[hijack]The Six Million Dollar Man’s boss was Oscar Goldman. He was played by Richard Anderson, aka Dick Anderson. Not Richard DEAN Anderson.[/hijack]
No, that’s not it. The game I’m thinking of had a plastic sheet from which the plastic spoons (two spoons, one green and one blue, each about the size of a tablespoon) were flipped.
Ah thank you. I read that and thought, “MacGyver? MacGyver was on The Six Million Dollar Man?”
When I was younger, Christmas was a two day affair. On Xmas Eve we would have my grandparents, aunt/uncle/cousins to our house for dinner. There would be anywhere from 10-15 people around our monstrous table in the basement. My grandpa always brought their presents in a wicker laundry basket (which I have and use for the same purpose now - sentimental me). After dinner we were allowed to open our presents, then clean up and go to candlelight service at church. I remember bundling up in my white rabbit fur coat with red trim, red hand muffs, and red hat complete with white rabbit pompom. ~shudder~ I had that coat for at least three years.
Anyways, Christmas Day would dawn and I would wake the house up early. After opening Santa presents and having breakfast, we’d bundle up and go over to my grandparents’ house (the same ones that were over Xmas Eve). Wow! More presents under their tree!! We’d eat dinner in their basement, again with aunt/uncle/cousins and other relatives. After clean up we’d open the rest of the bounty. Later would be a light dinner of leftovers. I still have their Christmas LP’s, played on the console stereo - a mix of “Santa Baby”, “All I Want for Christmas”, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” and lots of Lawrence Welk and Perry Como.
It was, by far, my favorite holiday. Primarily because of my grandma and grandpa. I was such a “Grampa’s Girl” - always trailed him around, spent any available time with him.
(Geez, I can remember the smells of Grandma’s cooking, twirling around in their white vinyl papasan type chair, waiting to be able to open presents, the pink and green plastic lighted bells strung across the basement… memories)
When I was 6 (1975) we spent Christmas in San Jose, CA with relatives. It was not right, not having snow at Christmas. My cousin received a Big Wheel for Xmas and I was jealous. We got into a fight and I bit her. Hard. I am still reminded of that by my family. Alas, I never had a Big Wheel to call my own. On Xmas Day we went to my aunt’s father’s house and I had my first Shirley Temple. Boy was I special!!
Anyways.
Receiving the LeBells (sp?) catalogue in November, dogearing and circling everything we wanted. You could instantly flip to the toy section because itlooked like a paper destruction zone amidst the rest of the clean crisp pages.
Going to the bank to withdraw your Christmas Club money. Ooh! $10.00!!
Horrible polyester Christmas dresses, invariably with a starchy collar.
The almost mysticism of midnight church services where every pew was packed and everything seemed golden due to candlelight.
The faux tree in the basement, next to the faux fireplace. The fireplace was cardboard. When I was 8 (1977) the upgraded to a plastic one with “real” dancing flames courtesy of a platic log with a lightbulb inside.
One year receiving Donny and Marie dolls and another receiving all of the Charlie’s Angels dolls, complete with Angel’s Treehouse. (I still have the dolls, but the treehouse fell apart)
Holly Hobby, which I disliked. Still do.
I never received the Evel Kenieval doll, BUT I did receive his daughter, Dery (sp?) Kenieval doll complete with motorcycle and ramp launch that you cranked until she would go flying off… and crash into the wall.
The Barbie head with Magic Growing Hair (which was just a feeble ponytail)
Grandpa always gave me a Life Savers book - Butterscotch.
I remember attempting to sneakily open presents early - until one year my mom wrapped rollerskates in a manner that precluded my sneakiness. I ended up receiving them a full 5 months later for my birthday - still wrapped in Xmas paper.
delphice - we also had 10 bubble lights that were treated as if they were gold. There had been a full dozen, but that was before they were treated like gold.
My memories of toys were
Big Jim’s Sports camper it was the same as Babie’s sport’s camper except they used the manly brown coloured plastic instead of pink… man again with the colour Brown and the 70’s.
The Six million Dollar man, Maskatron, Bionic Bigfoot.
Not all of these were mine but I “borrowed” my brother’s toys all the time.
Spirograph
Start Trek dolls… er action figures
The Phaser which fired litle disks… Apparently these were banned we assumed because they killed kids.
GI joe… not puny little GI Joe of the 80s… but flocked hair, eagle eyed kungfu grip GI JOE and his buddies. I begged and begged for it for months.
