Did It Happen Or Not?-(things I remember happening as kid ,but not so sure it did)

I wrote one these before, but there was so many things that happened in my childhood that I question now a days. I just want to post one memory right now as I searched and found my answer. Plus, it's a Christmas memory so it fits with the season.

"Captain Santa & His Reindeer Space Patrol Song"
Okay, everyone thinks I'm totally crazy for this one, but I know what my little ears heard. I was at my Grandma's house one day right before Christmas. As I mentioned before, my Gran loved Christmas. She adored it. So she was all in her Christmas mood and  getting stuff ready for the holidays. She had her Christmas carols playing on a radio near by and it was tuned in to one of our local radio stations that always played boring music unless it was Christmas time, when they would play every Christmas song known to man. No matter what version the singer sang the carol in, I knew each song, until one particular song came about. I just remember it being kind of silly and only remembered the chorus "Captain Santa and his Reindeer Space Patrol" and that there was spaceship sounds throughout it. I only heard it that one time. I asked about it some time later and no one knew nothing. I knew I heard what I heard though. Then, thank God for the internet, because I found proof! I typed in the song name and loath and behold only one result came up for funny xmas song lyrics and there it was!
http://silver-mg.com/Xmas/Xmas_Lyrics_Funny_Songs1.htm#anchor6
I'm still trying to figure out who sings it but at least one mystery is solved. It does exsist!(Bobby Helms sings it! Go me!)

The Beauty Of Thrift Shops

I haven't been to thrifts shop in a while. I suppose it's because of low funds and that I ran out of room to store things. When my oldest daughter came home from Goodwill the other day with a present for me it brought back my interest in shopping there. Back in the 80's, we had a tiny Goodwill store on our main street. As a kid I was intrigued by their sign with the half smiling face. It seemed mysterious because the face was hiding a little but at the same time it had to be good because it was smiling. I would beg my grandma to take me in there but that was unheard of to her. To have her baby buy something second hand? Oh no, Granny didn't play that. My dad was a pretty carefree guy and gladly took me there and bought me a hat I wanted. I thought the hat was gorgeous itself. It looked like some kind of hat a  women would have wore on Easter Sunday or something. However when I took it home my mom forbid me to wear it saying the previous owner of the hat might have had lice. That was the end of Goodwill until I stumbled into it's doors during my mid teen drug daze years. The boyfriend I was with at the time must have had a few dollars left after buying the necessities of that time,(you know, cigarettes, heroin, crack cocaine, ...things of that nature.) and bought me a Victoria secret silk robe for three dollars. I owned that robe for years thinking it was a great bargain even though the person that bought it ended by nauseating me. Then, the Goodwill in town closed down. A lot of stores around my small town of Hammonton were closing in the mid 90's, including the old Superfresh store which was reopened to a bigger and new location. Years later, a new Goodwill opened in the old Superfresh's building and is where I usually lurk in. My Grandma never really excepted the second hand stuff but my mom grew a great liking to it. Even my grandfather brings my daughter in there to shop, and that's when she came home with this for me.

She brought me home a 1988 Puffalump and it only cost her 99 cents! It brought me back some hope that there is some good retro junk still floating around in thrift stores. I started my retro collection a few years ago as my love for the 80's and early 90's grew as I got older. I began searching thrift stores but all in all I felt like I wasn't finding anything worth while so I gave it up. Now that my oldest brought me this little piece of history and I looked back on some of things I bought in thrift stores, I really think I must have been crazy to give it up. I've gotten some really good things that added to my collection from Goodwills and Thrift shops.

"Ecto-1"

 I bought Ecto-1 at a thrift store about 20 minutes away from my house. I found it on the bottom of the toy shelf buried in the back. Despite from it being a little dirty and missing a door, I seemed in good shaped for 4.95$! That's pretty good considering they go for anywhere between 15 to 45 dollars on ebay!

          "Teddy Ruxpin"

I found him at a Goodwill but not in my town. He was at the bottom of a stuffed animal bid. After searching around in some junk bins in the aisles, I also found a few cassettes tapes for him too! He was only 4.99. He didn't work at first, but after a few minor adjusts my husband fixed it. Not bad since on ebay one seller was selling him for 99.99!              

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

"Furskins"

I found quite a few of these guys. One brand new in the box even!

"Kissyfur"

I found him on the shelf at yet another Goodwill.(I know almost every Goodwill in South Jersey.) There he stood with his original booklet tag still attached! I bought him for around 4 dollars. At the time of this post, there was only one of these dolls being sold on ebay for 34 dollars.

