# Culture artifacts that ...maybe not ONLY you remember....but its getting close. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 15, 2018, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633 "2018-08-15T03:00:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/121 "2018-08-16T03:23:55Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The only other time I’ve encountered that smell was terrifying: When she was three, my daughter somehow contracted a bad kidney infection. Before I rushed her back to her mom’s, where she spent the next month bedridden, it was precisely the odor her breath had. What kind of chemical reaction in her body could possibly have produced it, I have no idea. But it instantly took me back to when I was five or six years old! Kidney failure. Diabetics can also exhale acetone if their blood sugar goes too high. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/122 "2018-08-16T03:24:49Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > There’s one thing that stands out to me as I was super, insanely jealous of this thing. My friend that had this barely remembers is and no one else I’ve talked to remembers having or seeing one. > > This would be a late '60s or early '70s toy, something a child could ride on. It had a center pylon with an electric motor, and two long-ish arms each with a spaceship-esque thing you could lie down on. Once aboard, there was some way to start it spinning, probably quite slowly despite my memory of zooming around on it. > > Ring any bells for anyone? I’ve been doing some fruitless googling and dredged up another memory of this device. The part you rode didn’t look like a spaceship. Rather, the leading end of the flat part you laid on had a plastic bubble. Say a quarter of a sphere maybe? Kind of a cross between a windshield and a dome for your head. The fact that it seemed a little like a spacesuit helmet is probably why I first described it as looking like a spaceship. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/123 "2018-08-16T03:25:40Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > _Rice-A-Roni, > the San Francisco treat! > (Clang, clang!)_ My sibs and I begged our mom to get some and make it, but she never did. When I moved out, that was one of the first things I tried, and I found out why she wouldn’t cook it. That stuff is NASTY! JMHO, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/124 "2018-08-16T03:28:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > JOHNNY SEVEN Toy gun. I wish I had one of those as a kid. I did (and still do) have an [Agent M movie camera/machine gun](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/188025353163004152/). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/125 "2018-08-16T03:29:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > So did I. And yet, billions of dollars were spent year after year on armaments when all they had to do was send you and me into battle. Oh, the senseless waste. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/126 "2018-08-16T03:42:42Z")
Three more: Major Matt Mason (and all his friends and equipment); No idea what this was called, but you would take a mini-Tootsie roll and stick it in the hole of this plastic machine, clamp down the plastic mold, pump the handle, and it would form a skull or two halves of a whistle you could stick together and it really whistled. Then you ate it; We had some battery powered car that would run on this rubber tube (soda straw thickness) track that you could shape into any squiggly course on the floor (taped it down?) and something would eventually trigger a spring loaded catch underneath the car and flip it over and across the room. Or something similar. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/127 "2018-08-16T03:43:01Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Another piece of home playground equipment we had as kids but never saw another one–circa probably '64-66. I have no idea what it’s called so I’m going to have to describe it! It was made of tubular metal and stood on four splayed legs. The top was cross shaped, with four seats facing the middle, one at the end of each arm. Each seat had a handle and pedal (they worked as a pushme/pullyou sort of arrangement) that attached in the middle. As you’d push and pull the handle/pedal, the thing would start to rotate and when you got four kids on that thing going full guns it would go around like gangbusters–and those handle/pedals did not idle, they’d keep pumping back and forth as long as the thing was going. You had to have at least two kids sitting opposite to make it work, and if you did things juuuust right you could get the entire assembly rocking and bringing its legs off the ground as it swung around. What the hell was that thing? > > We had a lot of really dodgy and probably dangerous stuff like that–I suspect my dad was not that invested in fatherhood since he kept buying and bringing these things home. I don’t remember its exact name either, but that thing was popular into the 1970s. I had an opportunity to play on one a few times, and loved it. Anyone remember Squarts from the late 1980s? Those things were selling for a LOT of money on the 80s version of eBay. I’m having no luck finding a picture of them, so I’ll just say that a chain of gas stations in the Midwest sold them; they were 1-quart water bottles and had a cute story printed on the side, kind of like a Dr. Bronner’s package. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/128 "2018-08-16T03:50:09Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > And were responsible for at least one greenstick fracture of the arm as well as a couple broken teeth. I was scared shitless of those things after seeing what they could do to a kid. SmartAleq, which post/toy are you referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/129 "2018-08-16T03:55:32Z")
> [@bmoak](#): > > Kimba is pretty well-known, if only for the controversy over the similarities between Kimba and Disney’s The Jungle King. This. Except it was Disney’s **The Lion King**. > **[It Turns Out That 'The Lion King' Is A Complete Rip-Off](https://www.hollywood.com/movies/wait-is-the-lion-king-a-rip-off-60644021)** > > Wait...WHAT?! ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/130 "2018-08-16T04:04:13Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > SmartAleq, which post/toy are you referring to? Those awful clackers. The ones we had originally had really large clack balls on them, made of some kind of super heavy resin compound and I swear they weighed half a pound each. Strung on cord with just a plastic ring in the middle and the weight of the balls would offset the string sometimes so they’d go wonky. One friend of mine got a couple teeth chipped and another one had the balls go wrong and smacked into his arm, cracked the radius. That’s when I decided no way am I playing with those things again. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/131 "2018-08-16T04:08:48Z")
To this day, those creatures on the **[Freakies](https://www.google.com/search?q=freakies+cereal&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwipv4ic2fDcAhWBqZAKHR6LBjEQ_AUICygC&biw=838&bih=429)** cereal box make my stomach turn over. ---
**Author:** ![Daffyd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daffyd/32/8923_2.png) [@Daffyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daffyd)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/132 "2018-08-16T04:12:09Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > There was another thing we played with back in the '50s, but I don’t remember what they were called—snakes or worms or something like that. They were small pellets that looked like charcoal and smelled like sulfur. If they were exposed to heat, they’d fizzle and spit and expand into long, gnarly strips, hence the name (snakes or worms). We used to put them on the sidewalk and focus sunlight onto them with a magnifying glass until they were hot enough to ignite. > > There was also a kind of plastic that came in a tube (like toothpaste) that you could put on the end of a straw and blow into as though you were blowing glass. The stuff had a strong solvent smell like airplane glue and probably made a lot of kids high. > > And then there were Fizzies, soft drink tablets that bubbled like Alka-Seltzer. My favorite was root beer. Anybody remember those? They were almost as good as soda fountain phosphates (my favorites were cherry and lime). Haven’t had one of those since the early '80s. Oh my God! I haven’t thought of any of those things in a LONG time… I used to love those worm things… I think we used to call them worms anyway… I used to think Fizzies were SO cool… and if you started drinking early, there would still be some left that hadn’t dissolved yet… For some reason I thought that was great. I remember the plastic with the straw - you always wanted to make a perfect ball, but the rubber or whatever would droop on one side, or not blow up in certain areas - so always seemed to look like a weird ball-egg. I still loved it. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/133 "2018-08-16T04:22:49Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > McKeever and the Colonel . No one else remembers this… I loved this show! I always wanted to go to military school and play Army all day for real! :o I forget the name of the kid who played McKeever, but the Colonel was Allyn Jocelyn, who was also in (among many other shows) the pilot episode of _ **The Addams Family** _ as the politician who didn’t want the Addamses to endorse him. > [@](#): > > Dobie Gillis. “You Rang?” “Work? **WORK!!!