for mom :)

Here are some family photo pages scanned in by my cousin Cathy... Click on each pic to see a larger version.

Now, for something a little different...

I'm feeling a little nostalgia for the 1970s, so I thought I'd hit the internet and see if I could find pics of some of the toys I remembered from my childhood...


This is about as far back as I can remember for toddler toys. I think the base on my toy was white plastic, which is amazing since many of the early 70s toys were still dangerous by today's standards (sharp metal edges, small pieces, etc.)

A few toys were a little scary. I had a jack-in-the-box. Unfortunately I couldn't find an exact pic of the one I had, which was very creepy. This example is quite benign in comparison...

I had a dummy with which to practice the art of ventriloquism. The thing scared the heck out of me. I had to turn it away when I wasn't playing with it so it wasn't "watching me"...lol 

Star Wars action figures (1977) - I used to like creating my own storylines that had nothing to do with the movie... 

An early favorite was Lite-Brite... 

I later wore out an Etch-a-Sketch unit (and afterwards took it apart to see how it really worked, of course) 

My 8th birthday party in 1979 was one to remember, for my mother presented me with Pong (similar to this unit - I think we may have had the Sears version) 

This is an actual screenshot of Pong in action. We were very excited at the time to play such a game! As I recall, the game was so popular at my birthday party that I didn't even get a turn at it. 

Around 1976 I was the lucky recipient of this amazing McDonaldland train set. I must have been really good to have gotten this! My set was more complete than what is pictured here and included Barbie-doll sized figures of ALL the McDonalds characters, including Grimace, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese, etc. I'm sorry to report that the Ronald McDonald figure later disappeared and was found hanging by the neck from a car's rearview mirror...

At around age 3 or 4, I was interested in the neighbors' set of Weebles. Never had any of my own that I can recall... 

Amongst my favorite toys in the 1970s were the Fisher Price Adventure People series. Apparently some of these are becoming pretty collectible...

This was the first Adventure People set I received, the Air-Sea Rescue Copter, which was produced from 1975 on... I can still remember being VERY EXCITED when I opened this wrapped gift...

I still have the jeep from the Northwoods Trail Blazer set (1977+)... 

One of my favorite sets, the Dare Devil Sport Van (1978)! 

And the TV Action Team (likely for recording the adventures of the other folks). This came out in 1977. The most disturbing thing is that, I cannot recall what I had for dinner yesterday, but 28 years later I do recall the name of the black anchorwoman in this set (Carol). The mind is a funny thing, it is.

More to come... Carol says, "Stay tuned!"

Chris, my father, and me with his new MGB, ca. 1977