"Snoopy"

I can't really remember where I found Snoopy at, but I do know it was at one of those Thrift Shops around me. I don't know if he's really from the 80's. His tag says 1968, though that just may be the Peanuts copyright. The coolest thing about this Snoopy is that it's the same one from the "Walking on Sunshine" dance scene from the movie "Look Who's Talking." You see Snoopy dancing at the top of the table with John Travolta's help. (Check out all the other Puffalumps next to Mikey in the first shots too!)


"Holiday Kermit Muppet Baby"

I found this Kermit at a Goodwill near the shore where my Dad used to live. I got him for something ridiculous like 50 cents or something. I used to have him when I was little along with the Fozzy and Miss Piggy. During one Christmas season in the 80's, Mcdonald's was selling the three Holiday Muppet Babies for a limited time for a cheaper price when you bought some kind of meal.

"Garfield"
I found quite a few Garfield's at thrift stores. A Garfield bank, a few suction cup Garfield's, and an original Garfield complete with his tag!

"Old Glasses and Cups"
For some reason I grew an obsession with old glasses. I guess it's because my family once owned them all at one time and having them around again just makes me happy. Besides, I found that they are the easiest thing to find in those stores!

Above is one of those frosted Coca Cola glasses that they were selling at Burger King in the early 90's.

 

 These are collectible glasses from Mcdonald's. They might be from the 70's but I'm not sure. I found them in Goodwill being sold all together for a cheap price.

Here's another collectible glass from Mcdonald's. I'm sure if you were a kid in the 80's, you knew someone who had these Snoopy glasses. Almost everyone I knew had at least one of these in their house!

 Here's more from Mcdonald's, this time Garfield. I found some at a thrift shop, and my mom found me a whole bag of them at Goodwill.

Here's a Twinkie Glass. I miss those Hostess Mascots.

Here's some more stuff...

This Labyrinth game was just sitting alone on a shelf.

I'm not quite sure what this was, but it said 1985 "Piggy Belly." I'm guessing there was candy inside his stomach at one time.

                                 The magic eight ball I previously owned as well, though we threw it out once their was too many bubbles inside and you couldn't read your future. Recently I asked it, "Am I crazy?" It said, "All signs are pointing to Yes."

I was always more of a Mcdonald's person, even back then, but I did belong to the Burger King Kids Club. If you remember, the commercials advertised the Kids Club with some cartoons, all with their own name. Well, I ended up recognizing them in the shape of Kids meal toys inside a plastic bag at Goodwill.

This 1985 Playmates crawling doll still works!

Chibbles was a part of those Chubbles toys that their eyes blinked and they made a noise. I never owned the Chubble, just the Chibble I think. I loved this furry little guy and missed him so when he was thrown away. I found him in a pile of stuffed animals.

Lurky, the bad boy from Rainbow Brite, added nicely to my collection.

This little statue is a "Human Bean." I think Hallmark may have made them, but back in the 80's they were all over the place.(toys, desk ornaments, mugs, ..etc.)

Two little old Mcdonald's happy meal toys of Fraggles in their cars.

I found these "Li'l Tuppers School Yard" still in the box at one of those church thrift shops. After opening it, I found some other extra things inside that didn't belong with the set.(Like happy meal toys.)

To tell you the truth, I didn't remember TV Teddy. I just took a chance by buying him. He's supposed to be some relative of Teddy Ruxpin.

The stuffed Gund Lassie is from 1990. I found it funny that I already had an ad for her in some old magazine.

I'm always finding Pound Puppies!

A Ghostbusters jar.

There's so much more too. Just goes to show one person's junk is another person's treasure. (In this case, ...me!)

Retro Cereal Boxes Are Back!

My mom isn't a big cereal person. If and only if she buys cereal, it is usually some healthy crap like shredded wheat that nobody eats. This is why I was so surprised when I seen a box of Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch in the cabinet. I don't know what possessed her to buy it but either way it was there. After pulling the box out I was in store for another surprise. The front of the cereal box had the old school design on the front. I later on searched through Walmart and found that there was quite a few retro cereals. It was cereal designs on different almost a beautiful thing. I felt like a little kid standing in front of my favorite cereals shelves. I wanted to take a picture of all of them but I voted against it thinking that everyone in the store would think I'm some kind of wacko or cereal killer. (Get it?) Still though, it was great to see the Cap'N Crunch I knew instead of the computer graphic Cap'n that he became unwillingly. It's strange to see the changes the cereal mascots have gone through in the passing years. Anyway, it's nice to see the old Cap'n, not this:

