The Humour Club discussion

Was there a favorite candy, TV show, toy or activity that you used to be WILD about...but not so much anymore?

At one time, I couldn't get enough of Chef Boyardee Ravioli and Caramel Creams - http://www.goetzecandy.com/caramel-cr....
Now, the thought of either one makes my stomach lurch.

I couldn't wait for the kids to get old enough to watch the old Scooby Doo cartoons so that I could see them again...and then I couldn't figure what I ever saw in that show. The same with Johnny Quest.

The only cartoon show I watched as a kid that still holds up is Looney Tunes.

I somehow don't think I'd see Gilligan's Island or the Six Million Dollar Man the same way anymore.

In fact, TV in general hasn't held up well for me. I hardly ever watch anything nowdays.

I loved a programme called Knightmare (don't know if you ever got it over there) and I caught a re-run of it the other day and my god was it cringe-worthy...I still sat and watched it though...

You mean this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bwK5H...

My kids would have loved it!

That's the one Melki!! I think it was the not so convincing graphics/computerisations that caused the cringing :-D

I kinda like the host. The kids are shite, though.

Yea some of them were shockingly bad when they went on, I remember one episode where the kids who were meant to be guiding their friends kept nodding and gesturing rather than speaking which was not helpful but sooo funny to watch!

The works of Thomas Wolfe.

You must have had quite a unique childhood, Randy.

Quite early in our relationship, my husband and I discovered something we had in common - our fathers were inexplicably BOTH huge fans of Hee Haw. We're talking two learned men here, a chemical engineer and a language professor, who went totally gaga over a show about hillbillies telling corny jokes while popping up and down in a corn field. Did it help that half of the female cast had posed for Playboy? Probably.

My husband still occasionally puts this show on when he wants me to leave the room.

Not as good as I remember. Too sweet nowadays.

I don't think I've ever had it. My kids used to get it, eat the candy sticks, and throw the powder away.

I remember kids in school snorting it up their nose, playing 'drug addict' or something...actually looking back at the things other kids did boggles the adult mind.

It's amazing any of us survive to adulthood.

SANDBOXES

Did anyone else have one? Mine was a big disappointment. My dad refused to spend money on expensive "play" sand, so I had rough, gravelly construction grade sand that refused to glue together and make a sand castle. It was basically only good for driving cars around in and digging holes.
Then there were the big spiders. If one of the Deitch boys from across the street wasn't available to kill them, I just went inside and moped.

At one place we lived when I was small, my parents had someone dump a whole truckload of sand in a pile in the back hard (NB: it was the brand new manse. I wonder what the congregation thought about that?). We were the favorite play space in the neighborhood!

Cheetos

When I was a kid I thought they were the bomb. Now they just taste like bad overnight breath to me.

I was about 10 when I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I thought I was hot stuff because I read it for a school book report. All the other kids were reading Beverly Cleary, but I was reading this super-cool, "adult" title. Looking back, I'm pretty sure I would have been better off with ANY Cleary book...

I had a sandbox when I was little. It turned into the neighborhood litterbox for all the local cats. I can recall, with disgust now, digging around and finding cat 'gifts'. I didn't mind at the time, but, now...ew!
In addition, I had friends who used to urinate in their sandbox to make mud.
That is why I won't let my kids have a sandbox.

Trapdoor - the claymation programme. The tone and Willie Rushton's narration still works, but the episodes are just far too short at about 3-5 minutes each.

Parents?

Joel wrote: "Parents?"

Sadly, mine would go under the Things That Aren't There Anymore topic.

Slambooks and little diaries with things in 6th grade like "I love Ned" and then the next day "I hate Ned."

I might add: two filled donuts, a milkshake, and a can of chili with cottage cheese as an after-school snack. :O

Mary! I totally forgot about slambooks! Wow, you brought back insane memories. And at first I thought it was shame that kids (girls) today don't "do" slambooks. But then I realized that's really what Instagram, Facebook, etc. is.

What the heck is a "Slambook"?

A slambook as I remember was a spiral notebook with topics at the top of each page such as "I love" "I hate" "Favorite food"
"Favorite Band" and then you and others would list on the page your comments.

