What do you remember?

[ChunkyRice]

I grew up in Spain for a time and kids there had lots to choose from:

Mazinger Z
Battle of the Planets
Sandokan
Orzowei
Once Upon a Time... Man
Barbapapa
Heidi
Marco: From the Apennines to the Andes (I also loved the book, Heart.)

I've yet to see any of these in the U.S. since we moved back home 31 years ago.

[Frakas]

I remember watching Saturday Supercade in the 80's on a weekend. That was always such good fun.

[Greenman]

Originally Posted by ChunkyRice

I grew up in Spain for a time and kids there had lots to choose from:

Mazinger Z
Battle of the Planets
Sandokan
Orzowei
Once Upon a Time... Man
Barbapapa
Heidi
Marco: From the Apennines to the Andes (I also loved the book, Heart.)

I've yet to see any of these in the U.S. since we moved back home 31 years ago.

I don't know many of those but definitely Battle of the Planets, that was huge over here and I also remember the strange Babapappa, and the dubbed Heidi. Incidentally there are some episodes of BOTPlanets on youtube and I've got a load on video that one day I might upload.

[Estreeter]

Bloody Hell I just got reminded of it, now I'd rather forget it.

I reckon the last time I heard about The Rubber Duck I was on an overnight train to Sydney listening to my transistor radio I wasn't even in my teens yet.

[ubu55]

My Father's Hair Tonic

Dad was a department & shoe store manager/salesman, always self-conscious about his appearance. He used a blend of 3 kinds, which, for a man with fine, thin hair receding half the way to the back of his head from each temple was kinda strange .

I'm pretty sure his lubricants of choice were:

Kreml

Wildroot Cream Oil, and

Vitalis (though probably not in this bottle)

The effect was to make him look like a guy too shady (and aromatic) even for Virgil Solozzo's crew. You could pick up the sheen on his head from 50 feet on a good day. He graciously (& totally without being asked) put his mix on me a few times... which must have been after I got into high school & was allowed to have something other than a butch (if you don't know the term, it was worse than it sounds, and about a 32nd of an inch better than being scalped by Comanches). Once it was on a hot day... I could feel that shit dripping down past my ears as I sat in class near the window. (Thanks Dad!)
I spent IMO, far too much time at the barber's growing up. The only part of the bi-weekly scalping I enjoyed was

Always applied after Leo, the barber had carefully scraped a straight razor around my ears & at the back of my neck.

Dad did have some cool silk ties on a rack in his closet. These are a few 40's & 50's specimens, none of which he owned... as today, there were thousands of choices, ranging from the opulent to the ridiculous:


I bagged a few when he became a more dignified State employee years later, & used to wear them selling cars.

Best of all might have been the old double-breasted pin stripe suits. I bought one like this in the late 80's at a vintage clothing store:

Remember Dad had a blue-grey he wore in a picture taken next to California Gov. (& later Chief Justice) Earl Warren (who wouldn't have known him from a door knob 15 minutes later).

[MemoryHunter]

Anyone else recall in the late 70's and early 80's you could buy 'Bottle Lamp' kits.

First get a nice looking bottle, Mateus Rose was popular when I was a kid. Fill it with sand or gravel, or if you really wanted to be really flash you'd use multi coloured aquarium gravel.

Then push the light fitting into the neck of the bottle. Add a shade and a bulb. Hey Presto, an 'attractive' table lamp.

You can still get them. In these days of austerity it's a handy excuse to avoid any accusation of alcoholism. All you need to say is; 'I'm going for a retro look and I want my bottle lamps to match, and that's why I'm buying 6 bottles of Tanqueray.'

[Greenman]

I don't remember Bottle Lamps but I do remember Matteus Rosé wine, it was pretty vile to my palate but my Dad I think used it as a mixer. I just remembered this stuff that was in a tube which you squeezed onto a pipe and blew bubbles or balloons. We had some(my sister and I) when we were younger but we got ours from Selfridges(rich aunt took us there). I understand you can still get that from Hamleys. I also remember Squirmels, strange orange pipe like creatures that moved around your hand, presumably by your body heat. It looked like a fox stole if you want a comparison.

[NIN]

Squirmels were attached to a length of fishing line , then threaded around the fingers & attached up the sleeve so when the arms were moved apart they would appear to run around your fingers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_hml8RCxJE

[taffy2]

I can't believe I left out Dungeons & Dragons

http://youtu.be/rPuTIE6pP6w Ep 1 Part 1

http://youtu.be/GY91NMgQHZQ Ep1 Part 2

[Greenman]

Best episode to my mind was 'City At the Edge of Midnight' which was probably one of the best cartoons around in the 80s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dapm0...eature=related