Reminiscing About Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving doesn't hold a special place in my heart anymore and that's really sad. I really try to make things special for my kids but I just don't have the heart to do it anymore. I still try though every year and I force myself that nothing is going to be the way is was again. I hate the fact that I'm a depressing person but I try to make the best of things. The Holidays are kind of rough around here because the Holidays was my grandma's "thing" and she's been gone for years now. My Gran loved and breathed Christmas. We always had almost every Holiday there was at my Gran's house. Although she had rheumatoid arthritis and had crooked feet from it, some how a miracle occurred on the Holidays, (Especially Christmas), and she moved around like an Olympic gold metalist. Every Holiday all the family would meet up at my grandma's house. Boy, I miss that lady. She wasn't the half of it though. Back then, the Holidays were special every where. The Thanksgiving sprite seemed like it was all November long in school.(Well, the elementary school anyway.) We would trace our hands and then color to transform them to turkeys. In art class we would draw full face pilgrims with pastels that would later be hung on the hallway walls so we would pass them in our line to lunch and point out which one was ours. We even did a Thanksgiving play one year when half the class was pilgrims and the other half was Indians. I, of course, protested against being a Pilgrim when I was nominated one by our teacher. Being a Pilgrim meant you had to wear a cut out top hat that we made in class and you had to be all boring. Indians, on the other hand, were the fun, crazy bunch that got to wear a cardboard head band that was stapled together with colored feathers glued on. I was one spoiled little bitch so I was able to convince the teacher to let me be a Pilgrim. At home my mom would start to hang up paper Thanksgiving window clings in the shapes of turkeys, Pilgrims, and fruit baskets. Usually the night before Thanksgiving was a great night for TV for us kids because they always had some kind of Thanksgiving special on. One I remember was Bugs Bunny Thanksgiving Diet that always had those "Bugs Bunny Thanksgiving Diet is brought to by Mcdonald's.." voice overs. Even those commercials are something that sticks to my memory. Almost every commercial during intermission was Christmas related just adding to the excitement that the Holiday that counted most was right around the corner now! Another Holiday favorite of mine was Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Charlie Brown invites his crew over for dinner but they end up bashing the old blockhead because his dog made a ghetto Thanksgiving dinner that consisted of sandwiches, popcorn, pretzels, and these round colorful things. I didn't understand what everyone's problem was? I thought Snoopy made a awesome meal. It was those colorful round things in the dish that caught my young. I wasn't exactly sure that they were but I figured they had to be jelly beans. Then the day of Thanksgiving came upon us.  If we would get there early the whole house would smell like cooking food and the Macy's Day parade would be on some where in the house. I remember walking in one year and telling my Aunt that my eyes hurt because I had just got done playing 99 straight rounds of Bubble Bobble that morning. My eyes were very painful and I still to this day can't beat that damn game. Although Thanksgiving was a great excuse to get a few days off from school for me but I have to admit that I loved going to my Gran's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I say "dinner" but it was more like lunch really. We always started eating around one o' clock I think. My Gran's feast was so big though that you really didn't have to eat for the rest of the week if you didn't want to. Gran was my mom's mother and my mom's whole side of the family is Italian, (That's where I got my disgustedly love for food at I guess.), so we had to have ravioli's before the turkey. My dad was Irish and German leaving me only half Italian and I am far from being a "Maria." I completely take after my dad's side even with the light hair and green eyes. Maybe that's why I never cared for Italian food then. Every one at the table every year used to look at me like I just grew another nose just because I didn't want to eat my ravioli's . I couldn't resist the turkey though. Even as a four year old kid I had to have the drumstick. It reminded of some cartoon where they were sitting around a table eating chicken legs and ripping the meat right off the bone. {I think it was from a scene in "Sword in the Stone"}  Some how even after the "dinner" we managed to eat dessert. I miss those times. Today as I sat and looked at my children I saw me in each one of their little faces. Although the Holidays don't feel as special to me anymore, especially since my Gran died, I try to make it special for them. Who knows, maybe when they are in their thirties they will reminisce back on when they were little on their online blogs just as I am doing now.  

McRib For The First Time!

