Super Elastic Bubble Plastic

I got the idea for this week’s blog while writing last week.

As I was getting all gooey and sentimental about my wife last week [she loved it], I started thinking about all the possibilities that lie ahead for my son, Elliott. Other parents have told me that I would start living vicariously through my son. Although I hope that’s not completely true for me, it has begun to some degree. What got me thinking this week is the idea of first memories.

As Elliott grows, I wonder what his first memories will be. That got me to thinking of my own childhood and my first memories.

I cannot say I have a memory that stands out above all others as THE FIRST, but there are surprisingly many. I remember living in Hawthorne, California. Our house was tiny, just 2 bedrooms, but I remember the layout perfectly. I also remember the concrete wall out front and my aunt and uncles house that was just up the street. I remember running naked to the local liquor store [apparently I called it the “Yicker Tore”] to get candy. I also remember my grandparents house was only a few blocks away. They had a school and a playground down the street from them that I remember spending a lot of time in because the slide was shaped like a rocket ship that you had to climb into to slide down. The openings were kid-sized so parents couldn’t chase you inside. I would sit in there for hours (at least minutes) at a time until my mom or whoever was watching us would shout up into the opening from below to make sure I was OK before sliding down. There was also a wading pool at the playground that was maybe 18 inches deep in the center. It was a perfect circle. In the summer time, before the park volunteers would let us play in the pool, they would first pour in chlorine or some other chemical and make us walk around in circles (both directions) for 5-10 minutes before they would let us swim. I wonder how many of us will get cancer.

The list goes on and on. I’m sure I’ll include them here at some point, or at least in my autobiography, but for now I want to stay focused on every kid’s favorite things: TOYS. Looking back, I have picked my Top 10 favorite toys of all time [at least until the age of 12]. And I’m not talkin’ Frisbees, Hula Hoops, or marbles. I’m talking about toys I salivated over, toys I would have done chores for, toys I simply had to own and absolutely would have begged my parents for until they relented just so I would shut up.

As I wonder what Elliott’s favorite toys would be, these were mine [listed in more-or-less chronological order]:

SUPER ELASTIC BUBBLE PLASTIC— This is the memory that got this whole ball rolling. Now, this isn’t exactly a toy that I would have begged my parents for, but it was something I got my hands on as a little kid (I’m sure I stole it from the Yicker Tore) and thought it was the coolest stuff ever… probably because I couldn’t read the warnings that it should not be used by children under 8. Super Elastic Bubble Plastic [check out description of it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Elastic_Bubble_Plastic ] was this psychedelic plastic goo that you wadded up into little balls on the end of a straw and blew bubbles—not ordinary bubbles, but industrial size & strength multi-colored bubbles. The size of the bubble depended on how much goo you put on the end of the straw. This stuff was amazing. If blowing through the tiny little straw they provided didn’t make you somewhat anoxic, the chemical fumes from the glue were certainly powerful enough to get you high. Come to think of it, I think the first time I got high wasn’t smoking pot behind Mayfair Market in 10th grade with Frank Hobbs and Ron Santos; it was when I was three trying to make bubbles with this crap. I knew, secretly, that messing with this stuff was going to get me into trouble, and it did. After sneaking off with the tube of goo and the straw, I snuck around the corner of a neighbor’s house, loaded the straw and blew away. Long story short, it didn’t go well. I must have loaded the straw incorrectly because I was never able to blow a proper bubble. Well, the goo was tenacious like wet boogers. When I couldn’t wipe it off of my fingers onto my clothes, I used the next best thing—the side of the neighbor’s house, lucky me, at exactly the moment when that neighbor walked around the corner of the house to find me wiping the toxic sludge all over his stucco.

It took me nearly all day with a toothbrush to scrub that stuff off his stucco. I swore off being bad forever—at least until the next day when I let all the air out of the tires of my mom’s car just before she was supposed to leave for work.

