70s-child: Hamburglar Doll

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Hamburglar Doll

I had this when I was a kid. McDonald's used to sell these, I think, for a dollar, when they would open a new restaurant in the early 70's ('72/'73). Those were the days when eating at McDonald's was a novelty and not an everyday thing. They also sold a Ronald McDonald doll (of course), but the above guy was my favorite.

I've long since lost the original doll I had (he perished in a tragic toilet bowl accident), but I just bought this one on eBay a couple months ago. You can still buy them dirt cheap.

Click on photo for a larger view.

Don't expect much out of me for a quarter:

As a kid, I never got an allowance. That's something my folks weren't into. They were very generous with me, I never lacked anything, and usually when I asked for something they'd get it for me, but an allowance just wasn't going to happen. In '76, just before my folks split up, dad decided to give me a "job". It was sometime in January and the weather was pretty brutal, so he told me he'd pay me a quarter if I'd open the garage door for him when he got home so he wouldn't have to get out of the car and open it himself. We lived in a split level house (a raised-ranch), and the garage was in the lower level. The very first night, I was watching TV and I heard him pull in and stop at the garage door. I didn't want to leave my show, and it was pretty cold down there in the garage, and I was rather warm and cozy and comfortable sitting in front of the tv, so I basically ignored him. He honked. He honked again. And again. And again. Finally I heard him open the car door, open the garage himself, pull into the garage and slam the door shut. The way he slammed the door, I could tell he was angry and that I was in trouble. He came upstairs and just looked at me. Let's just say I lost my job that night, which didn't really bother me. A QUARTER??? I didn't get out of BED for that kind of money...