** ” :eek: What did the “G” stand for in “Maynard G Krebs”? :dubious: 😕 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/134 "2018-08-16T04:34:28Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > The Original Flubber toy: > [The Fatal Flubber Fiasco of ’63 « Progress City, U.S.A.](http://progresscityusa.com/2011/09/06/the-fatal-flubber-fiasco-of-63/comment-page-1/) I was expecting the Wham-O **Superball** : These were \*\*awesome\*\*! They were parodied in \*\*\*MAD Magazine\*\*\*: "Made from the same material as US Air Force B-52 tires!" :D ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/135 "2018-08-16T04:45:42Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I forget the name of the kid who played McKeever, but the Colonel was Allyn Jocelyn, who was also in (among many other shows) the pilot episode of _ **The Addams Family** _ as the politician who didn’t want the Addamses to endorse him. I just Googled the show and remembered that Jackie “Uncle Fester” Coogan was in it too. He played the sergeant who always watched McKeever’s back. Gary McKeever was played by Scott Lane. Looking at the cast list, I see a lot of other well-known actors guest starred: Joe Flynn, William Schallert, David White, Charles Lane, Soupy Sales, Jim Backus, and Ann B Davis, to name a few. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/136 "2018-08-16T04:57:58Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Don’t remember Fizzies, but I do remember candy cigarettes, and you can still get those at specialty candy stores, especially the kind that cater to adults. I used to puff on those when I was channeling Sgt Saunders from _ **Combat!** _🆒 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/137 "2018-08-16T05:03:53Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I loved this show! I always wanted to go to military school and play Army all day for real! :o I forget the name of the kid who played McKeever, but the Colonel was Allyn Jocelyn, who was also in (among many other shows) the pilot episode of _ **The Addams Family** _ as the politician who didn’t want the Addamses to endorse him. > > “Work? **WORK!!!** ” :eek: > > What did the “G” stand for in “Maynard G Krebs”? :dubious: 😕 Same here! Ok, that was two of us. “Maynard’s middle name is Walter, named for his aunt. The “G” is silent, he would explain.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/138 "2018-08-16T05:10:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Here is the oldest I can find. > > Note the woman wearing long gloves? The elegance of a bygone age. ☹ She’s one fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine lookin’ woman! :o ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/139 "2018-08-16T13:34:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Early Comedy Central shows and hosts, like “Higgins Boys and Gruber,” Allan Havey, Patsy Roxborough … _Night After Night_ was great. Allan Havey’s back and forth with Nick Bakay was superb. I still remember the first episode of _The Dennis Miller Show_ where he was the announcer and tried to interact with Miller. Miller gave him this harsh stare letting Bakay know to Shut It Up. And you wonder why the show got canceled so soon. Then Bakay got into junk like _Sabrina_, _King of Queens_, _Paul Blart_ and _Mom_. And one episode of _Young Sheldon_. 😕 Both Bakay and Havey appeared on _Seinfeld_, which brings up Jon Hayman who did a lot on that show which brings up _Sports Monster_! ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633/140 "2018-08-16T13:54:27Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > Or seems to. I’m sure some people here will remember these but I don’t know anyone in person who does. > > “Monty Haul” adventures in Dragon magazine. Not the concept of Monty Haul, but a series of adventures by people who fought things like “12 Tiamats by calling a strike by their orbiting USS Enterprise.” I remember the “Monty Haul” columns, but at the time I read them I had no idea they what other cultural phenom they were referencing. I assumed that “Monty” referred to Monty Python. I also remember a few cartoons that used to run in the back of the “Dragon” – Fineous Fingers, Wormy, and Phil & Dixie. I loved those. Things that (it seems) only I remember: - [Simon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yqj76Q4jJ4) (electronic game that was a huge rage for about a year in the early 80s) - [Night Flight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Flight_(TV_series)) (TV show that aired all the videos that MTV refused to air- for either being too edgy, too metal, not new wave enough, etc.) - Fridays - sketch comedy show - The band [Sparks](https://vimeo.com/262151804) On a more serious note, I know a lot of younger gay men who have no idea what the pink triangle signifies or know the slogan “Silence = Death”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-artifacts-that-maybe-not-only-you-remember-but-its-getting-close/819633.md?page=8)