[Apparently, there’s a band named Super Elastic Bubble Plastic because when I Googled and YouTubed it, most of the information that popped up first was about the band. Just FYI. I don’t know if they suck or not, I didn’t listen.]

MAGIC 8 BALL— Everybody is familiar with this classic fortune telling device. To this day, I think people believe in the advice of the Magic 8 Ball more than that of Emily Post, Dear Abby or Dr. Phil. If a social dilemma can’t be solved with Rock-Paper-Scissors, it most definitely can be answered by the Eight Ball. I was never actually given a Magic 8 Ball, but I ‘acquired’ one at some point. I don’t even remember how. I used to keep it behind the washer and dryer at that house we rented in Hawthorne, CA. The laundry room of that house could only be accessed via the outside, so I used to sneak in there and lock the door whenever I needed Eight Ball consultation. I would turn out the light for the mystery factor. There was just enough light shining beneath the door that I could read the advice of the Eight Ball as it floated through the Tidy Bowl blue liquid toward the surface of the viewing window. [Apparently, I could read then also. This is a distinct memory, yet I know for a fact I was less than four].

I have no idea what kinds of questions I used to ask the Eight Ball, but I’m sure there were a little like this: Will I grow up to be famous like Elvis? – IT IS DECIDEDLY SO. Will I drive a car as fast as Speed Racer? –BETTER NOT TELL YOU NOW. Will I get a Hippity Hop for my birthday? – OUTLOOK NOT SO GOOD.

That Eight Ball is still probably behind the washer and dryer of that rental house. I have never been able to maintain an Eight Ball in my possession. The always seem to disappear, kind of like Ouija boards.

[For a full description of the Magic 8 Ball, a list of all 20 standard responses, and an impressive list of movie and music references to the Eight Ball, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8-ball or for a demonstration on how to dissect the Magic 8-Ball go to http://8ball.ofb.net/procedure.html then come back.]

HOT WHEELS CARS— The Holy Grail of boy’s toys. I used to watch the cartoon Speed Racer when I was a little, little kid at my grandma & grandpa’s house. It came on at 2:30 p.m. right after Felix the Cat. I remember it like it was my job. When Speed Racer’s car, the Mach 5, became available years later as a Hot Wheels car (or Matchbox car, the two were rivals, but really they were interchangeable) I was all over it. I think the car itself was in the family budget, but all the Hot Wheels accessories were not, so when I found a set of Hot Wheels track at a garage sale, I’m sure I begged my mom a thousand times for the $2 that I thought was the ultimate deal for a boxful of bright orange track, burgundy tongue-shaped connectors, and accessories. My brother and I used to clamp the tracks at the top of the fireplace mantel and string the tracks in as many combinations we could create: long straight-aways, single loops, double loops. Sometimes, one of us would hold up the end opposite the mantel and we would crash the cars in the center. We spent entire summer days playing with these things. Neighborhood and school kids traded cars like baseball cards. Hot Wheels were serious business.

Our fascination with Hot Wheels came to a screeching halt, however. As it turns out, these tracks are indestructible implements of pain. We got in trouble one time (and who can ever remember what for) and received the spanking of a lifetime with one of the pieces of bright orange track. The red marks on our asses made Linda Blair’s welts in The Exorcist look like a Noxzema commercial.

That day, my brother and I snuck the entire box of Hot Wheels tracks into the trash, and never spoke another word about them to our parents ever again.

SLIP-N-SLIDE— a.k.a White Trash Water Park. Nevada summers can get hot. Not Arizona hot, but hot. Sometimes reaching 100 degrees for long stretches of days. We literally begged and begged and begged for a Slip-N-Slide. The concept was simple: a 25-foot piece of durable vinyl that you would place in the yard, wet with a hose, take a running start and slide for your life. Hours and hours of fun, I tell you. Kids from all around the neighborhood would come to our house to Slip-N-Slide. We were like trailer park royalty. Kids would bring bits of food, drinks, coin, pets, bikes, anything… just to be able to beat the heat with a nice wet down and a laugh.

