70s-child: The Play-Doh Fuzzy Pumper Barber & Beauty Shop:

Friday, March 11, 2011

The Play-Doh Fuzzy Pumper Barber & Beauty Shop:

I didn't have the above, but my friend Laurie did. I usually picked the guy pictured in the barber's chair above. I remember one day I was frustrated that I couldn't get my guy's beard to really come in without the top hair coming in too long so I attempted to rectify it by putting the perm helmet on him to keep his hair short, which of course that ended up looking totally absurd. We had some good times with this one.

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...