the highlight of my day was coming home from school to catch the last half hour of star trek TNG

when gas was 99 cents a gallon

when I was sane, before I ever had my 1st girlfriend, now i'm crazy.

i remember when we used to climb trees to see who could get the highest before the tree bent, and scared the shit out of us...

i was working in chicago in 1979 when gas went up to .99/gal...thought i'd never be able to leave...

I remember spending literally hours plugging line after line of BASIC into my TRS-80 in an attempt to make it show some weird seventies pattern only to have ONE typo to screw up the entire thing.

I remember waiting for my dad to ge thome and flip the cable box upside down and stick a piece of metal in it so we could watch bootleg Fraggle Rock on HBO.

I remember getting up early to watch Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, the Snorks, and The Muncheechees.

I remember sneaking out of my bedroom and watching Purple Rain from behind the couch. And Fright Night at a sleep over when I was 10. I've never recovered.

I remember when it was exciting to have a "night out" at Burger King. And fighting over the paper crowns.

I remember the first go round of Fresca.

Shit.

Fright Night... I remember seeing that in the theatre. As for Fraggle Rock, I was a bit old for it when it came out, but it was available on free TV rather than HBO... love the CBC.

I remember the first time I had one....Baytown Tx 1974

Oh, DAMN, Fright Night! I'd almost forgotten that one. Reminds me of a slightly OT story:

When we lived in Germany, my dad would take the whole family out for movie night once a month or so. We'd go eat at KFC (brand new to Berlin) and then off to the base theater for whatever movie they had, usually something released 2-3 weeks before in the US.

Now, I was about 6 years old, my sister a year older. When we got to Germany, my parents explained to us in detail how joking about Nazis, swastikas, or any associated painful memories is very bad, and could land us in trouble. We got the point.

My dad takes us to movie night one weekend, raving about the film we're gonna see, how it cleaned house at the box office, yadda yadda. And it was a pretty damn good movie, right up to the part at the end where there were a bunch of melting Nazis screaming their guts out. Me and sis were hunkered down in the floor covering our eyes! But still, Raiders of the Lost Ark was something I could go back and watch again even a couple of years later.

The kicker was later that year, on what became our LAST movie night. Dad's fired up about this movie, we go in, and me and my sis were kinda scared - it was a horror film, after all. But when the werewolves in Nazi uniforms went rampaging through the house, shooting, burning, mutilating, and eating the whole family, spewing blod everywhere while The Muppet Show blared in the background? Yeah, me and sis JETTED out to the lobby, with mom following shortly afterward.

My dad sat & watched the rest of An American Werewolf In London while the three of us waited, and I'm sure mom cut him off for a long time because of it.

Took me about ten or twelve years before I could bring myself to finish watching that movie, and I still dislike horror flicks a lot. It actually took me three tries to watch all of Fright Night; same thing with A Nightmare on Elm Street.

What a great thread...

I remember watching the Challenger footage on TV and not understanding what happened... I remember asking my mom why they wouldn't "wake up" when they hit the ocean.

I remember seeing E.T and the Care Bears movie in the theatre... I won a door prize at the Care Bears movie -- one of those silver writing-pad type things that erased when you lifted the plastic.

I remember riding my bike (a green and pink Huffy) around the neighborhood for hours.

I remember reading Choose-Your-Own Adventure books, then going back and rereading them as many times as it took to read every "adventure."

I remember picking videos out at the video rental place, then having to put them back because they were Beta, and we could only play vhs.

I remember when Friday & Saturday night meant staying home, making popcorn (or ordering pizza) and watching TGIF and Snick.

I remember playing MASH, and cheating by using one person's name three times in the "husband" category.

I remember reading the Babysitters' Club and Sweet Valley High books, and alternately wishing I had my own babysitting club or lived in California.

I remember playing in the sandbox with my uncle's old Star Wars action figures. (damn, I wish we'd kept those!)

I remember playing with my Smart Start "computer." I can still sing the little "power on" melody.

I remember Dad bringing home a CD player and thinking it was awesome that the disks were so small.

I remember when playgrounds were actually fun, and maybe slightly dangerous.

I remember watching the Berlin Wall come down.

I remember when Fruit Roll-ups and Kool-Aid was the best snack ever.

I remember playing King's Quest games... and I remember my uncle programming a menu screen before Windows was widely used (I don't know if it was out or not...I just don't remember any computers having it.) I also remember wanting to play the Leisure Suit Larry games, and not being allowed.