Ours came with another contraption (although I’m sure it was sold separately) that was like the top half of a person’s head, with Medusa-like hair-hoses that you would hook the garden hose into, and a chaotic fountain of water would squirt and squiggle its way out the end of the hair-hoses spraying water everywhere.

[I’m only including this last paragraph in the hopes somebody remembers the name of this thing. It escapes me and it’s driving me crazy. If any of you know, please email me]

ETCH-A-SKETCH— I think every kid in the world had or has an Etch-A-Sketch. When I was a wee lad, I remember always wanting to know how to draw (instinctively) but didn’t really have the technical skills to do so on my own. When I got my first Etch-A-Sketch, I thought I had been given the tool that would allow me to become the next Picasso. I quickly found out that there was a serious flaw with the Etch-A-Sketch… the rack & pinion mechanisms that drove the stylus through the silver pixie dust were only good for drawing straight lines. To draw anything with curves, you needed manual dexterity that is simply not available in the younger models of Homo sapiens. Drawing simple circles was cumbersome, and they always turned out looking like gruesomely misshapen dodecahedrons. I pretty well mastered Etch-A-Sketching the American flag (sans stars), but anything beyond that required patience I simply did not have. There was a company later on that created a model of the Etch-A-Sketch that utilized a joystick instead of the standard two knobs. I pulled a Veruca Salt on my mom and insisted on getting one. The pixie dust inside was gold instead of silver… must have been some patent issue… anyway, it worked no better, and ended up in the trash by the time I was 10. So much for being the next Picasso.

I guess the flipside of not becoming a graphic artist… this was around the time I started discovering I enjoyed WORDS and could manipulate them in fun and interesting ways. I was in the cub scouts at the time (baby version of the boy scouts). I begrudgingly entered a writing contest, urged by my pack leader. The topic was supposed to be why our mom was the best mom. After dragging my feet, I finally entered… and won. The prize was a crappy white porcelain vase filled with tacky silk flowers that my mom displayed proudly in her master bathroom until well into high school. Since then, pretty much everything I’ve ever written has received some type of recognition. I ended up being the editor of my high school literary ‘magazine’ called “The Verbatim.” In my early college years, I had a weekly column called Cadger’s Corner [which was actually kind like Corybantic Commentary, just a lot more juvenile— it paid $80 per week]. Another short story I wrote was published in one of the UNR young writer type collections. My story was one of 25 selected from over 200— there was an awards dinner and everything. I was practically famous.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, that when I win the Pulitzer, I will have to pay tribute, at least in some small way, to my failure with the Etch-A-Sketch.

[In researching this week, I also found an online Etch-A-Sketch that you can play with yourself (I don’t mean, “play with yourself,” I mean play with an online Etch-A-Sketch) at www.etchy.org ]

STRETCH ARMSTRONG— Around the time I failed Etch-A-Sketch 101, there was another toy on the market that was all the rage in the trailer park, Stretch Armstrong.

[Click on the thumbnail in the upper right hand corner of this page to see the original commercial. It starts off with a commercial for some electric company then leads into the Stretch Armstrong commercial for the last 40 seconds. Disclaimer: It’s really grainy and some of the words are inaudible, but is in fact the exact commercial I remember seeing as a kid that had me drooling for this toy.]

