed out that her boyfriend Bob had transformed into a Smurf. I saw him hiding behind a potted plant.

Everyone was very frightened that something horrible would eventually happen to them too. John was worried about Simon who was at the nearby beach. I went with him to see if Simon was alright.

We saw that he had just turned into the early 20s version of himself both in appearance and personality. He wasn’t aware that he was married. He was checking out the 2 beautiful girls who were playing Frisbee.

A man had transformed into a 6 foot Godzilla. He was chasing after people and breathing fire. People were freaking out and running. John tried getting Simon to come with him but he would not leave the beach.

We ran back to the hotel. I saw a teenage girl in the lobby change into a 65 year old woman. She was crying. Her mother was trying to comfort her. I also noticed a few more Smurfs running around.

I was feeling so upset that this program had turned into such a nightmare. The mean aliens must have hacked into it. I saw a big foot type monster coming towards us. John grabbed my hand- this sort of surprised me- and we escaped to an area near the restaurant.

He was no longer holding my hand now. In fact, when I looked next to me, he wasn’t even there. I heard a faint voice saying “I am down here”. I looked down and saw that John had become Papa Smurf.

About 7 Smurfs came over to him. They were fully the cartoon characters by now. One of them asked Papa Smurf what they should do. He said “I don’t fucking know!” That sounded so wrong. But then approximately 12 seconds later, he told them that they should all run away from the humans and creatures.

I watched them following him. I felt even more frightened and alone. The situation got worse when I suddenly felt a strong craving to eat lots of sweets. I went into the restaurant’s kitchen where a few other people were pigging out on all sorts of foods. I could not control myself either.

I was so relieved that I wasn’t in this frightening storyline for much longer. Is it weird that I was thinking that I would have rather been turned into Smurfette and escaped with Papa John Smurf?

Note- Godzilla photo is from the internet

Friday, January 10, 2020

July 25, 2015- Favorite Cartoons

"Scooby Doo" and many other of the Hanna Barbera ones – “Snagglepuss”,” Huckleberry Hound”, “Yogi Bear”, “Hong Kong Phooey”, “Dastardly and Muttley”, “Ricochet Rabbit”, "Quick Draw McGraw", “Jonny Quest”, “Space Ghost”, and “The Blue Falcon and Dynomutt”.

“Dungeons and Dragons”, “Battle of the Planets”, “Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse”, “Danger Mouse”, “Inspector Gadget”, “Spiderman and Friends”, “Super Friends and the Hall of Justice”, “Iron Man”, “Godzilla “(with Godzuki), “Rocky and Bullwinkle”, and "The Pink Panther".

I’m not sure if I would include the “Smurfs”. Well, back then we liked them but I don’t know if I’d want to sit through any of these episodes today like I would with most of these others.