Santa delivered and once I opened it I was so scared of the damned thing I couldn’t even take him out of the package or look at him.
My favorite memory though is the table top hockey games that we got (every couple of years). My father and Uncle Rex would put it together and play it for most of the day. The closest I got to the thing was when I fethched a stubbie bottled beer for them.
You’d think it would suck but it was one of the few times I remember seeing my Dad act like a kid in a positive way.
I had a couple toys from the late sixties that know body else has seen.
I got a Baba Louie lamp from Wards about 1966 for a new house’s bedroom. It had a Quick Draw McGraw partner, but they made me chose one or none.
I had a stuffed lion with a pull string voice box before 1968. It was called Leo The Lion.
I had an astronaut action figure that came with a flight pack. It had went across the room on a string that you pulled out and attached whatever you like for an anchor point. You let go and he flew across the room or up to the ceiling.
Anybody that had one of any of these, please let me know, and the name of the astronaut figure would be nice too.
Was Leo the Lion plush? Kind of a dull mustardy color? Pullcord in the middle of his back?
My sister had a lion that roared when you pulled the string in his back described as above.
Air hockey was cool.
How about that hand held football game? I still have that sound in my head–no modern Gameboy compares to that touchdown sound.
I remember tinsel on all the trees–and the reflectors on those big Charlie Brown lights.
Seeing the Christmas specials-which WERE special because they were only on once and EVERYBODY watched. I remember watching Grinch with my friends every year.
Rabbit fur muffs and scarves (actually they were narrow stoles, I think).
There was a miniature doll that came in a watch–a pre-Polly pocket type thing. I had one of those.
Sorry! came out and was played by all (what a horrible game) and the Sole Survivor–that marble game.
Upthread re the spoons etc–are you thinking of Tiddleywinks?
One year, my older sister got a suede fringed vest–wow! I so wanted one…
(heavy sigh)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
I love Christmas. This year I bought some of the ‘new’ old style bulbs and put them up on the outside of my apartment. They are the same as the strand my dad would put up every year.
I’m the youngest of six. Almost all of our gifts were defacto, family gifts. You shared with everyone. They may have referred to it as my Toss Across game, but I didn’t really control it. Number 5, my brother and a real jerk, always campaigned for a Christmas gift with the tenacity of Bart Simpson. The biggest one I remember was a BB gun. A Daisy, not a Red Rider. Of course I got shot in the ass several times with that.
One of the best gifts I remember and most traumatic memories, was a slot car racing set. That was sweet. It didn’t loop or anything like that, those weren’t made yet, but it did have a raised section that went over the lower part and the cars had headlights. I was racing with one of my older brothers when number 5 gets up on his bed, the top bunk, and announced that he was taking a nap. A few minutes later he ‘woke up’ and jumped down on the raised section of track and then claimed that he forgot it was there. What a bastard!
I did get one year one of those Kodak cameras that used the 110 film. Those rectangular box looking things.
Another year I campaigned for a toy and I actually got it. When I unwrapped it, I hugged the box and exclaimed quietly “I did it!”. The toy? A Monday Night Football game. I think I really wanted it because Larry Czonka was one of the guys that pitched it. Each player had these sliders that you moved back and forth when you chose your play and then you hit a button and a light came on and lite up a square on the field that showed the results. It was great and it was unbreakable. My brother ‘accidentally’ jumped on it, kicked it, and threw it across the room and never hurt it.
Geez, setting bear traps for people, giving pictures of dead soldiers to kids as a Christmas gift? Your family was weirder than the Addams Family!
It was about 2 feet tall, and he sat like a lion would on it’s butt with the front supported by the front legs. It was in yellow and brown materials. I think the pull string was in it’s chest area in the front. His lower jaw moved when it talked or roared and it randomly did both. I linked it with television in my young mind, maybe a cartoon or the MGM studio’s lion, who knows. It likely wasn’t related with television at all.
No, that’s not it. The only Tiddlywinks I’m familiar with are those little disks that get flipped with bigger disks.
Yes it was a plush toy. I took it to the hospital for two weeks and almost lost it. I got home, and it hadn’t come with me. The nurse back in Madison found it about fifteen minutes after my mother called them.
My parents bought me a Mister Potato Head when there. All the ads on TV were ones with a plastic body. The one they bought came with no body and the parts had spikes so you could poke them into a real potato. The nurses couldn’t find a potato in the kitchen, but they had an onion, and a bannana.
I’m laughing at home this minute. It went down like slap stick comedy.