Having a Stretch Armstrong doll was like owning a comic book character (like a Ken doll meets The Blob). The original Stretch Armstrong (there has since been a re-vamp of the original, I’ll explain why later) was about 14 inches tall, and bulky. I bet he weighed 5 pounds. The whole point of the doll was that you could stretch him to unfathomable lengths and his body would recoil back to his original position once you let go of him. My brother, Trevor, and I really tested the limits of this doll. You could, in fact, stretch him from corner to corner of a standard-sized room… let’s just say 12 feet or so. But, like Superman and Kryptonite, Stretch Armstrong also had a downfall that would be the death of him- COLD. I discovered the undoing of Stretch Armstrong completely by accident. For those of you who don’t know the joys of living in a mobile home, the older ones are really freaking cold during winter, especially in the closets. One day, I went to get something out of my closet, and notice my Stretch Armstrong on the floor. I picked him up and discovered he was rock solid in the cold, like a brick. I tried to stretch his arms and legs, but they wouldn’t budge. So, instead of pulling on his arms, I decided to bend one, and it snapped off in my hand like a twig. I’m sure I let out the most horrified squeal, but I don’t think anybody heard me. With his cold, lifeless plastic arm stump in my palm, I noticed his insides were nothing more than a thick, red sludge that at some point had to have been a liquid. Since he was more or less frozen, I left him out in my room to thaw. When I returned several hours later to investigate, I was surprised that the red sludge was flowing like lava from his arm socket onto my desk. On further investigation, the sludge appeared to be some sort of Karo corn syrup type concoction, colored red with Red Dye #40, and tasted freakishly like raspberry [I was a boy. Of course I tasted it]. It was gummy and sweet and stuck to my teeth like cinnamon bears on asphalt. I didn’t eat much, because even then, I was sure it must have been carcinogenic.

And that was the end of Stretch Armstrong. His lifeless, rubber body, complete with amputated Karo syrup arm stump was the next of my toys to hit the garbage after the Joystick style Etch-A-Sketch.

[Coincidentally, it was years later that I discovered they had come out with a new version of the original. I just thought he got recalled and went to toy heaven. The new and improved Stretch Armstrong is much smaller and has much more distinct features—like a facial expression and fingers. Come to think of it, he looks a bit like a professional wrestler, only plastic. Personally, I think the original was much better. If he hadn’t been so easily dismembered, I would probably still have him.]

GREEN MACHINE— The Green Machine was the next step in the evolutionary process of the Big Wheel. What made the Green Machine special was the upgrade in design from its predecessor. The Big Wheel is an important part of any kid’s childhood. It was the first symbol of freedom, a mode of transportation other than walking or running. It turned front yards into things of the past and expanded a child’s universe beyond the sidewalk in front of the house. The Green Machine was like the bad-boy stepbrother to the Big Wheel. It had a larger front wheel, so it could go faster. It had an adjustable seat/rear-axle wheel combo so it could grow with its owner. It had a recumbent seat, so it was more comfortable. But perhaps best feature of all was that it had dual brake levers… one that stopped the right rear tire and one that stopped the left… or if you pulled them at the same time, stopped both. What this meant was (for those of you that sucked at physics) was that you could do SPINOUTS at HIGH SPEED!

My brother and I fought so much over our Green Machine that our parents had to buy us two of them.

We would literally spend all day cruising up and down the block in the middle of the street on our Green Machines. We had contests to see who could do the biggest or the most spinouts (left AND right). We had contests to see who could make the longest skid marks. We had contests to see who could go around the block the fastest. We were even fairly adept at jumping off curbs and homemade jumps. The Green Machine was easily the most captivating and entertaining toy I ever had. If we had ridden them any harder, we were going to need a replacement set of tires, a pit crew, and corporate sponsors just to get through summer.

Like all good things, though, the legacy of The Green Machine had to come to an end at the Freeman house. After about a week, somebody stole both of our Green Machines out of the front yard (no doubt during the middle of a much needed pit stop). We never saw them again. I think they were expensive in 1970s dollars, so we never got replacements either, at least not until we were ready for bicycles.

SIMON—This was my first electronic brain toy. Distinctively shaped like a flying saucer no doubt inspired by the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” was an electronic memory game. There were four colored buttons (red, yellow, green and blue) that would light up and beep in varying sequences. The point was to remember the sequences and press the buttons accordingly.

There is nothing socially significant about this game except for that I mastered it quickly and could beat anybody I challenged at it, therefore, I liked it. There were other knock-off type games like Merlin and electronic football, but none of those held my interest like Simon. I think I kept it until I was in college. I’d probably still have it if one of the buttons hadn’t started to stick. It was tough to get the sequences right with malfunctioning parts. Some might have considered this an additional challenge of the game. I saw it as a reason to pitch it in the garbage. [Picture of original Simon below]

ATARI (5600)— I never owned the original video game PONG. Even then, I knew PONG was overly simple and soon to be obsolete despite being all the rage. However, when the original Atari video game came out, I moved heaven and earth to get one.

