"God'll get you for that, Walter"

I can't believe...

...that it's been 30 years since this movie first came out. It's one of my all-time favorites.

Question:

Anyone out there ever had Billy Beer??? Anyone out there still have an unopened case thinking it's going to be worth some money someday???
Btw, I know the truck has nothing to do with Billy Beer, but I thought I'd include it anyway.
For effect...

Moms put up with so much:

I used to wake up my mom too, but usually just for a glass of water.. she'd have killed me if I tried this one.

Even cartoon characters look different after 30 years..

I'd forgotten how different Garfield looked in 1978. Back then, I thought the above comic was funny. Back then.

She's so damn cute...

Picture yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, A girl with kaleidoscope eyes. Cellophane flowers of yellow and green, Towering over your head. Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes, And she's gone. Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain, Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies. Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers, That grow so incredibly high. Newspaper taxis appear on the shore, Waiting to take you away. Climb in the back with your head in the clouds, And you're gone. Picture yourself on a train in a station, With plasticine porters with looking glass ties. Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile, The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

Lincoln Logs:

I had a set of Lincoln Logs back in the day, but to be honest I was never as imaginative as the above pics. Basically I sucked at it. Besides, Legos were way better anyway. Just sayin'.

Post-70's remembrance:

In the mid-90's, I was involved in real estate on Cape Cod. Myself and 3 other business partners decided to buy a property with a house on it. It had enough land that went with the house (or so we thought) to subdivide the property, selling the house on one lot, and spinning-off a separate building parcel. Just as we were about to start the subdivision, after we purchased the property, we got a call from our attorney. Turned out the lot wasn't big enough for a subdivision, and that it was short 3,000 square feet.
Only one property abbutted the site, so one of my partners and I visited him to ask if we could purchase 3,000 square feet of his land for $10,000. We met him in person to make the proposal. He was a nice guy (as much as I could tell from one meeting).
We made the offer through the realtor we bought the property from. She asked us what his name was (the guy who we wanted to buy the land from), and we told her his name was Clark Gesner. There was a pause and she said: "Clark Gesner??" We said "yes". She said: "Don't you know who that is?" "No, we replied". She said "He's a playwright. He wrote the play 'You're a Good Man Charlie Brown'". We never met with Mister Gesner after that, but eventually we did do the subdivision and made a somewhat modest profit. Mr. Gesner really saved our butts that year, there's no way we could have done it without him.
On a side-note, one of the prospective buyers who came to look at the place was the guy who invented Kibbles-And-Bits.

They were sufferin' 'til suffrage:

http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/Sufferin.html
"Now you have heard of Women's Rights, And how we've tried to reach new heights. If we're "all created equal"...That's us too! (Yeah!) But you will proba ... bly not recall That it's not been too ... too long at all, Since we even had the right to Cast a vote."

No Saturday would have ever been complete without Schoolhouse Rock:

Figure eight as double four,

Figure four as half of eight.

If you skate, you would be great

If you could make a figure eight.

That's a circle that turns 'round upon itself.

Far out:

The above house was a plan from a 1972 issue of Family Circle. You can find the plan here. I first knew of this house from a book: Tiny Tiny Houses by Lester Walker. It wouldn't pass code today, I'm afraid, but I think it's cool to look at.

I can still remember the taste, even though it's been over 30 years:

Dad would frequently pick up a bag of this stuff for me on his way home from work. I don't know if they still make it or not, but I haven't seen it in ages.

Crayola Crayons...

... were a major part of my childhood, growing up as an only child. I always had a box laying around.

Cindy Brady as the next Shirley Temple???? Hey, it could've happened. Susan Olson says this was "probably one of the most embarrassing moments of her life". Well, can't blame her on that one.
Request: If someone out there has a larger, clearer version of this image, please email it to me. I want to put it on my footer. I've been looking all over the internet and can't find one (except for the above)..

How many licks DOES it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?:

The world will never know.

An afro is born...

In 1976, when this came out, for the life of me I couldn't figure out why they weren't wearing shirts. I also couldn't figure out why Barbra got that afro....

Tomy Wonderful Waterfuls:

I had about half a dozen of these: Ring toss, basketball, build-a-pyramid, and a few others. I have no clue what the object of the game was on the pic above... looks like build-a-spaceman..

I thought the Starsky and Hutch pic that I previously posted looked familiar.... I guess they're Grape Nut eaters too..
Personally, I love Grape Nuts, but they're hell on the teeth.

In my opinion:

Starsky and Hutch made such a cute couple. They look so happy together (if you know what I mean)...
Come to think of it, I can't remember now which was Starsky and which was Hutch..

Sorry mom, you're wrong....