  There's a lot of things I used to love as a kid but grew out of a long time ago. I replaced my love for Debbie Gibson and New Kids On The Block with Nicki Minaj or Sublime. I used to be a very shy and quiet kid where as now I am big mouth that cusses like a sailor. I may not be twirling in circles until I fall down anymore like I used to but there's one thing that will never change, my love for Mcdonald's. I always adored Mcdonald's. Grant it though I wish Mcdonald's was still the same as years ago with fun birthday parties and dangerous playground equipment, but I will forever be okay with the fact that their food no matter how ghetto thick my ass gets. I recall seeing the commercials for the McRib when it first came out. At first I could care less because I was still in my "Gimme my happy meal already so I can go play in the giant Big Mac head" phase.(Remember those giant Big Mac Climbers in the playground?) As I got older though I began to see the McRib in a new light and thought, "Damn, that looks pretty good." This was during the time when that McRib and Mcdonald's was tied together to that stupid "Flintstones" movie. Then it disappeared for a really long time with me still never tasting it. Supposedly McRib came back every once in a while but I never seen it. It was probably because I really don't watch T.V anymore except for Law and Order here and there. Just last week though as I watched my Discovery I.D channel, (Okay, I admit I'm hooked on the gore), and I seen a commercial for the return of the McRib. The commercial itself actually made me nauseous as it showed different people eating their McRib sandwiches which BBQ sauce dripping off their faces. Call me picky but I don't find people licking barbecue sauce off their finger tips appetizing. Either way I did manage to sit through the whole thing and was able to heard over my gagging "McRib is back for a limited time." I had to get one and today was my lucky day. I ordered my McRib but I didn't eat it until thirty minutes later when I got back home. I was all excited until I opened it and since there was onions and pickles. I had never seen the inside of a McRib unless it was many years ago on a commercial that I blocked from my memory. Every time I get a Mcdonald's sandwich the first thing I do is remove the pickle. I just don't like the taste nor the crunching noise while I'm eating my Cheeseburger. Onions in their sandwiches are okay as long as they are diced like the ones inside double cheeseburgers. Those long ones they throw inside the Quarter Pounder are a big no, no for me. They're just too fat and big and remind me of worms, so they get scrapped right out of my Quarter Pounder as well. After disposing of the onions and pickles it was now the moment of truth and the McRib was ready to be eaten. All and all it was pretty good! The only disappointment for me was that the sandwich still had a pickle taste to it but it was my own fault for letting the pickle saturate into the meat for so long.
 My only regret is that I hadn't tried it sooner. I think it's going to be a very McRiby week though because they are only selling them until December 5th, leaving me about a week of McRib sandwiches for lunch. Maybe for Thanksgiving tomorrow I can replace the turkey with McRib sandwiches. Oh shit, Mcdonald's is closed tomorrow for the holiday. Damn, there goes that idea. I guess I'll just have to get them whenever I can while they're still around. Here's to McRib! Long live the BBQ pork!

{My McRib with my bite mark in it}

 The sandwich itself was pretty big for $1.99 and was covered with it's tangy barbecue sauce.

Did It Happen Or Not?-(things I remember happening as kid,but not so sure it did)

{orginally posted on my "myspace #3 in Sept. of 2010}

Did you ever have something you remember happening when you were a kid but now that you're grow up you question if it really happened or not? Lately I've been having this problem & for most of these innicidents, the truth may not be ever known. See, I was an extreme daydreamer. I would constantly be stuck in a fanasty world and would be totally caught up in my mind. My daydreaming was so over the edge at times though I would get excited and lose control of my body. Without realizing it I would rock back and forth twirling my fingers while moving my lips at the same time. My mom laughs at me now remembering seeing me do this all the time while I was on the swing set. She says, "What the hell were you doing anyway?" My 1st grade teacher was frightened by it because during the parent/teacher conference he recommended I be evaluated by the child study team because as he quoted, "She does this weird thing with her hands." I can laugh on this now but back then it was really embarrassing when I was seen doing this. So now that I am some what of a normal adult I think back on things I remember seeing or happening but I wonder if it was just a figment of my ?....Or did it imagination really happen?

