{"id":2526,"date":"2002-06-10T09:36:00","date_gmt":"2002-06-10T14:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2526"},"modified":"2002-06-10T09:36:00","modified_gmt":"2002-06-10T14:36:00","slug":"a_monday_memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/10\/a_monday_memory.html","title":{"rendered":"A Monday Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy of the <a href=\"http:\/\/theonion.wiccked.com\/gm\/archives\/00000904.php\">Monday Memory <\/a>site, natch.<\/p>\n<p><b>Share a memory about your favourite toy. What was it, why was it your favourite, do you still have it, where did you get it?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>We were not a toy-rich family, for, I imagine, a variety of reasons.  Toys were something we got (a) on birthdays (in limited number), and (b) at Christmas (the big bonanza).<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know that I had a <i>favorite <\/i>toy.  From an early age I spent a lot of time reading, instead of toy-playing.  But I have memories of a few that are of note:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>My machine-gun<\/b>.  Somewhere in the late 60s my Mom decided that there would be no more toy guns in the house, a reaction to the escalating violence in Viet Nam and a visit to the VA Hospital to visit by cousin Leon.  This was, of course, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.frontpagemag.com\/poesnotepad\/2000\/pn10-05-00.htm\">quixotic stance<\/a>, since we found various other implements in the garage to use as guns, or, failing that, pieces of wood.  I think I still have, in some box, a piece of wood I found on a hike or a vacation that made a great blaster &#8230;\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Why, look, it's a picture of a tommy gun, hosted here at my own site.\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tommygun.gif\" width=\"230\" height=\"67\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\" \/>&#8230; but before that ban, I had a green plastic Thompson Submachinegun, military style (straight magazine, vs. a &#8220;Tommy Gun&#8221; round magazine).  (The picture to the right is the real thing; the toy was a bit foreshortened, I believe).  It had a knob on the side that you could pull back so that it would rat-a-tat when you pulled the trigger.  Even after the end of the barrel snapped off, it was still fun.  <\/p>\n<p>I have no idea what happened to it.  Did it completely break and get thrown out?  Did it get, um, tossed when the edict about guns came down?  No idea.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/major-matt-mason.jpg\" align=right width=175 height=167><\/p>\n<li><b>Major Matt Mason<\/b>:  When my friend Andrew (whose mother my folks played &#8212; and still play &#8212; chamber music with) outgrew his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msu.edu\/user\/storto\/mmm.htm\">MMM toys <\/a>(we&#8217;d call them &#8220;action figures&#8221; these days), I inherited them.  A treasure trove!  MMM was an astronaut, and I got him and a few others in his cadre and some alien types and more Space Gear than you can imagine, including an incredible moonbase.  <\/p>\n<p>There was also a keen turret-mounted laser platform, ostensibly for &#8220;Moon Mining&#8221; but, as all us kids knew, really designed for blasting the snot out of alien invaders.  Ditto on the little anti-grav sleds, the little rifles, the probe-rocket launchers and other accoutrements.  <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/major-matt-mason_laser.jpg\" align=right width=250 height=177>Mattel, the manufacturer, was sensitive to mothers like mine, who didn&#8217;t want Junior playing violent games, but realized that what kids like me really wanted were toys to let MMM shout (as Spaceman Spiff would say) &#8220;Eat hot photons, Martian scum!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On weekends when my folks were not watching TV (or were out doing something), I can remember taking the white quilt (the one with various dog breeds printed on it), make a big mountain out of it in the middle of the family room, and then set up the MMM base.  Great, great fun.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/hotbirds.jpg\" align=right width=201 height=132><\/p>\n<li><b>Hot Birds<\/b>:  We had Hot Wheels, and various accessories, but, really, there was only so much interesting you could do with that orange track.  The HW cars were fun, but more fragile than MatchBox (and more expensive, too, I suspect).  But, for one Christmas, Mattel came out with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.snowcrest.net\/fox\/sizz.html\">Hot Birds<\/a>, the same sort of die-cast critters, but as various cool jets, along with cool stickers you could place on them.  My brother and I each got two of them, and I still have mine.  Lots of imaginative play came out of that, I&#8217;ll tell you.  Technically, you could put a little string guide in the center of them and run them along a string across the room.  In reality, of course, you flew them throught the air in your hand, making whooshing noises, crashing into each other, and strafing hapless army men.<\/p>\n<p>In the picture here, I had the one in the center (my favorite) and the one in the lower left corner.  