I sold a bicycle to get this (more or less) original home video game system. I had gotten a bicycle for my birthday. It was a Huffy, so I though I was hot stuff. My mom bought it for me from a local store in Carson City called Sprouse Reitz (spelling from memory—this store later became a Long’s Drugs). I knew the bike cost my mom $79.99 because I remember seeing the price tag. I sold it to some kid in the neighborhood that summer for $100. I don’t know how that kid came across a hundred dollar bill, and I never asked. Anyway, I told my parents about it, gave them the C-note (which was the first one I had ever seen), and told them I wanted to put it toward an Atari game system. I told them I would spend the rest of the summer selling lemonade or body parts to come up with the rest of the money.

I remember (NEW) the cost of the unit was $179.99. Within a matter of a few days, our parents gave us the Atari as a present for “being so good.” I guess they had forgotten about the windows we had broken, pet frogs and lizards we had starved, and stuffed toys we had set on fire… and I wasn’t about to remind them.

Now I can’t even remember the name of most of the games we had. I know the one included with the game set allowed two opposing players to shoot at each other with boxy airplanes and square bullets. Eventually we had an entire collection of games from bowling to imitation’s of commercially available games i.e. Pac Man, Asteroids and the one that started it all, Space Invaders.

This definitely falls into the category of “If I had known then what I know now,” but if I had realized video games were going to remain so popular, I’d probably still be a gamer today. I’d be one of those 40-year old losers who became a multi-millionaire when Nintendo, Game Cube, Play Station and X Box took off along with the Internet. I would have made a killing during the Dot-Com boom in the 1990s probably only to lose it all and become a Sales Manager at Best Buy today. Oh well, bygones.

DAISY BB GUN— Some of my fondest memories of being a kid are of spending time with my grandpa. He used to have an old BB gun that we would spend hours playing with. We would line up old aluminum beer cans along the fence and take turns shooting them down. At the end of the day, grandpa’s fence would be embedded with hundreds of shiny BBs that he would eventually pry out with his pocketknife and re-use.

When I got my first (and last) BB gun, I was 12. I think I got it the Christmas before my parents got divorced. There was nothing fancy about the BB gun that I got except that it was a “Daisy” which was supposed to mean something. It was the successor of the “Red Ryder” BB gun that became popular around the 1940s.

[BTW- Rent the movie ‘A Christmas Story.’ All that kid in the movie wanted for Christmas was a Red Ryder BB gun. His mom swore “he’d shoot his eye out” but it didn’t matter to him. It’s a pretty funny movie. You should check it out if you haven’t seen it already. It’s a classic.]

Let me just say, that when you’re 12 and unsupervised, you should not own your own BB gun.

Apparently, BB guns were popular in the neighborhood. I was not the only kid who had one. We used to occasionally team up and have BB gun wars. As far as I know, there were never any fatal injuries, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. My brother once got shot in the back at point-blank range with a BB gun that left a bruise the size of a baseball once the swelling went down. Another time, we were having a BB gun war in our yard and I literally almost shot some kid’s eye out when a BB I fired ricocheted off a dog dish and caught him straight between the eyes. His name was Christian. He was one of the tougher kids in the neighborhood, but the shot between the eyes sent him crying to his mom. When his mom called asking for mine, I pretended to be her so I wouldn’t get in trouble. I was 12. My voice hadn’t quite changed, so I got away with it. I pretended to be my mom and assured Christian’s mother that I would punish myself severely when I got home. I must have been convincing because it never came back to haunt me. I’m not even sure my mom knows the story to this day.