Incident One: "The Easter Bunny"
    To this day, I swear that I seen this. At the time it happened I only told my mom right after I seen it, but I haven't spoke on this until a few years ago. My mom still thinks I crazy for saying that I seen the Easter bunny. It probably was just a really vivid dream but god damn I'm telling you it seemed as real as day. Even now! I'm starting to convince myself that it was someone dressed in a bunny costume & was terrorizing the neighborhood. I started thinking that maybe someone was trying to break into my house, but then why the hell would they do that wearing a bunny costume? I really think I did see it & the only explanation I can come up with is that it was a teenager dressed in a costume doing it for laughs. I remember like it was yesterday. Back then, our living room is where my bedroom is now. Our green couch is exactly where my bed is now. That one night before Easter I was laying on that green couch watching TV like I normally did in those days. I'm pretty sure it was the Bugs Bunny Easter Special that was on. I laid there in all of our television set while my mother stood in the next room talking on the phone most likely to my grandmother. I don't know why I got up to look but I did. The living room had all these big windows around it including the two located behind the couch I was laying on. When got up I just pulled open the blind & looked down for some reason. That's when I saw it. Big white rabbit feet. I moved my eyes up to see the rest, ...the white bunny body and stopping at the neck where there was a blue bow tie around it. I jumped back down on the couch. I was too scared to look at the rabbits face but I was sure it was the Easter bunny. Now only was it right outside the window but it was standing a half a foot away from the window & staring directly at me. I screamed for my mom who poked her head around the corner still yapping away on the phone. I told her the that the Easter bunny was right out the window & she told me it was a dream & no one was there. She went back to her phone call but I remember the terror as I laid there & wondering if that rabbit was still there watching me. My mom still says it was a dream though it could have been I really don't think so. And unless a burglar in a bunny costume steps forward, I may never know the truth.





Incident #2: "The Magic Priest"
This I must admit, I believed for years until I realized it was impossible. Sometimes as children we perceive things wrong & I think that's what I must have done in this case.  I used to be some what of a catholic back in the day & one that was forced to go to Sunday School & Church. Once again it was the Easter Holiday, Holy Saturday the day before Easter to be exact, & I was dragged to St. Joes Church by mom on that religious day. (Now a days my mom's a bigger agnostic then me by the way) I was real little at this time, probably about 4 or so, because I remember my brother being an infant in my mom's arms. I was bored out of my mind & couldn't keep my attention on the priest who was wearing a white robe. I drew my attention to the floor when suddenly I heard the entire congregation laughing. I looked up & saw the priest coming out of a cloud of smoke with a designed purple robe on now. He had a huge smile on his face & he had his arms open wide, almost like that "tah-dah" pose. I thought what I saw was the priest do a magic trick, coming out of a proof of smoke now in a brand new fancy robe & the audience laughed at the priest's magic "joke." For years I believed this & when I brought it up to my mom she said, "That never happened." What I really believe was I must have been staring at the floor longer then what I thought & while I was admiring the tiles the priest must have changed robes. Technically what the priest wears is called a "vestment" & the purple robe is normally worn during lent which I just learned. The priest had probably been swinging a thurible burning incense or myrrh inside which is a normal ceremony in catholic church on Easter. That would explain the smoke and the robe change but what about the laughter? He had most likely just got done adding a little humor to his sermon, that's all. That's what I believe happened now. It's just funny how real it seemed when I remember it.


Incident Three:(TK from Philly 57)
My final questioned memory for this time lies with something I know I saw & not just once, but a many of times. Growing in NJ we had a TV station WGBS-TV called "Philly 57", now known as The CW. The station used to play all kinds of old reruns but after school was the time when the cartoons would come playing. They had some great shows like Dennis the Menace, Dinosaucers, Smurfs, ....all the great ones. They also played endless hours of black & white craziness on the Twilight zone marathons) Anyway, during one of the kids commercial breaks there used to be this talking creature,( is the best way to describe him I guess), puppet named T.K. He was a grayish blue color and had big ears, antennas, but he kind of looked like a monkey. One thing I remember clearly is he would come on once a day & would sing a happy birthday song as the names ,ages, locations, and birthdays of boys & girls would roll up on the screen. I always wanted to send my name in so T.K could sing that birthday song to me & show my name for a split second but for some reason T.K didn't hang around for two long. I still remember the birthday song he sang that went, "Happy happy birthday, are you happy it's your birthday? WE ARE! That's why we're singin' happy birthday to you" The same lyrics would repeat over & over again until the last kid's name would rise off the screen & then there would be a close up on T.K who would giggle & blink his eyes until the picture faded off. I want to remember T.K being some sort of Philly 57 mascot for kids & doing more on that station then just the birthday wishes but I can't remember much more. I've searched on youtube from time to time for any sign of T.K & surfed the web to end up empty handed when it comes to that blue furry puppet. Was it all my imagination? This one wasn't, ...I'm sure of it. I know at one time I even had the ending of the birthday wishes recorded on a VHS tape that ended up getting lost or recorded over. I know it was real but it would have just been nice to have some kind of proof.


Many more things that I question are in my head...I'll have to save them for next time.