RetroGalaxy

I enjoyed reading through the 1st issue of Forever Retro (published by Playing With Words) a magazine celebrating the fun & games & entertainment of the 70s and 80s. This magazine has something for everyone: stories about movies, television, fashion, music etc.

Ghostbusters, Kids Incorporated, video arcades, Smurfs, laser discs…

I especially liked the well written article on Bob & Doug McKenzie, and got a big kick out of the articles on Monster Vitamins and Pop Rocks candy and Pop Shoppe soda as they brought back a lot of memories.

Want to learn more about the city’s major role in old-time radio while listening to Chicago-based programs like Fibber McGee & Molly, The WLS National Barn Dance, Vic and Sade, and Lights Out?

The Newberry Library’s Adult Education Seminar program is offering an eight-week course on Chicago’s Golden Age of Radio, Saturdays from 10 to 11:30 AM, starting March 1st.

To learn more or sign up, call the Newberry Library at 312-255-3700 or visit www.newberry.org. Call today—spaces are limited!

Ann Rogers Tuennerman, Founder of Tales of the Cocktail, invites all vintage bar ware enthusiasts to the first International Symposium of Cocktail Shaker Collectors. All bar ware collectors, from beginner to advanced, including swizzle stick collectors, are invited to meet others and exchange information and knowledge in this first International Symposium held in conjunction with Tales of the Cocktail July 16 to July 20, 2008 HOTEL MONTELEONE, NEW ORLEANS LA

Moderator Stephen Visakay, cocktail shaker scholar and author of Vintage Bar Ware (Collector Books) will cover the history of the cocktail shaker from the 1800’s to the rise of cocktail culture today, how to still find vintage bar ware at bargain prices, the care and cleaning of vintage bar ware, swizzle sticks and collecting obsessions; why we collect.
There will be a free drawing for five hundred dollars worth of vintage bar ware.

Contact:
www.talesofthecocktail.com

*Symposium originally referred to a drinking party taking the form of a series of speeches, both satirical and serious dating back to Plato in 385 B.C. The Greek verb sympotein means “to drink together” and we will be doing that as well as shaking drinks! Please bring your favorite cocktail shaker, vintage bar ware items and swizzle sticks for display and discussion.

You know how some things just fall into your lap? (No, I’m not talking about potato chip crumbs) While sitting on my front porch a gust of wind blew some sort of paper flyer against the side of my leg. An advertisement of some sort, but I didn’t pay much attention to it except for this part on the back of it. Some person’s memories. It fits with the theme of this site so I’m sharing:

Close your eyes…And go back…..Before the Internet or PC or the MAC……Before Playstation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari…….Before cell phones, CD’s, DVD’s, voicemail and email…. ….way back……I’m talking ’bout hide and seek at dusk, Red light, Green light, playing kickball & dodgeball until the first…no second…no third streetlight came on, Ring around the Rosie, London Bridge, Hot potato, Hop Scotch, Jump rope, Duck….Duck….GOOSE!!! YOU’RE IT!! Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home. Endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open…The sound of crickets. Running through the sprinkler, cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom, ice pops with 2 sticks you could break and share with a friend. …

but wait…..there’s more…. Watching Saturday Morning cartoons-Fat Albert, Road Runner, Tom & Jerry, Watching Sunday morning oldies (Abbott & Costello, Three Stooges, Tarzan, Shirley Temple) Wonder Woman & Super Man Underoos, catching lightning bugs in a jar, climbing trees, swinging as high as you could to try and reach the sky, a million mosquito bites and sticky fingers. A 13″ black and white TV in your room meant you were RICH! Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt, being tired from PLAYING. WORK: meant taking out the garbage or doing the dishes Your first crush, your first kiss (the one that you kept your mouth CLOSED and your eyes OPEN).

I’m not finished yet…. Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer, so was a swig from the hose, giving your friends a ride on your handlebars, when nearly everyone’s mom was at home when the kids got there, when a quarter seemed like a fair allowance; and another quarter was a MIRACLE! When ANY parent could discipline ANY kid, or feed him, or use him to carry groceries…And nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. When being sent to the principal’s office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you at home. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! And some of us are still afraid of them!

Nobody was prettier than Mom! Scrapes and bruises were kissed by mom or grandma and made better. It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the “big people” rides at the amusement park.

Looking through a box I found upstairs I came across this Green Hornet bendable figure. Written on back: 1966 Twentieth Century Fox Television, Inc. and the Green Hornet Inc. MFG by Lakeside Ind Inc.