I remember thinking I was hot stuff on my Smurf Big Wheel.

I remember when you had to specify between "leaded" and "unleaded" at the gas pump.

I remember collecting Flintstones and Alvin and the Chipmunks glasses, but I don't remember from where... McDonald's or Burger King, I think.

TV/Movies
I remember seeing Jedi in theatres. I was too young for Star Wars, or Empire though.
I remember running home from school to catch Transformers.
I remember when having 12 channels (one of which was french) was "lots" (according to my mom)

Smoking
I remember when you could send your kid to the store with money and a note to get cigarettes.
I remember when the Subway had a smoking section (I remembered this today when getting a sub after seeing this thread).

Toys and Entertainment
I remember when I got a Coleecovision and it was the coolest thing ever.
I also remember playing Donkey Kong for hours on said Coleecovision.
I remember that my first computer didn't have enough memory to actually have DOS on it.
I remember my first Transformer was Ratchet.
I remember getting the Megatron that looked just like a real gun.

Misc
I remember when the walk to school seemed like it was really far (it took about a half an hour) and anything beyond that was incomprehensible.

I saw someone mentioned about where they were when John Lennon died...
I remember where I was when I heard Kurt died.
I was in the car with my mom, in fact I can even still point out exactly the stretch of road we were driving along.

I remember my Six Million Dollar Man action figure with the roll up arm skin and removable bionics.

I remember going swimming, listening to KFRC playing "Octopus' Garden" and thinking it was such a funny song.

I remember Alex Bennett on KQAK.

I remember winning a fish at my kindergarten Halloween carnival while dressed as Mr. Spock.

I remember Love Boat followed by Fantasy Island.

I shot J.R.

I remember sleeping in the back of my dad's '65 Buick while "Nights in White Satin" played on the radio on the way home from the races.

I remember playing the Pepsi Spirit bottle cap game.

I remember Incredible edibles and Space Food Sticks

I remember sitting on the floor in the grade-school hallway,
with our hands over our heads, practicing for inevitable nuclear war.

I remember when the screen on screen doors would rust.

I remember being home sick with the measles and watching JFK's funeral.

I remember the look on my Father's face after he came back from
sitting in the alert-shacks during the Cuban missile crisis.

I remember making tents with blankets hung over the clothesline pole,
and mom letting us sleep out there, despite dads disaproval.

I remember the best birthday presents...my microscope and Ruffy, my first cat.

I remember this too. I remember watching a film and then doing the drill. We were told to get under our desks and "duck and cover." I remember being under that desk and thinking about the film I just watched. The thought "Umm, this is going to save us from "THAT!?!" immediately came to mind.

I remember dancing the Hustle with a girl in gaucho pants.
I remember mood rings and pet rocks.
I remember whizzers and SSPs
I remember Quisp and Quake.
I remember my banana bike.
I remember Huntley and Brinkley.
I remember Mr. Doobee and Mr. Dontbee.
I remember Chilly Billy Cardille.
I remember Penelope Pitstop.
I remember Neil Armstrong's first step on the moon.
I remember my Hot Wheels Goose Pump.
I remember Holly from Land Of The Lost.
I remember Lancelot Link Secret Chimp.
I remember Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell...on 8-track.
I remember the debut of Saturday Night Live.
I remember Sonny and Cher and Donnie and Marie.
I remember Jiffy Pop stovetop popcorn.
I remember Pillsbury Space Food Sticks.
I remember Snack Pak pudding... in tin cans.
I remember Battle Of The Network Stars. With real stars.
I remember Merlin.
I remember Green Ghost.
I remember Billy Blastoff.
I remember Cindy from Kindergarden. 40 years later and I still have a bit of a crush on her.

I remember those crappy metal rollerskates that had way-too-narrow wheels, clipped onto the bottom of you shoes, and occasionally threw off sparks.
I remember starting a massive altercation on the playground that the principal had to settle, and sneaking away without getting caught.
I remember when climbing a tree wasn't much more work than walking.

I remember telling all of our cats that I was going to have a little brother (we lived in the country and it was summertime; no friends around)

I remember having a knock-off Cabbage Patch doll.

I remember staying outside playing all day and only coming in for lunch and supper; and going to the lake almost every day in the summer.

I remember Thundercats, Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, and women's wrestling (it was really more fun to listen to my grandpa laugh at the women's wrestling than to actually watch it).