I had tons of toys when I was a kid. My parents were great, and pretty much whatever I wanted I got. I certainly wasn't lacking as a kid. I had a whole guest-room filled with toys, which was my playroom. One of the very few things I didn't have was Mister Potato Head. Mom still insists to this day that I did have one.
Well, I didn't.
Ever.
Sometimes I worry about that woman....

Bjorn Borg

He came on the scene around '77. His first name was pronounced 'Bee-yorn''. That was around the time Adidas came into fashion. I couldn't pronounce either back then, until someone told me..

If it was such a DE-LUXE apartment, it sure was tiny..

I don't know why George and Louise had a live-in maid. They had an incredibly small 2br apartment (actually, we only ever saw one br. I don't recall seeing Florence's room). Of course, I didn't question it at the time, since I was only 10....

You all remember The Banana Splits, but do you remember The Sour Grapes???

The Goodbye Girl:

I liked this movie better than Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, the other movie Richard Dreyfus was in that year (1977). Marsha Mason played the girlfriend and Quinn Cummings played her daughter. I don't remember Marsha and Quinn doing much after this flick, which was a shame because they were both such good actresses.

Ruth Buzzi:

Could always make me laugh.

I liked it so much I forgot the name of it....

This was a Saturday morning TV show that aired in the mid-70's. It starred Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors. Although I watched it once in awhile, I've totally forgotten the title......

Cold Turkey:

Another great flick from '71. Didn't see it in the theaters of course, but saw it on tv in the 90's. I laughed my ass off. If you've ever tried to quit smoking, it's hillarious. It's a must-see.

Random:

I've never owned any clothing that was pink.

It was just never my "thing"...

My bad:

Ah, I was wrong. It's Fotomat, not Photomat.... thanks Sans. I was also wrong about it taking a week for development, I forgot they offered 1-day development. I was also wrong about the color of the roof, the color of the building, and the color of the letters. Man, did I totally screw up with the last post or WHAT?????
Nice car, btw.

Photomat booths:

Back in the early 70's, you either developed your film yourself, or you took it to a Photomat booth. They went out of business decades ago. The above pic is the only one I could find, and I've been looking online since I started this site. The roofs were red and the buildings were usually painted yellow. On the roof was the word Photomat in large white letters. It also took about a week for your film to get developed. I believe they were open 24 hours. It's amazing that, even though these things were everywhere at one time, it's almost impossible to find a picture of one. I wonder if anyone under age 30, who drives around in the above neighborhood, even know that's an old Photomat.

A weekend "update" with Jane Curtin and Roseanne Roseannadanna:

Jane Curtin: In the last few years, discos have become a big part of the entertainment scene. Now here to file her report on one of New York's more popular discotheques, is correspondent Roseanne Roseannadanna.

Roseanne Roseannadanna: Thanks a lot, Jane! Thank you! A Mr. Richard Fader from Frot Lee, New Jersey writes: "Dear Roseanne Roseannadanna, tell me about Studio 54. Why is it so hard to get in? Can I get in? Do I gotta get a ticket to get in? Do I gotta know someone to get in? Do I gotta be famous to get in? What's it like when I do get in, and if I do get in, is it real hard to get out?"
Mr. Fader, you sure ask a lot of questions for someone from New Jersey! But you wrote to the right lady! 'Cause last night, I, Roseanne Roseannadanna, went to Studio 54! 'Cause I love to dance! I don't want to brag, but I, Roseanne Roseannadanna, can really shake, shake, shake, shake my booty! And, besides, I wanted to see how the "beautiful" people get crazy. So I go in, and who do I see first but that fancy designer Mr. Halston. And he looked so depressed, I thought he was gonna DIE!! And then I noticed that he wasn't wearing sensible shoes. He was dancing in these tight, black, sleazy, ankle-high boots -- the kind you imagine that Frankie Valli wears? Well, anyway -- Halston shows me how the inside of his shoe scraped against the heel of his foot, and he got a big blister! And the blister BROKE, so he put a Band-aid on it. Well, then the shoe started rubbing against the Band-aid, and then the Band-aid gets all curled up and gets this liquid stuff on it -- you don't know WHAT it is! I man, that guy may be one of the beautiful people, but his foot made me SICK!
[ Roseanne Roseannadanna stops to put Mr. Richard Fader's letter back in its envelope ]

Jane Curtin: Is -- is that all? Is that all you have to say about the place? Isn't there anything else?

Roseanne Roseannadanna: What do you mean?

Jane Curtin: I mean... do they serve food? Is there a band? What's the sound system like? Are there black lights? Is there a bar? Is it in a good neighborhood? Do you gotta know somebody to get in? Is it al lit's cracked up to be? You know?
[ Jane frantically waves her arms around, only to be mimicked by a singing Roseanne Roseannadanna ]

Jane Curtin: Roseanne! Roseanne! Roseanne! Studio 54 is supposed to be very chic and glamorous, and everybody wants to know about it. What's it like in there?

