Hopefully that is not YOUR souvenir from the money you spent to shoot that piece of paper. They are difficult, but geez

Yeah I couldn’t hit shit but at least I got a shit load of shots off considering I had to pump that damn gun 10 times per shot.
5 years later and my arm still hurts : )

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Years ago, I somehow always had a small collection of near-worthless foreign coins. One by one, they would show up in change as an inferior lower-value replacement for a similar-sized U.S. coin. It was fun to try and figure out which countries they came from.

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More junk drawer essentials: Buttons, Bottle Caps and Bouncy Balls.

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The Jocko reminds me of wonderbread

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You will never convince me that the carnies did not bend the sights on those guns

Wonderbread "helps build strong bodies 12 ways."

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And Rolaids consumes 47 times it weight in excess stomach acid.

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Yeah yeah. I grew up glued to the TV, too

Dungeons and Dragons!

I got in on D&D really early. My friend had the three original soft-bound rulebooks by Gygax and Arneson. We started with those. Then, I got the original Basic boxed set from TSR for my birthday. I bought the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons hard-bound rulebooks as they were published. That's the format we ultimately settled on, everything through Unearthed Arcana. I looked at the second edition rules when they first came out, but decided I preferred the originals. I ran one campaign that lasted for several years. It was like a part time job being a dungeon master for a big group.

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I spent countless hours painting figures. I still have hundreds of them. Here are a few random examples.

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I was (and am) a huge nerd, but I never got into the whole D&D phenom somehow.

Back in college (80s), everyone I knew of who was into it had hygiene such that I didn't want to be around them, as I recall.

I played a few RPGs on Nintendo back then, but as for the whole rolling 20-sided dice thing, no dice.

Funny, now my own daughter goes to D&D nights (not this year tho).

My late mother played just about every RPG for NES, SNES, Genesis, and PS1. Reminds me, I should start unloading them to pay for my R&M! I looked up just the NES and SNES titles she left me and it came to almost $5K! One of them, SNES Earthbound, is worth like a kilobuck alone!

I know the stereotype, but that wasn't us. Most of us guys had girlfriends, and there were always a few young women in our group. Nerdy, maybe, but clean.

We were a Wham-o family in the 60s. Picture from eBay.
Loved my Monster Magnet!

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I have my monster magnet from my childhood handy in my garage!

I remember when I first got a Wham-o Superball in the 60s. My Dad would go with me and my friends to this huge factory parking lot that was empty on the weekends. He would throw the Superball as hard as he could straight down to the pavement. It would bounce up so high that you couldn’t see it. We would all run around trying to catch or chase after that crazy ball.

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Awesome thread that took me back. A lot of fond memories my brother an I had playing with.

Here’s some of the ones we had. Some were stuff my mom found during yard sales etc as we we’re pretty poor.

Biggest thing we’re Lego for us (First set was the police station pic) with my brother having GI Joe (80’s) and me with Transformers. Commodore 64 followed the Atari 2600. Stompers: I had a few and the big rig too.

I was a huge Dukes of Hazzard fan. Funny how some games like Mouse Trap is still around and was when my mom was a kid.

Snoopy shaved ice and many hot wheels tracks were a yard sale find.

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That brings back memories. I did not have the magnet, but I had Wham-O Frisbee. Only it was not called Frisbee at the time. All that I can find on Google says the original Frisbee was 1965 or 1966.

In 1963 or 1964, I was 10 but my mom would not let me stay home alone. I had baby sitter who was around 15-16. Trina lived 3 houses down from my cousins house. Trina took a trip to Disneyland and came back with goodies for my cousins and i. She brought back 2 Frisbees. The looked like flying saucers. There were little windows molded into the surface and inside the windows were little men.

The best I can do is this pic. It is called a Frisbee but it is also called a Flying Saucer.

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Mine looked like this one. Except this one names the planets and has no windows molded in. Mine did not have the planets named. But it was the same chunky style before Wham-O redesigned them to make them sleeker.

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Strangely, I recall the packaging. It was a red saucer backed with that light weight cardboard that is still used in packaging today. And it was shrink-wrapped in the same type of plastic we still rip open today.

You can see from the pic that the cost cutting had started as the package is just a plastic bag with no card board backer.

Anybody ever have the Glow-In-The-Dark Frisbee? I had one, but I can’t recall ever really throwing it outside in the dark. Who the hell throws Frisbees around at night time?

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Here is my Mechanical Servants vending machine. It lived its life in Pennsylvania from the amusement decal on it. It is loaded with inventory and works like it should after some repair.

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I had one of those glow Frisbees. It didn’t glow very brightly. It was fine for tossing around at 20’ or so, but you couldn’t do the long, fast throws you might do in the daytime.

The original nerf football was one of my favorite toys.
I’m a pack rat so I still have four of them.

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Speaking of Frisbees, are there any other disk golfers around here? Bayville Farms Park was among the earliest U.S. courses. I remember my dad (an avid regular golfer) taking me out there for a few rounds in the mid-late seventies. We didn't realize at the time that there were dedicated disks, and were just throwing regular Wham-Os.