I can remember her words “We didn’t have a potato, so I brought you an onion and a bannana.”
Me “I need a potato.”
Nurse “All we have is an onion and a bannana, honey.”
Me “I need a potato.”
Nurse in a my patience is wearing thin voice “Well. All we have is an onion and a bannana. Which do you want?”
Me "Onion.
I put together my Mr. Onion Head and tried a few different faces, but after ten minutes I couldn’t see out my eyes for the tears. It never came out to play in the hospital again.
There were only two playing pieces, plastic spoons about the size of a real tablespoon. There was a long, narrow plastic sheet that served as the game board, the bucket/bowl (which also served as the game’s container) sat in the middle of the sheet. Players took a spoon and went to opposite ends of the sheet. There was a path marked on the sheet that had something to do with moving the spoons closer to the bowl but I don’t remember the rules. Also on the sheet were rectangles, separate from the path; these marked the locations from where the spoons were flipped. Players would smack their hand down on the lip of their spoon in an attempt to get it to land in the bucket/bowl. The further the rectangle, the better.
I think that’s just called er, spoons.
Of course it’s not Tiddleywinks! :smack:
HO trains, anyone? My brother had a sweet setup in the basement, complete with Pullman cars that lit up as they went down the track. Wow.
And there was that tulip thing (that’s what we called it)–it was a red plastic bell attached to a yellow ring by a green bit of plastic string. You put the ring on your ankle and skipped.
I lusted after one of those with all my heart. But no! I got the Wizard of Oz instead…<sigh>
Chinese jumpropes, knockers, and talking Barbie. Ah well.
That’s the funniest freaking thing I’ve read all day!
My favorite Christmas memories:
[ul]
[li]Picture of me looking very serious and stern in my pyjamas, cowboy hat, and gun belt complete with silver six-shooter that I had to hold up 'cause it was too big.[/li][li]Waiting for Dad to get home from work on Christmas Eve.[/li][li]Mom’s Chex mix … mmmmmmmm![/li][/ul]
My favorite Christmas gifts:
[ul]
[li]Etch-a-Sketch[/li][li]Silly Putty (stocking stuffer)[/li][li]Model cars and planes[/li][li]Hot Wheels[/li][li]Toy guns[/li][li]McDonald’s book of 50-cent gift certificates[/li][li]Crayons – the big box with the gold and silver crayons and the sharpener on the back[/li][/ul]
I still have my gun somewhere, also some of the discs I believe.
My youngest brother had the kung fu grip GI Joe that talked. At least until the POW camp. Joe didn’t have too much to say after that.
I remember getting my first camera. It was a Polaroid with pictures that developed in a few minutes. I remember peeling the sheet (full of TOXIC CHEMICALS) off the print and the smell of it.
My nifty PVC jacket that I got for Christmas 1975. I thought it was so cool, it looked just like leather… if you had bad eyesight and lost your glasses. I wore it all the time anyway.
Oh, almost forgot. Violet smelled the best. Lily of the Valley was too strong. 
I beleive it wasLarry the Lion. The photo is of a rather battered tattered one. That , like this whole thread, brings back such vivid memories. I reaaaallllllllyyyy wanted Larry the Lion badly, and Santa came through on my fourth Xmas. Have a fine family photo of tiny me in Christmas foofy dress, on all fours opposite Larry, growling at him.
The astronaut figure, perhaps Major Matt Mason ? My brother had one, but, like the large sized GI Joes, not many survived the abuses of being a boy’s doll; to wit; Thrown off the roof, makeshift parachute, with attached firecrackers (GI Joe’s hands perfectly held firecrackers); buried in mud with upstretched hands holdind firecrackers; burned at the stake and experiencing the nefarious “Your plastic nose is no match for fire and tweezers, Joe” torture. Major Matt was prone to firecrackers on his backpack. Not that my brother was particularly twisted, it seemed to be pretty widespread.
I got a plastic six shooter, that had reak chambers, and plastic bullets. The plastic bullets were in two pieces. The casing had a spring mechanism, and the slug cliped into the casing. You loaded the chambers, and the gun shot out the bullet slug from the spring pressure, when you pulled the trigger. Parents think the guns have gotten more realistic over the years, they don’t know how wrong they are on that one. The casing and slugs were the right color plastic. Think if they added a cap gun feature so a cap went off when the slug came out. That would have been the ultimate imatation pistol.
I think his boss was named Oscar Goldman. And there was a robot that had different hands and faces.