Origin of the Green Hornet

Not exactly in mint condition, although I’d never sell it anyway. You might’ve noticed that he looks like he’s been “rubbed out” by a gang of hoodlums, thanks to the tiny holes around his chest and stomach. However, the real story begins with the fact that this was a very early childhood toy of mine. I had several of these figures — poseable and non-poseable — ranging from cowboys and indians, to superheroes, to knights in armor, to common thugs. I would play a sort of cops & robbers, or probably more generally “good guys vs. bad guys”.

My mother told me I’d play for hours with these figures, setting up elaborate sets and story lines. Then when I got a little older, over 6 or 7, I graduated to the Mego Superhero line which of course enhanced the total experience. By the way, I found this online Mego Museum which unleashed a flood of memories!!

Anyway, since this was my own world, my own stories, modern day characters like Green Hornet and Batman would do battle with foes from past centuries like the knights and their swords. Well, poor Green Hornet would get poked every once in awhile with one of these swords (wounded, but not fatally) and since he was made of the bendable rubber substance he ended up carrying around these wounds forever (sorta like badges of honor). The mego figures would get messed up a bit, too, but their costumes were more repairable. Batman’s chest logo would fall off every so often during an exceptionally hard-fought epic battle, but could be glued back on.

The gloves that many of those Mego figures came with (or should I say mittens) were lost within the very first hour in my possession. And no effort was ever made by me to find them. Boots were never lost, though. Batman wouldn’t look cool running around in his stocking feet! I remember using my grandmother’s old bird cage, which made an excellent device for capturing superheroes. You would’ve thought I’d use the cage for jailing the Joker or Penguin etc., but I was greatly influenced by the Batman tv show. Invariably, there would be the initial battle, then the superheroes would be caught and they would experience tense moments of suspense before finally escaping and exacting justice.

I still have some of these figures but none are in good condition. They were banged up and scratched etc. during battles and being held captive in dastardly devices. The thought just crossed my mind that to adults these toys are worth more in their original packaging, and understandably so, but to the kids back then they were worth WAY more outside the package. With me, the packaging never survived the trip home from the store!

Every winter, sometime after the holidays, when it’s too cold outside my dad will haul out the Atari 2600 console in an effort to counter “cabin fever”. While visiting one recent day I noticed the game on the coffee table. I plugged in Asteroids and away I went to a “Retro Galaxy”!!

Well, it took a little time to get the hang of it again, but I was soon blasting my way through crudely drawn space boulders, staring eye to eye with murderous martians, and stockpiling extra “lives”. A fun, quick little space blast from the past! Frogger, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, etc.

I’ve played (briefly) a couple of newer games that the younger generation are playing now, and I did enjoy the complexity and realism of the games. But while playing an Air – Sea battle of the old Atari game Combat, today, it struck me how I was still able to get into it considering the simplicity of it. Was it just nostalgia, or was my imagination kicking in, or was it my competitiveness? Or maybe all of the above.

I purchased a book recently that satisfies my fascination with “then & now” photos. It is doubly satisfying because the photos are from Buster Keaton films. Harold Lloyd, Laurel & Hardy, & Buster Keaton are my favorites from the silent era. The book I refer to is Silent Echoes by John Bengston. It’s a remarkable collection of detective work, discovering movie locations in and around Los Angeles. And it also gives us some insight of the making of some of Keaton’s classic films. It was published in 2000 so I guess that instead of “now & then” the comparison is more like “not too long ago & a longer time ago”. More recently Bengtson released a similar book based on Chaplin films called Silent Traces.

The photo on top is a scene from Keaton’s “The Navigator”. The photo below was taken by the author ca. 1999 on Divisadero looking north from Pacific to Broadway. He states that it was an easy location to find just by driving around Pacific Heights because it was at the crest of a hill.

The book is filled with a ton of these fun photo comparisons!

Continuing the vacation/highway theme I started with the Stuckey’s memories, I just found these pictures of motel signs. Why do I love these signs? Can someone explain? Could it be the pleasant childhood memories? The pleasing shapes, the creativity? All of the above?

The town in which I grew up did not have many motels so when I did see these things it usually meant we were vacationing, and that’s a good thing! Funny how I seem to remember my parents always complaining about something in these places like the air conditioning not working, or the rug was too dirty, or the bed’s too hard. But that stuff mattered little to me as I was excited about the adventure of living in a new “house” for a night — exploring the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the room. Hey, I was already in a good mood from not having any school work or chores to do!!

If anyone can point out some more sites with motel signs please list them here.

Okay, this might not be completely retro (although romance novels have been around a looong time, and so many of those book covers are admired by enthusiasts of pop culture cheese like myself) Well, I just think that these personalized romance novels are an interesting gift idea that might provide a solution for those who are always looking for something a bit different.