That banged up Raven is a prototype

Can you imagine if you threw that across semi-busy street in night time. Sail it over the roof of an oncoming car. . Did you see that, Ethel ?

That machine is awesome!

A Buzz Bee was our Favorite at the beach.

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Here’s the frisbees that I have.
The white one has a pat pending on it.

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Pringle’s lids make great indoor frisbees.

Wait a minute... Jocko is the same dude as Scoopy the Carnival Straws clown.

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That's next level investigating!

Clown got around! I remember him on the ice cream cone box at Grandmas house

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It’s PARTY TIME!

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Going way back... They had a couple of these “Moo Cans” at my pre-school. You turn it upside down and it makes a sound like a cow’s moo as the air escapes through the holes. Looks like they still make these things today. It was magical entertainment for a 4 year old back in 1961.

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Reminds me of the ice cream cone package at the grocery store

Did you ever place pennies on train tracks so a passing train would flatten them? A school buddy and I tried this a few times. We stopped it after getting chewed out one day by some guy who was watching us.

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Yes, I loved smashing pennies and small toys and other stuff...I've since learned that even a relatively small object can potentially derail a train. I'm glad we never caused anything like that...we were pretty brainless sometimes. Well, we were kids! We hadn't grown a brain yet!
We spent so much time around our local tracks, it's a wonder we weren't killed. Those were the true Wonder Years! Wondering if you're gonna die doing stupid shit!!! How I have my eyes, ears, fingers, and toes all still attached and more or less working is a mystery.
My neighbor and I found one of these things once, a Railroad Torpedo exactly like this Wikipedia picture, and took it home and played with it for several hours before returning it to the spot we found it. We waited for the next train, and when it ran over the thing, there was a huge "BANG" and the train threw on its brakes and came to a stop (it was moving slowly). We saw guys climbing down out of the locomotive and we ran like hell.
Knowing all the trails and holes in the fences saved us from some unknown fate at the hands of the train crew.
We were wicked little shits in the 60s, always running around unsupervised. We loved playing with matches, and set numerous fires in the field behind our house. We always had caps, matches, pocket knives, sometimes a few firecrackers or cigarettes or a smoke bomb. That was in grade school, age 8 or 9. Things got somewhat wilder in the teen years, although I always managed to stay out of serious trouble somehow.

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I had to look that one up..."Buzz Bee Toke and Toss" LOL! I don't remember seeing those, otherwise I would have had one!

Do we need to be talking about your mis-spent youth?

It sounds like you had good time while growing up
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I grew up in a small town and moved away. But I would go back and visit my best friend every once in a while. Small towns are notorious for having little to do. Kids looking for action get creative.

When we were old enough to drive, my friend got a 1954 Chevy. I went to visit.

My friend and his friends got a wild idea one night to see if that old Chevy would line up with the rail road tracks. They drove a couple of miles out of town to a railroad crossing and lined up. It was perfect match. The Chevy's wheelbase set the tires on the tracks and just inside of center.

When I visited I was taken for a ride. Line up. Release the clutch and start moving. Shift into 2nd gear and then shift into 3rd. And we were rolling down the tracks at about 30 miles an hour. ( I think we were all smoking Marlboros at the time. A real bunch of little smart asses ) It was a nice two mile cruise until the tracks crossed another road and we got back on the dirt road.

This car-on-the-track" business only worked while moving forward. My friend tried backing up before taking his first ride. Moving in reverse did not work. Once on the tracks you were committed to driving down the tracks until the next crossing.

We had no idea of the train schedules but there were never much train action at night in that small town. If a train would have been coming the only option would be a hard turn and wind up (hopefully) at the side of tracks.

We were kids. It was a nice ride that brought on that giddy feeling you get when you are playing the part of a vandal. And not thinking about the consequences
( Only young vandals would know that giddy feeling that I am taking about )

If this guy had been in a 1954 Chevy he would have made it

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Here's a audio book for kids I used to love. 45 minute audio tape with booklet with sci-fi stories.

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Here's a similar product, just using using even older tech:

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Speaking of Planet of the Apes, does anyone remember theses scenes in a bottle model kits? I had a few of the Apes ones, and a Jaws one, too.

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I used to love slot car racing. I just pulled these out of the attic.
There’s still a TCR track that I need to dig out.

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This was pretty big deal for me growing up. Power Passers

My superball would always find the biggest juniper bush around.

Verrry Interesting who their Celebrity Racer is in that video.

Arte Johnson, died last year - age 90.

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Jocko and Scooby only have a $5 bid so far. Auction ends Saturday. I want them just for the Scoopy history. I could write Scoopy into his brim!

Also want this battery operated arcade sign. Current bid $30. Not worth too much more

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Was just sorting through the basement junk and I'll admit it, got into slot racing. Ran wing cars at local track. Grew up when the slot car craze hit in the 60s. These were just taken to the stupid level.

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Here’s a rare image of Scoopy handing off his giant Safe-T Cone to his personal assistant while he goes on a smoke break.

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