I remember gas being under $1 when I was in high school.

I remember New Kids on the Block and how stupid I thought the girls that had such crushes on them were.

I remember how sports ruled my world (damn, I miss those days).

hahahaha Im with you on the Originals. I bought a SNES the other day so I could play "TMNT: Turtles in Time". It was so worth it.

I'm going to put our SNES out in the garage sale this weekend.

i remember when i was cool

to take a quote from venetian snares:

I used to understand happy, i know that i used to be happy, i was really happy
I'm unhappy now and i can't remember what it's like to be happy, i only remember...i don't remember...
I remember being happy only comparaison to not being happy just what i am now.
I remember being happier
I remember being ...

This thread will end up in the Hall of Fame.

I rememeber the first time I heard a Simon and Garfunkel song,
and the lyrics sent the hairs on the back of my arm to attention,
even though I was only 8 years old.

"preserve your memories, they're all that's left you."

I recall the taste of my father's maraschino cherries soaked in a Manhatten.

I recall the bad bad boys who overtook the fort we had built and chased
us away shooting bb- guns at us.

I remember my fourth grade teacher would read us the letters from
her son stationed on an aircraft-carrier during the Vietnam war.

I remember having a substitute teacher for three months,
after he was killed.

I remember my younger sisters playing with their GI-Joes,
they would switch the black and white guys heads and feet.

I remember lighting candles and then blowing them out repeatedly
because I love that scent.

I remember the rancid acrid smell of Ether, as an anesthesia when I had my tonsils removed.

I remember the first time I saw a nun I thought it was a witch.

I remember being able to spend hours watching dust particles in sunbeams.

soundtrack.

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you didn't have one...really?

If it had an STP sticker on it that woulda made it cool.
But the damn things came with those tassley ribbon things
sticking out the end of the handlebars.

was this a thread jill?
sorry.

not really...

i remember the smell of ivory soap: when it catches me by surprise even now, i remember standing in my nana's kitchen, near a set of three rounded shelves painted red with metal trim along the edges. on the middle shelf a radio with a brown cabinet and the dials on either side. it was never turned on.

i remember listening to a radio in my grandpa's office. he owned a liquor store and his office was in the back, behind the cases of carling black label and budweiser endless budweiser, near where the broken-down cardboard boxes would be piled up. i remember listening to static looking for beacons or ships calling to shore hellloo helloo. i remember pointing some strange thing like a viewfinder that was on top of the radio in the direction i thought the signals came from.

i remember believing that the band playing the song i would hear in on the car radio was inside the dashboard somewhere.

i remember lilacs, hundreds of them, along the driveway.

i remember my mother drove a lime green corvair for a time and for some reason that it had 2 carburetors (both for itself and because i remember it).

i remember maynard g krebs.

i remember all the lyrics to the mister ed theme song. green acres too.

i remember the old endicott building...before the wrecking ball knocked it down...

I remember that the worst place to get a mosquito bite,
was on top of my big right toe.

I remember changing my mind whether I preferred the top or bottom bunk.

I remember laying in bed at night, wondering if all the spirits floating
around my bed were in need of love.
I would make hand motions, from my heart to those.
I tried to feed them.

I remember being six and having an STP sticker on my bike.

I remember my dad walked out one day and, in front of my friends, asked what's that stand for "S" the pig?" (yeah, name IRL starts with "S")

I remember being called "S" the pig" until we moved from that nieghborhood.

I remember being crushed.

mine used to pull that kind of shit on me all the time, but that's another story for another thread...

i remember "kentucky kings" with the 'fine' tobacco filter...

Heh heh - I had a bike with a banana seat and monkey handlebars when I was 13. Rode the hell out of it until I reached the awkward age of 15. You know - too cool for a bike; not old enough for a car.

I remember Multi-filter cigarettes

My friends and I would go to the record store at the mall, not to listen or buy music, but look at the posters on sale at the back: Ferraris, Lambourghinis, Babes in Bikinis... Basically what the internet is for now.

The only one I ever bought was of a Ferrari Daytona Spider, like the one in Miami Vice.

