TOYS!

the other day, some co-workers and i got into a lengthy conversation about all of the crazy toys we had when we were little. of course, i decided that i must blog about it. in part because all of my childhood toy memories are very much connected to sara the blogger and i just know that she will remind me of even more toys that i have forgotten about.

first off, raise your hand if you had a SitNSpin. now raise your hand if you have found one of these vomit-makers as an adult and thought it a good idea to try it out for old time's sake. i actually didn't have to own one of these things, i think sara had one. and i know that our neighbor jason had one, because on the days that all of our moms went to weight watchers and it was jason's mom's day to have all the children at her house, sara and i spun to our hearts' content. jason's sitnspin was blue. as a child i was really good at sitnspin. i was little and strong, so i could crank on that friggin thing until i was just a blue blur with a blond mushroom top hairdo. why didn't we ever throw up? i don't know if i can even watch other people do it now without some abdominal discomfort. but i am certain that given the opportunity, i will try it again some day.

now let's talk about the speak'n'spell. (did the word "and" not fit on packaging in the early 80's? so many of our toys are truly a grammatical nightmare.) my friends kristy n' heather (sisters) had ALL of the speak'n's... speak'n'read, speak'n'math, whatever they were called. some unfortunate souls had to go to the public library to enjoy the educational gems with the monotone speech capacity. but i had all the speak'n any child could ever ask for! "now spell: house." now spell: freakin' annoying! no wonder i never remember any parents around us while we played. i would lose my damn mind if that voice droned on throughout my day. the grown-ups who worked at the library were well aware of this issue...they made us use headphones. now spell: brilliant!

i have time for one more memory before i must go to work. how about the "chinese jumprope". am i the only child who actually imagined little girls in China playing with this thing every day? cause i did. but i think that was at the time that sara and randy and robby and i were in the habit of trying to dig to china as well. something i am sure our brothers put us up to. those bastards could convince us of anything. anyway, every morning in randy's driveway (that's where the bus stop was) my friends and i would hop around this over-priced elasticized string. this was another of those toys that one could be really GOOD AT! i was pretty springy then and i was incredibly devoted to success. there are times i remember going to school with a "fat lip" (as we called it then) or bleeding tooth because that was just part of the sacrifice if you wanted to win. that damn rope would be stretched around sara and kristy's flippin thighs and i was supposed to jump into the center of it without touching it. sometimes, i kicked myself in the mouth. whuddyagunnado? again, of course, i would love to get my hands on one of these things again. i just know i could still be good at it! well, now i have to go to work, but i will return asap to discuss little ponies'n'giganto barbie heads'n'spirograph'n'stufflikethat.