Roseanne Roseannadanna: Well, Jane -- just between you and me... it's crazy nuts! They got guys dancing with guys... girls dancing with girls... guys who look like girls dancing with girls who look like guys... girls who look like dogs dancing with themselves... guys who look like dogs dancing with dogs. It's just like my father always used to say to me before I went to bed. [ she turns her gaze to Jane's ear ] He said: "Roseanne Roseannadanna, Studio 54 is just like Jane's ear. From the outside, it's very pretty and could be very glamorous with jewelry and diamonds and glitter, very attractive and very nice and everything... but on the inside, it's real dark and it's got some weird stuff in there, I don't know WHAT it is! Good night, my little Roseanne Roseannadanna!"

Jane Curtin: That's the news. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

1974 McDonald's T-shirt (well, at least the ebay listing says it's '74):

I've never had a Big Mac. Not once. Ever. I used to get the quarter pounder with cheese, but I don't do McDonald's anymore. That stuff gives me heartburn. Plus, when I think of "special sauce" it really makes me lose my appetite....

If you want to be me, be me. If you want to be you, be you. 'Cause there's a million things to do (you know that there are):

This is how I first remember Chastity Bono. She was such a cute kid, and I was incredibly envious of her for having Sonny and Cher as parents (must be nice when your folks have their own show). I know she's in the midst of an identity crisis right now, but I hope she finds what she's looking for, whatever that is. We only pass this way once.

8-track tapes:

Mom had a few, and so did dad. She gravitated more towards Helen Reddy, while he was more of a Jim Croce and Gordon Lightfoot fan. I never understood why they only held 8 songs (8 tracks), because these things were so damn big you think they could have squeezed in one or two more songs on them.. I can still remember riding in dad's car and listening to Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind".

I don't know what you call these things, but it was the pre-cursor to the 8-track casette player:

My uncle had one of these circa 1975. I can still remember listening to Seals And Croft on it.

Portable hair dryers:

This looks like it came out just about the time 8-track tapes came out. I'd like to add more to this post, but what else can you say about a hair dryer?

Story Records:

I loved story records as a kid. I had several: Snow White, Winnie The Pooh, Little Black Sambo, and The Wizard Of Oz. I know I had more, but can't remember the rest. I always did love a good story. The above record was put out by Cricket Records, but most of my records were Peter Pan records.

Back then we got decent prizes in our cereal boxes. What a shame that's a thing of the past. I'm not sure they still offer cereal prizes, as I'm not a big cereal eater anymore.

They wear short shorts.

I was just thinking about the old Nair commercials that came out around '78. When I saw this pic, I was also reminded of the old style gym shorts we used to wear with the white piping (the kind the black chick is wearing). These went great with those old knee-high socks with the 3 colored stripes at the top.

Electric Light Orchestra:

I really liked E.L.O. back in the day (although if I tried to list some of their songs by memory, I'd be pretty hard-pressed to come up with some titles). I remember the sound, just not really the songs. I do remember a couple, but their titles escape me at the moment. I can't remember if I posted them yet or not. I'd do a search through my site, but that just takes so much time....

Late last night I heard the screen door slam...

... and a big yellow taxi

took away my old man

Don't it always seem to go

that you don't know what you've got

'til it's gone.

They paved paradise,

and put up a parking lot.

Say cheese:

I'd forgotten all about the Polaroid commercials with James Garner and Mariette Hartley. These commercials used to air all the time, then all of a sudden they were gone. The end of this commercial campaign was so seamless, I didn't even realize they stopped making them until now. I guess "out of sight, out of mind"...

ABC After School Specials:

You just know the guy in front of that chick's up to no good. Probably been smokin' alot of that wacky weed. Judging by the pic, I guess she was letting him cheat off her test paper, and got busted. Well, I hope he was worth it, although I seriously doubt it.. you can just tell he's "the wrong crowd".

Btw, does the class monitor in the back look like Gabe Kaplan?? Is it just me????????

So....

... do you still have your ecology badge???? Do you still wear it with pride???

Console Stereos:

We didn't have one but my grandparents did (it didn't look like the above pic, though). It was enormous and had all these great buttons.

The records all sucked, though..

I'd love to know what they're looking at..

Random find:

If I remember correctly, the standard story line is that they're on their way to Pisbo (Pismo?) Beach, but they find that they're lost because they should've taken that left turn at Albuquerque. Daffy usually gets the worst of it in the end.

Freaky:

My high school was alot like Rydel High. The students frequently burst into song as they talked amongst themselves and walked to and from class. It happened daily. And, much like Rydel, many of our seniors were around 28 to 30 years old, as well..

Lynne Anderson:

She did some pretty decent stuff. She actually recorded "Top Of The World" before The Carpenters did. I've never heard her version of the song, but I bet it sounds great.