One thing is for sure though… it scared the shit out me and I never aimed that BB gun at another person again. To this day, I have never purchased another gun. I inherited an old .22 caliber rifle when my grandfather died, but for the most part, I am not a gun person. I certainly don’t want my son around any firearms. He will not have some of the same stories to tell when he is older that I have.

HONORABLE MENTIONS —That pretty much rounds out the Top 10 list. Here are some of the toys that didn’t quite make the cut for one reason or another:

SILLY PUTTY— I remember being highly impressed by Silly Putty’s ability to “lift” images from newspapers, but beyond that, it was pretty boring stuff. Plus, the image was always backwards.

SLIME— A slimy green boogery substance that I think all little boys found fascinating, especially when the manufacturer added worms and a Mad Scientist Laboratory spin to their advertising, but again, beyond the first five minutes, boring. Plus, it dried out and went bad.

PLAY-DOH— Now this moldable clay came in many colors and was actually lots of fun. I liked it because it allowed me to use my imagination. The drawback to it was that once you mixed any of the colors it basically turned brown and looked like poop. To this day, however, when some substance gets squeezed through something mechanical, it still makes me thing of the Fuzzy Pumper Barber Shop, which was a toy we played with in which Play Doh could be pressed to come out some plastic character’s head in the form of hair.

HIPPITY HOP— A child’s first mode of transportation. Basically, it was a giant rubber ball with a handle on it. There was even a variation where a horse head was substituted for the rubber handle. The problem was, even at 3, I realized the Hippity Hop was slower than walking.

JARTS— Jarts was actually a very cool toy. I remember playing with them every summer at my aunt and uncles house. If we weren’t in the pool, we were playing with Jarts. Essentially, Jarts were a metal-tipped lawn dart. Individuals stood at opposite ends of the yard trying to score points… 3 points for anything inside the circle (included) and one point for anything thrown within a Jart-length of the circle. It was a lot like horseshoes. I think Jarts were ultimately recalled. If you threw them high enough in the sky, they were definitely sharp enough to impale a kid’s head.

SHRINKY DINKS— If I remember correctly, these were little sheets or characters made of plastic that would shrink once you put them in the oven at 375 degrees. I remember thinking they were neat, but lost their appeal due to supply chain issues. Once you were out of the plastic figures, the game was over.

EASY BAKE OVEN— This was definitely a girl toy. I know my cousins Jennifer and Missy had one. It was amazing what kind of stuff you could cook solely with the heat from a light bulb. I remember that thing producing some very tasty cakes. Just like the Shrinky Dinks, though… once the dough was gone, there was nothing left to bake. Its popularity was short lived.

SIT-N-SPIN— A toddler’s version of the Tea Cup ride at Disneyland. You would literally “Sit” and “Spin” around in a circle. This thing really did make you dizzy, nauseous even. No points can be given to a toy that makes you sick.

LITE BRITE— I remember being quite enthralled with Lite Brite. It came with black paper that you placed over a light bulb in a box. Then you poked plastic pegs through the black paper to create a lighted image. You could create anything from a sailboat to Bozo the Clown. I remembered liking this toy a lot, but the pieces were easy to lose, and definitely a choking hazard.

And… just a tribute… some of the best toys we ever had were improvised. Cardboard boxes became secret hideaways. Bath towels became super hero capes. Sofa cushions became forts. Some of the best toys were actually things we came up with on our own.

My wife is crazy about wooden toys. Elliott’s collection of (great) wooden toys is already more extensive than anything I had as a kid. I think she’s secretly hoping he’ll turn out to be a rocket scientist or a doctor. With all the building blocks and Legos he has already accumulated, though, I wouldn’t be surprised or disappointed if he wants to be an architect when he grows up.

[I tried to include pictures of all these great toys, but the internet and or Blogger didn't cooperate or I just got bored trying to figure it out and gave up. I am also really curious to hear what your favorite toys were when you were a kid… especially girl toys. I remember being vaguely cognizant of Barbie dolls and Strawberry Shortcake etc., but really, I knew nothing of what girls liked or were interested in. Girls did have cooties after all.]