The last time 1 1

[factory sealed]

I vividly remember in elementary school the painful countdown to 3PM dismissal. We would just stare and watch that clock. Time seemed to stand still. Waiting and waiting as we could not wait to get home and get our hands on toys or ride our bikes to 7-11 and see if the newest comics had been pushed out to the rack. It seemed this would take forever and never ever end.

Or maybe it was a song on the radio you absolutely adored that was on heavy rotation played on an hourly basis that you thought would never go away. I remember distinctly my daily adventures with Atari 2600 and the hot sunny day when I ended Yars Revenge and the screen went totally blank with a message that I can't recall. I ran to tell everyone upstairs.

But as fun as that was or playing with our Star Wars, Transformers, MOTU or other toy collections etc. and reading comics that eventually at some point, somehow everything ended and wound up in boxes and sold by our moms or who knows what. And now these moments are lost in time forever and are long gone. Yes I have been drinking bourbon heavily this afternoon and in yet another worm hole reflective space. If you remember that last time you experienced something collectively cool, please share.

Ironically not much has changed because for most of us; I just bought some slabs online. The package arrived and I inspected them and placed the slabs in a box that go into a closet which who knows when I'll actually look at them again; we have come full circle and just hope that the wife doesn't find them 

[bc]

On 8/20/2023 at 5:31 PM, factory sealed said:

I vividly remember in elementary school the painful countdown to 3PM dismissal. We would just stare and watch that clock. Time seemed to stand still. Waiting and waiting as we could not wait to get home and get our hands on toys or ride our bikes to 7-11 and see if the newest comics had been pushed out to the rack. It seemed this would take forever and never ever end.

Or maybe it was a song on the radio you absolutely adored that was on heavy rotation played on an hourly basis that you thought would never go away. I remember distinctly my daily adventures with Atari 2600 and the hot sunny day when I ended Yars Revenge and the screen went totally blank with a message that I can't recall. I ran to tell everyone upstairs.

But as fun as that was or playing with our Star Wars, Transformers, MOTU or other toy collections etc. and reading comics that eventually at some point, somehow everything ended and wound up in boxes and sold by our moms or who knows what. And now these moments are lost in time forever and are long gone. Yes I have been drinking bourbon heavily this afternoon and in yet another worm hole reflective space. If you remember that last time you experienced something collectively cool, please share.

Ironically not much has changed because for most of us; I just bought some slabs online. The package arrived and I inspected them and placed the slabs in a box that go into a closet which who knows when I'll actually look at them again; we have come full circle and just hope that the wife doesn't find them 

I'm only on my second beer, so not sure if I can ramble as eloquently as you yet.

I was buying comics at the local convenient store in the early '70's - they had just increased from 20 to 25 cents each. One day, behind all the new books were bagged 3 packs of 12 cent books that had a sticker price of fifty cents. They looked brand new to this young collector. Since I had a limited weekly allowance, I snatched all I could but hid the rest behind the "Women's Day" or some such magazines away from the comics rack hoping they'd be there next week or whenever I could scrape up some cash.

These were the oldest books I had ever seen and made a ceremony about reading them. There were early Avengers, X-Men, ASM, pretty much a couple of every Marvel title.

A few days later, I found a stash of recyclable glass bottles which netted me almost 2 bucks. I biked back to the convenient store as fast as the Huffy would go and was shocked when the books were still tucked away behind the women's magazines.

I felt like I had just pulled off the best heist in the world, like a James Bond super criminal.

After moving them around a few weeks more behind other periodicals, I managed to buy all they had.

-bc

[factory sealed]

On 8/20/2023 at 6:25 PM, bc said:

I'm only on my second beer, so not sure if I can ramble as eloquently as you yet.

I was buying comics at the local convenient store in the early '70's - they had just increased from 20 to 25 cents each. One day, behind all the new books were bagged 3 packs of 12 cent books that had a sticker price of fifty cents. They looked brand new to this young collector. Since I had a limited weekly allowance, I snatched all I could but hid the rest behind the "Women's Day" or some such magazines away from the comics rack hoping they'd be there next week or whenever I could scrape up some cash.

These were the oldest books I had ever seen and made a ceremony about reading them. There were early Avengers, X-Men, ASM, pretty much a couple of every Marvel title.

A few days later, I found a stash of recyclable glass bottles which netted me almost 2 bucks. I biked back to the convenient store as fast as the Huffy would go and was shocked when the books were still tucked away behind the women's magazines.

I felt like I had just pulled off the best heist in the world, like a James Bond super criminal.

After moving them around a few weeks more behind other periodicals, I managed to buy all they had.

-bc

That is epic. I actually did a similar tactic a couple times as well in a grocery store and department store but completely forgot until you mentioned this 

[Gaard]

I kinda had the exact same experience ... with slight variations.. I found my dad's Playboys and hid them under my socks.

[bc]

On 8/20/2023 at 7:20 PM, Gaard said:

I kinda had the exact same experience ... with slight variations.. I found my dad's Playboys and hid them under my socks.

Why hide them? I just put them back in the stack in the garage.

-bc

[Ken Aldred]

On 8/20/2023 at 10:31 PM, factory sealed said:

Or maybe it was a song on the radio you absolutely adored that was on heavy rotation played on an hourly basis that you thought would never go away

I have a lot of comic book memories from my teenage years in the 70s that I associate with songs played regularly on commercial radio.

Now, the vast majority of them would be considered embarrassing yacht rock. So, that’s all I’m saying.

[1950's war comics]

in 4th grade i bought a 20 cent Sub Mariner and Spider-man off the spinner rack at my local store and when i got home to read them i realized i had already read the Sub Mariner at my cousins house ! i was so bummed out..

but i went back to the store and on the sly i put the Sub Mariner back on the rack and took another comic... can't believe i didn't get busted but i got away with it .. 

it helped that the spinner rack was right next to the entrance door

later that year at the same store i got busted for stealing a Payday candy bar... i had to go sweep the store parking lot every day for a week plus pretty sure i got a whippin from my mom

[1950's war comics]

On 8/20/2023 at 6:46 PM, Ken Aldred said:

I have a lot of comic book memories from my teenage years in the 70s that I associate with songs played regularly on commercial radio.

 

me too... in 1975 in 8th grade when i spent a lot of time riding my bike to my LCS it always seemed like the song "Miracles" by Jefferson Starship was playing

bought me a ton of Marvel Tales and Marvels Greatest comics so i could read early marvel Spidey and FF back issues, still have them but unfortunately they aren't worth squat