Mary wrote: "A slambook as I remember was a spiral notebook with topics at the top of each page such as "I love" "I hate" "Favorite food"
"Favorite Band" and then you and others would list on the page your comm..."

I remember them! I still have the one I made senior year. The respondents were equally divided on the Fleetwood Mac issue.

And were the little folded paper fortune-teller things called "Cootie Catchers"? I could never figure out how to make one.

Cootie Catchers indeed. I used to know how to make them, but find I have forgotten many such life skills.

Yes, cootie catchers. Thanks for reminding me of that. I became hooked on the Beatles in High school and got to see them at Red Rocks in Colorado in l964. In my memoir You Fall Off, You Get Back On, there's a chapter about screaming at the Beatles concert which I had never, never, never expected myself to do!

Girls still make cootie catchers. At least until they are about 11-years old. I think I might try to get my kid interested in starting a slam book round.

Mary wrote: "I became hooked on the Beatles in High school and got to see them at Red Rocks in Colorado in l964.. .chapter about screaming at the Beatles concert which I had never, never, never expected myself to do"

This is one of the many things I have never understood about the female of the species. I do have first-hand experience though. My sister is about 12 years younger than I am, and in 1975, when she was 11 or 12, I was foolish enough to take her to a Osmond Brothers concert . I don't think I, or anyone else at the concert, heard a single note because of all the screeching, squealing, screaming and caterwauling. At least teenage boys have the good manners to just to drool and stare when they see someone who awakens their nascent. . .ah. . .musical interests.

Pseudo--I don't understand screaming, either. Fortunately for me, I have never experienced a concert of that ilk.

Lisa, great about starting the slambook tradition with your kids! It helps them to know their friends better.

Rebecca, Have you been to concerts? If so, which ones affected you positively? I'm curious about your feeling fortunate you didn't see the Beatles.

Mary, I have not been to concerts, aside from classical and some very small folk performances. I have issues with crowds and loud noises, so although I love the Beatles and would actually have loved to see them live even if it hurt, I don't really regret not going to any.

I'd never seen the Beatles live performance, but I was at the first local showing of Hard Days Night and I was screaming along with about 200 screaming girls. However I was screaming at the girls who were screaming at The Beatles. First time I ever really thought I was in hell.

I was in hell many Friday's in high school, when they would have pep rallies to send the team off to their games. An echoing gym full of screaming high schoolers made me feel nearly suicidal.

I stay away from any potential screaming situations now.

Rebecca wrote: "I was in hell many Friday's in high school, when they would have pep rallies to send the team off to their games. An echoing gym full of screaming high schoolers made me feel nearly suicidal."
And now you work in a library...

I do, Joel. And when the noise level starts to rise, I push my reading glasses down my nose and go glare at people :D

Rebecca wrote: "I was in hell many Friday's in high school, when they would have pep rallies to send the team off to their games. An echoing gym full of screaming high schoolers made me feel nearly suicidal."

Pep rallies are loud ,yes, but those young ladies' first glimpse of the Fab Four, was a wee-bit more emotionally charged than anything I had ever experienced in my short life. Borderline hysteria. It was like they were in the presence of Gods. And the Beatles were just b&w images shaking their hairdo's on a 50'x50' screen. You were lucky to hear maybe the first strains of the song. The speaker volume which must've been turned all the way up to 10 by the projectionist ,was no match against the sirens. After catching their breathes and recharging they would slowly rise up and commence reaching out or crying. I was about the music, but I spent more time watching the crowd than the Beatles. All it took was Paul or John shaking those locks with a smile, singing "Please, please, me!" or something personal and it went ballistic. No I mean BALLISTIC! Like standing next to a 747 jet engine loud.

But, then I went to see Jimi Hendrix and many others and that was loud. But at least I heard the music.

Woody Woodpecker! I used to laugh out loud and now I'm like "Gee, I was so stoopid"

Woody Woodpecker is a good choice, and while cartoon animations are being considered, I'd like to add The Flintstones and Jetsons as two shows I could not stand to watch now. At any price.