I remember when I was eight and my mom started crying when my dad didn't come home.
I remember when my very pregnant mom spent all of her time at the hospital with my very broken dad.
I remember when my mother went into early labor.
I remember when they told me my brother wasn't coming home any time soon because his heart wasn't working right.
I remember when my dad came home from the hospital and was missing the muscle on the back of his thigh. It was gross.
I remember when I caught the chicken pox and my brother couldn't come home from the hospital.
I remember not eating red sauce for about 9 more years because so many "thoughtful" people brought pasta casseroles for months.
I remember when my brother had his third open heart surgery to complete the Fontan procedure.
I remember 8 years ago when they told me that he was the third oldest living person with this procedure.
I remember a few years after that, when he developed a stroke disorder, drinking problem and abdominal migraines that he was the second oldest living person with this procedure.
I remember last year when they told me that he was the oldest living person with this procedure at 23 years old.
I remember the Ronald McDonald House in St. Petersburg as if it was my own home.
And when Legos were the bomb.
And listening to the Beastie Boys in secret so my mother wouldn't yell at me for corrupting my sister.
I remember when my brother's lips weren't blue anymore.
And the docs outlawed grape popsicles on the Cardiology floors at Boston Children's Hospital.
Because they were blue. For a bit.

I remember my fifth grade teacher who had come back from Vietnam in time to teach our class for the year. He told us stories about 'Nam every day.

I remember my first slow dance to "Cherish" in Nancy L's garage with her big brother when I was about seven years old.

I remember Maynard G Krebs and I had a banana bike. :P

I remember PF Flyers and the original Keds and Chuck Taylors a few years later.

Hell, I remember when the first Camaros hit the street.

I remember Shake-a-Pudding. :orly:

I remember when hemi engines and Roadrunners were the shit.

This one reminded me of mum putting socks on my hands so I could go outside in the snow (not a lot of money and I didn't have any gloves).

I remember paper dresses, Man From U.N.C.L.E., and Rice Krinkles. I loved that cereal and would like some right now. I remember biggin my ears up when the Beatles' White album came out.

I also remember eating my first oyster. It was last week.


Oh, and I remember HONEY WEST!

I remember when pop was a dime, candy bars a nickel, cigarettes 20 cents and gas 19 cents.

I remember when all adults were to be treated with respect and not feared.

I remember when almost all mothers were housewives and fathers worked for the same company for life.

I remember being sent home from HS for wearing blue jeans.

I remember being admonished for having hair longer than a crew cut.

I remember when my friend was the only one we knew who had divorced parents.

I remember the beginning of rock and roll and the general contempt felt by many adults.

I remember our first TV set, 12 inch black and white with a large mahogany case. Most popular show was I Love Lucy.

I remember spending an entire evening at the local tavern with only a dollar. Frosty mugs were 15 cents.

All of the fun stuff has been removed from playgrounds because it is "dangerous"...where's the fun if you don't have swings and slides???

I LOVED the King's Quest games...my aunt had them on her computer and I think she used DOS to run them. I remember when the 4th one came out it was too much for her computer to handle; she was buying a new one anyway and we waited impatiently for a week while the computer was assembled and delivered to her house. After we loaded the game, we were blown away by the awesome graphics and sound :lol:

yeah, and monkey bars...

Awesome thread guys. Went through twice just in case I missed something.

I remember walking into the IDA (drug store) with a dime and walking out with a small paper bag brimming with penny candy.

I remember the whole family gathering around the TV on Saturday night for Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. I loved that show.

I remember my Brother and I playing our first game of Advanced D&D in his friends basement.

I remember my first day of middle school. So many concert t-shirts! The ones with the black body and white sleeves. I had a Def Leppard High and Dry one.

I remember skipping school to shoot pool and the pool hall owner freaking out when the Erie radio station broke off the music to announce that President Reagan had been shot.

I remember bragging about getting my license to my friends and then backing into a cottage 10 minutes later.

I remember when smokes were $1.50 a pack, a 2-4 was 19 bucks and a mickey of lonestar was $9.

I remember being paid in cash and actually having to go into the bank and wait in line to deposit my earnings.

did you ever buy that stuff that was basically icing sugar in a yellow paper bag, with a black licorice stick that you would stick in and then lick? IDA had those.

for me, I remember being on a $5.00 per week allowance while I was in residence in first year. My dad would actually mail me a $5.00 bill so I would have spending money. 50 cents went towards laundry ( a quarter for the washer, and a quarter for the drier - it was cheap because it was in residence at the university) and of the remaining $4.50, $4.40 would go towards a 12pack of Molson Canadian.

12 packs were $4.40 and 2-4's were $8.80.


Imagine that. And that was only in 1979.

... smoking at my desk, in elevators, theaters and doctor's offices :eek: