I remember

[Ze-man]

I remember

 

AFX and Tyco race sessions at my neighbors house. And the Hobby Fair Store that sold all the parts

 

Penny candy, spinner racks and riding my bike to The Ben Franklin Store with a dollar thinking I had all I ever needed.

 

Thinking because I read Wizard Magazines "Top Ten Book List" in the early 90's I was going to get rich.

 

Wanting a B.B. Gun and never getting one. But shooting all my friends guns till the cows came home.

 

Reading comic books in the backyard under a tree with my dog Sox everyday after school.

 

T.V's that had knobs to change the channel and volume.

 

Watching whatever was on TV because it was a battle of wills to see who would get up to flip through the 5 channels, again.

 

Wearing Batman Gloves my mom made me and running around the house yelling"MAN!!!' because I was to young to say "Batman".

 

Thinking Heavy Metal was the coolest Cartoon I had seen since Wizards.

 

Going to see the first Superman movie the first day it came out with my moms boyfriend because he knew I would like it. And thinking afterwards what a great time I had.

 

Not wanting to swim in the indoor pool after seeing the movie Jaws because I could not see the bottom, even though I knew it was impossible for a shark to be in the water.

 

When cars had no seatbelts, and we rode on the console between the seats to get a better view. And not even our parents seemed concerned about it.

 

Going to the drive-in and always falling asleep in the Station Wagon before the third movie ever started.

 

Thinking Football cards were kewl enough to cut them up and make a special football card covered cigar box out of them.(with my best cards)

 

Shaking my head after I came to this place and re thinking the condition of my entire collection once I really knew how to grade what I had.

 

Wondering when my FOOM membership kit would come in the mail, it seemed like it took forever(actually only 2 weeks )

 

Trading comic books for Dynamite magazine.

 

Getting spanked by my father with my own belt 2 times once for stealing candy, another for stealing comics..

 

Being paddled 5 wacks by the principle of our elementary school for starting a food fight.( the paddle had holes in it as I recall) And not even my parents thought it was a big deal back then.

 

Always watching, and always being dissapointed in the "Electric Companies " Spiderman Show.

 

Being in love with The Isis TV show.

 

 

 

 

Well, that is enough for now...Show your age and post some random memories or thoughts of days gone by. Be they from 1 day ago, or 50 years ago.

 

Ze-

[joe_collector]

Leaving a camp ground when I was 8 years old, leaving my entire collection behind on a picnic table, and having my father telling me he wasn't going to turn the trailer around "for a pile of comics".

 

I still think of that, and wonder what kind of heaven the kid that found them though he was in.

 

It wasn't all bad news, as I worked that "guilt angle" into far more comics than I ever lost, and I swear to this day, each time I mention it, my father still grabs reflexively for his wallet.

[143ksk]

...Waiting the endless months for the box from Battle Creek, Michigan to arrive.

 

...Changing my 25 cent weekly allowance to 2 dimes and 5 pennies so I could buy 2 comics (from the comic vending machine ) and a piece of gum

 

...When X-Men went from a reprint book to all new stories

 

...Seeing my first serious back issue (Avengers #1) and being told it had cost a whole $9.

 

...Going to my first comic con: the first Chicago ComiCon in the Playboy Tower 1976

 

...Freakies cereal

 

...Go Go Gophers

 

...Selling my hand drawn pictures of comic book characters on the street outside my apartment in Chicago when I was 5 years old

 

...and being amazed that people would give me money and not even take a picture

[Engine-migration]

GI Joes were the coolest toys a boy could have, but Transformers were a close second

 

Going from Nitendo to the Sega Genesis and thinking "WHOA! AWESOME GRAPHICS!"

 

Pushing the power button on a computer with no cd-rom, waiting for it to boot into DOS to start windows, then waiting fifteen minutes for everything to start up and stop making the processing noise...then remarking "that was pretty fast"

 

When Raceway Park was still standing just outside the southern city limits of Chicago and watching them fill the track with 50+ beater cars and driving until one was left.

 

Starting a vacation drive with an empty tank of gas, watching my Dad pull into the gas station and hand the attendant a five to fill the tank up.

 

Playing tee ball and having the coach tell us that we actually lost (or won) instead of tie games or we don't keep score.

 

The decline of Halloween, from being able to walk around at eight years old unsupervised, to having adults come with, to running around with shaving cream, to not going out after dark to avoid being jumped, to now having designated trick-or-treat times and still having 0 trick-or-treaters for the past 2 years.

[spidrvacc]

The decline of Halloween, from being able to walk around at eight years old unsupervised, to having adults come with, to running around with shaving cream, to not going out after dark to avoid being jumped, to now having designated trick-or-treat times and still having 0 trick-or-treaters for the past 2 years

 

 

I think about this all the time. My son Does not get to enjoy what I enjoyed when I was a child. We used to be able to walk the neighborhood at night as long as we did not go too far. All the neighbors looked out for us and made sure we were all OK. Now I wouldnt let my son out of the house without me.Trick or Treat is now dressing up in a costume and visiting the family friends and the 3-4 nieghbors we can trust, Damnn shame.

[joe_collector]

...Going to my first comic con: the first Chicago ComiCon in the Playboy Tower 1976

 

Now that I'm jealous about, as I kept reading about all those mid- to late-70's Comic Cons in NY, with all the celebs and old timers, but there was never anything in Canada of that scope.. at least not that I can remember.

 

I couldn't imagine taking a subway trip downtown to go to an actual Comic Con in the 70's - it fairly boggles the mind. I probably would have keeled over if I met Stan Lee.

[WOXL]

Legos being the greatest toys, with Transformers a close second

 

"Sega do what Nintendon't!" Blast processing, and Super FX

 

Dressing up as Exar Kun (Star Wars Tales of the Jedi!) for Halloween and being mistaken for a Native American on the warpath

 

Being AMAZED by those freaky cool hologram covers!

 

Debating for hours and finally purchasing Uncanny X-Men 304 for $7 - the most money ever spent on a comic - and loving every panel of the thing. Best purchase ever!

 

Buying Uncanny X-Men 304 for $1 a couple weeks ago at a convention

 

Trading X-Men #1 covers (I trust you can guess which X-Men #1 I'm talking about... )

 

Trading a bag of puppy chow for a promised X-Men 30... it never came... my first taste of dealer rapage

 

Spending $20 on four packs of Fleer Ultra Marvel cards and feelings so stupid about spending that much on cards that I quit comics for a good dozen years

 

-Reminiscing Bob

 

Hey Engine, where are you in Iowa? I grew up in Iowa City!

[Engine-migration]

Hey Engine, where are you in Iowa? I grew up in Iowa City!

 

Dubuque. Decided it'd be ok to stick around after graduating instead of going back to Chicago.

[richnerd]

~walking to the park with my older brothers on a nice summer day to swim in the pond.

 

~going to the arcade to play in the asteroids tournament and winning for the first time. ( $20 grand prize)

 

~going to the dime store and stocking up on candy to sell at school the next day for a profit to help fund my comics.

 

~noticing how those chicks in the comic books had ahhhh nice head lights and became a female ananotmy artist. ( I would make Stan Lee blush back in the day)

 

~getting my first kiss and Ze didn't even use his tongue. ( ok just checking to see if anyone was really reading these)

 

 

maybe more later.

[TheBrockley]

~ When your first TV crush is between She-Ra or Jem & The Holograms

 

~ Playing Asteroids on the Atari 2600 was great

 

~ Almost as great as making pictures with a lite-brite

 

~ From 6-6:30pm spent watching Inspector Gadget and then 6:30-7pm spent playing Bump And Jump on the Colecovision before bedtime

 

~ When Megatron was the hardest transformer to find in Eastern Canada

 

~ Learning to play pool at the old Boys & Girls Club.

 

~ Cub Scouts and Cub Camp (Dib Dib Dib)

 

~ When the GT Snowracer was the fastest thing on the hill.

 

~ Making banners on the Commodore 64 in elementry school

 

~ Jamming to Fresh Princes "Parents Just Don't Understand"

 

~ ALF

 

~ Owning my first red, multi-zipper Michael Jackson leather jacket and studded glove.

 

~ Finding out I was allergic to shellfish at the fair and projectile vomiting from the top of the ferris wheel and being rushed to the hospital and getting scarlet fever

 

~ Meeting Wayne Gretzky in same hospital

 

~ Playing "dinkies" and "marbles" in the dirt

 

~ Falling into the swamp for the very first time.

 

~ Why Robotech was so damn awesome and wanting a "Minmei" tape

 

~ Chip & Pepper t-shirts

 

~ Hypercolor t-shirts

 

 

I could go on and on, great thread

[Dick Pontoon]

- Finding that fort in the woods with a stack of Playboys and Penthouses.

[WOXL]

- Finding that fort in the woods with a stack of Playboys and Penthouses.

 

Oh hell yeah. Those were the days.

 

-Bob

[Karma23]

-Johnny Quest and Space Ghost

 

-Deploying legions of army men in the back yard

 

-riding bikes with your friends all day only comig home to eat

 

-watching Apollo 11 lift off in the school library and wondering why they didn't let us see it land

 

- a dollar from dad...getting 2 comics, a candy bar and a coke and getting change back!

 

-watching Godzilla movies on saturday afternoon at the Plaza Theatre

 

-and summers that never seemed to end

 

-oh, and a quarter getting you 3 plays on a pinball machine

[towards2112]

Setting the half acre back yard on fire when I knocked over the burn barrel.

Caught more hell because the fire department had to cut mom's

closeline down to get the fire engine around the garage.

 

Collecting coke bottles around town to stop by a relative's drugstore

so that I could buy the latest comic book arrivals, then discovering

that they had gone up to 12 cents from 10 !!!

 

Bonding with my favorite Uncle Buddy, over comic books, IBC rootbeer,

giant hamburgers from the Mustang Drive-in, and then having to

get on a train to go home, and having him give me a grocery bag

full of goldenage DC and Fawcett to occupy my time on the ride home.

 

Falling in love with Sandy Lewis at the ripe old age of 7.

 

Falling in love with Becky LeFevre at and even riper age of 8.

 

Falling in love with Debbie Reed at 13.

 

Getting the toy robot from the movie Forbidden Planet for Christmas.

 

My first homerun in Little League.

 

Falling in love with my wife Bobbie at 17.

[Red Hook]

• Listening to Jean Shepard on WOR-AM at night, with a transistor radio under my pillow.

 

• Coming home from school and watching "Dark Shadows" every day.

 

• Waxing my uncle's car for about $3.00 and being able to go out and by all the new Marvels that hit the stands that week.

 

• Sitting in the Polo Grounds in 1962 watching the Mets.

 

• Standing on on the ledge of a giant planter in the middle of Park Avenue and taking a picture of the Apollo astronauts in their limo as they were driven by in 1969.

 

• Sitting in a classroom in my senior year of high school and listening to Frank McCourt (of Angela's Ashes fame) discuss James Joyce with us no-good Stuyvesant students.

 

• Being called into the chapel of the Lutheran School in the Bronx (that Harvey Lee Oswald briefly attended) and being told of JFK's assasination.

 

• Hearing the news of MLK and RFK's assasinations when I was in the 8th grade in 1968.

 

• Attending my first comic con in 1968 and getting Gil Kane and Steranko's autographs. (Statler Hilton - Phil Seuling)

 

• Attending a Led Zeppelin concert at MSG in 1973.

 

• Watching Soupy Sales, Wonderama and the Sandy Becker show on local NYC TV.

[blutobc]

Great Idea Kenny, as usual...

 

I remember....

 

Penny Baseball - using my baseball cards to play a mock game by rolling a penny across the hardwood floor and smacking it with the actual cards.(yep, they were those black bordered cards too)

 

My 1st Halloween where the treat bag was nothing but a paper grocery store bag that was as tall as me. After the night was over I found that I had lost most of the candy as I had made a hole in the bag from dragging it.

 

Playing cowboys and indians with a claw hammer as the tomahawk....which my brother accidentally used on my head once(the claw!!!). As the blood dripped and clotted into my mass of wild hair, I told my mom..."agh, my brains are coming out!!!)

 

Thinking that Big Boy comics from the restaurant were sooooo cool.

 

Attending my 1st Tennesse Vols game and coming to understand the importance of the color ORANGE.

 

Applesauce Fritters...yum

 

Buying my 1st comics from the Barber Shop/Cigar Store.....and later finally being allowed to buy the risque Warren Magazines from the same shop in the 70s.

 

Getting $10 from my dad on Saturdays and riding my bike to town, alone. That $10 would buy comics, baseball cards, snacks, and an occasional LP. Of course later on I came to understand "why" dad wanted me out of the house...to which it started costing him $20(my 1st pimp job).

 

Friends who I haven't seen in over 30 years.

 

The 1st schoolyard fight that I won....and the 1st fight that I lost too.

 

Sports team-mates with nicknames like...Piddly, Spunky, Dog, Tweet, Brazz

 

Ordering the set of 100s of army men from that ad in a comic book. After about 6 months of waiting I think a box arrived and included maybe six figures.

 

Having to go outside to turn the TV Antenna, which was extra hard after having watched the original "Night of the Living Dead" movie...we lived near a graveyard back then.

[ArAich]

I remember

 

[*]Eating whatever the hell I wanted and not worrying about getting fat(ter).

 

[*]Clackers

 

[*]Playing suicide frisbee with my brother because he was the only one with the balls to do so.

 

[*]Hiding my mad magazines in a wall near the Pequabuck river....don't ask why.

 

[*]Hot Wheels

 

[*]My 1st piece of original art...the cover to Neutro #1.

 

[*]Finding comics in the dump every summer at our vacation cottage.

[ArAich]

Oh yeah....and Elvira on Friday nights....

[aardvark88]

Quit code turkey from buying comics when the cover price leapt from 30c to 35c. This lasted about 2 whole months.

 

Listening to Tony Orlando & Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon around the old oak tree" over & over again on AM radio as I was reading my coverless comics.

 

Went to my 1st San Diego Comic-con & watched Chuck back up his 18 wheeler full of comics. They had to give him a separate side room to display all his long boxes of Mile High 2s. Saw a long box full of Spect Spidey mag # 2 and Marvel Super-heroes 1 shot.

 

Shaking hands with Marvel's marketing genius Carol Kalish & drooling when she told me about her Timely original art. May she RIP.

 

Sharing a piece of cake w/ Geppi as he was meeting all his retailers in Canada at the local Diamond distribution warehouse. He even shook the hand of lackeys like myself.

[Marty B]

... going to my Godmother's cottage on Lake Erie. Treking with her son to the general store where they never took old books off the spinner racks (they had THREE racks!) On these racks we could find new comics and some as old as 1/2 a year. Mom would load us up with money and we would buy a tonne of comics. That first day at the cottage was all about reading those comics.

 

... leaving my comics out on the porch of our new house cause I got distracted by the new friend I made next door. Mom was probably glad I wasn't underfoot while they unloaded the moving van. It rained that night. Lost most of the collection of 1960's comics my Uncle gave to me.

 

... the day our milkman made his last delivery.

 

... loading up my 5.25" floppy boot diskette into drive A: and my 5.25" floppy Rogue game diskette into drive B: and wasting an hour of College lab time. Moving that stupid @ symbol all over the amber screen killing all the K's and B's I could find.

 

... the very moment when each of my four daughters entered this world.

 

Ubie X