9/18/04

Memory Lane

~ There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you. ~ Maya Angelou

I spent most Friday updating "our" website, and so I guess that means that Saturday will once again be cleaning day. Thanks for all the humorous and constructive feedback. My family, namely Jennifer, wants me to attach a disclaimer to the site. I guess she doesn't appreciate that I call it "our" website, but everything is from "my" viewpoint. Put on your big girl panties and deal with it!

At the risk of sounding completely insane, the rest of Friday was typical at best. Looking back, I do feel that it offered a reprise from the ordinary events that model most of our average weekend nights.
I don't know exactly what triggered it, but Mark and I started down memory lane on childhood toys. After a few GI Joe, Remco's Battlewagon, and a life-size Johnny Reb Cannon discussion, the conversation abruptly took a turn for the worse and before you could say, "Barbie and Ken will never get a divorce" we were in a heated argument over board games.

Thank God for the ca-trillion pieces of useless information on the Internet. After a few eBay close calls, we soon discovered that I was correct in my thinking that Ideal's Crazy Clock game, circa 1964 WAS absolutely a copy of Milton Bradley's Mousetrap game, circa 1963, not vice versa. But losing that battle did not discourage Mark in the least. He was soon nodding in approval when he discovered that Battlewagon was almost a yardstick in length, and the main gun turret rotated 360 degrees and the red "safety-tipped" torpedoes had a range of 5-6 feet. But nothing compared to the joy in his eyes when he found actual pictures of the life size Johnny Reb Cannon. His whole demeanor changed.

Unfortunately, for Mark, because of it's life-size cannons that beat the range of the Battlewagons' torpedoes by a good 30 feet, this toy usually ended up confiscated.

After, what seemed to be an entire evening spent on the vintage toy highway; I have come to some major conclusions:
1) Mark's mom deserves sainthood and somehow I believe she and Jeff (his cohort brother) saw all from their heavenly perspective
2) It's amazing those boys did not put each other's eyes out.
3) A few clicks of the keys on a computer can give a 51 year old such joy and fascination from an otherwise disgruntled childhood
So yeah, top that for a Friday night party of 2.
And once again, in my opinion:
a) Survivor looks like a good time
b) We'll tolerate Miss America even without the talent competition
c) Go in peace, Barbara Walters

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