My brother had the upper left and lower right.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/tinker-toy.jpg\" align=right width=120 height=119><\/p>\n<li><b>TinkerToy<\/b>:  We weren&#8217;t a Lego family until pretty late in the game (though I had fun, up until high school, making Indestructable Lego Tanks, and then destroying them with Lego Meteors).  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hasbropreschool.com\/tinkertoy\/\">TinkerToys<\/a>, however, were way keen.  I&#8217;m not sure why, now, but I remember having great fun playing with them.  Our set was old enough that the little windmill blades were green cardboard, not green plastic.<\/ol>\n<p>\nWow.  Aside from the Tinkertoys, I was a violent little bugger as a kid.  Hmmm.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I&#8217;m sure there were more &#8220;favorites&#8221; than that, and my Mom will probably remind me of them when she reads this, but that&#8217;s all that comes to mind right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy of the Monday Memory site, natch. Share a memory about your favourite toy. What was it, why was it your favourite, do you still have it, where did you&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-qa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1303,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/29\/no_this_is_what.html","url_meta":{"origin":2526,"position":0},"title":"No, this is what the Net is for!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-Jan-02 4:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A collection, and history, of toy ray guns. The little five-year-old in me is drooling over this. Hell, the big 41-year-old is soggy with spittle, too. (Via Boing Boing)...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Potpourri&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2905,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/09\/05\/the_bedknobs_se.html","url_meta":{"origin":2526,"position":1},"title":"The bedknobs seem a little worn, too","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Sep-02 1:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Amazon seems to be going great guns selling this Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 vibrating broomstick toy. Based on the comments, it seems to be particularly popular with girls. At least...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Harry Potter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Harry Potter","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/harry-potter"},"img":{"alt_text":"All the girls like it, too!","src":"\/blog\/images\/boomstick.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3968,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/03\/05\/basket_cases.html","url_meta":{"origin":2526,"position":2},"title":"Basket cases","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Mar-03 2:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've never quite gotten the pre-packaged Easter Baskets that seem to infest supermarkets these days around Easter time. But nobody seems to get the latest trend in Easter Baskets: toy...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Religion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134491,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/30\/cant-nice-things.html","url_meta":{"origin":2526,"position":3},"title":"This Is Why We Can&#8217;t Have Nice Things","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 30-Aug-17 7:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"Because people figure out ways for crazy intellectual property law suits about them. Hasbro, I have no doubt that \"Bumblebee\" is a very popular Transformer. I also have no doubt that you expect a Bumblebee solo movie to make oodles of money. Go have at it. But none of that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/unnamed-9-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":127497,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/12\/boys-will-be-boys-and-girls-girls-and-their-toys-um-well.html","url_meta":{"origin":2526,"position":4},"title":"Boys will be boys (and girls girls (and their toys &#8230; um, well &#8230;)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 12-Aug-15 2:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"Are more girls than boys going to choose Barbies? Yeah, probably.Are more boys than girls going to choose toy guns (do they still sell toy guns?)? Probably so.So, then, why the concern if they aren't explicitly labeled as \"boy toys\" vs \"girl toys\"?And if a girl wants some Marvel action\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15057,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/06\/19\/toy-movies.html","url_meta":{"origin":2526,"position":5},"title":"Toy Movies","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 19-Jun-09 8:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, I'd pay money to see some of these ... Toy Movies\u00a0 Atom.com: Funny Videos | Animation | TV & Movie Spoofs \u00a0\u00a0 (via Matociquala)\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Animation \/ Cartoons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Animation \/ Cartoons","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-cartoons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}