I LOVE that pizza. Just don’t buy the pepperoni version. There are little pepperoni squares in the sauce that are like sponge. Yuck. I always get the cheese version and put pepperoni on it. There’s something about that crust that I love so much. It’s very yeasty. I’m buying one next time I go grocery shopping.
Watching old time auto racing. My father drove race cars and was a big fan of the sport. I followed him and did the same. But something I enjoy is watching NASCAR races from the 60’s and 70’s. Watching those drivers in the big old Fords and Dodges of the day brings back some good memories.
I also use to build model cars, both stock and stock car versions. I recently bought a couple kits that were made in the 70’s, a 69 Ford Torino and a 65 Chevelle station wagon. I am saving them for something to do this winter.
As far as a food I loved as a kid and still have a few times a year, some hominy grits and a couple over easy eggs. Mash them together, add some cheese and bacon and I am happy. My wife never ate grits till she met me, now she loves them too.
Slot car racing—those were the days! When I was a kid, back in the '60s, it was all the rage. I had an HO-scale track in my basement, just like many of my neighbors. We’d race at each other’s houses, and it was a blast. My prized possession was a red Ford GT that dominated every race… until it met its untimely demise on the track.
Later on, I upgraded to a 1:32 scale track, but my heart always stayed true to HO-scale. Sadly, as the popularity of slot cars waned, Hot Wheels zoomed onto the scene. Sure, Hot Wheels are OK, but come on, you have to push them by hand, or have gravity assist them down a track!
I’d love to race HO slot cars again, but these days, finding someone to race against feels like hunting for a needle in a haystack. Bring back those electrifying race days!
About 7-8 years ago I went to a old-school hobby shop for some specialist materials for a non-hobby home repair project. Imagine my surprise to find the shop dominated by a probably 30x60 foot 8- or 10-lane 1:24 slot car track. And wonder of wonders, two teenagers racing cars around it.
I remarked to my wife that I was about their age when last I saw a track in a store like this. I recall there were even a few dedicated storefronts that just were tracks plus they sold a few slot-car accessories. No full-service all-hobbies hobby shop involved.
[aside]
I find it interesting that the traditional hobby shops of our youth catered almost exclusively to male hobbies, whether kids or adults. Those are substantially extinct nationwide. OTOH, the craft-centric hobby shops, e.g. Hobby Lobby or Michaels, are thriving with a merchandise set and a clientele that is almost exclusively female, be they children or grown-ups. Plus of course smaller single-hobby dedicated stores such as fabric or quilting or scrapbooking or …
What has changed about society that male hobbydom has collapsed and female hobbydom has exploded between e.g. 1960 and 2020? Or is my perception mistaken?
I would mix the two, adding a ton of black pepper. I ate them either with Ruffles or wheat bread with margerine. A Coke for the drink.
As an adullt, this is comfort food for those Very Bad Day times that pop up periodically. Coke Zero now
Also Lemon Heads and Red Hots
For TV, 70s and 80s vintage sci-fi or BBC shows. Or both, like THE 4th and 6th Doctors, the definite article
Newspaper crosswords, tho I have to play online or via apps now
Bob Marley
I was happy to find a vintage candy store in Galena, IL (“Sure, I’d love to buy those candy dots on a roll of paper for thirty times what I paid for them as a kid…and still get paper in my mouth.”).
But they had a little hand-lettered sign “Slot Car Track” and an arrow up the stairs. The entire second floor was a huge track, with a half-dozen cars and controllers.
Some high school kids were having actual analog fun racing each other, so I didn’t try it. But cockles were warmed.
I remember lots and lots of dedicated shops that just sold yarn and knitting supplies and separate stores that sold fabric and patterns, etc. Women had their own hobby shops; they just weren’t called hobby shops.
That’s likely true. And in my little male centric world those were invisible.
But the fact does remain that there is, AFAIK, nothing akin to e.g. Hobby Lobby that is a national big box chain of boy- / man-hobby stuff.
If you had to ask me, it’s videogames. Boys are all in on gaming, which leaves much less time for craft based hobbies.
Ever heard of Home Depot or Lowes? Harbor Freight, Northern Tools? Auto Zone, NAPA? Yes, those sell tools and materials for commercial use but are also frequented by people engaged in the traditional male hobbies of making stuff that does something (if it works) and injuring themself in the process.
Bologna on white bread with mayonnaise, a sweet pickle, and a side of chips. An orange slushie with a wooden pick spearing a marischano cherry. Kraft spaghetti dinner with a handful of spaghetti, a packet of tomato powder to be mixed with a can of tomato paste. Loved all three of these and I still do today. (I am looking for the box of make-your-own pizza).
The change of weather in the fall, when the heat dissipates, the leaves change, the sky is full of dramatic clouds. Perfect night for meatloaf and baked potatoes, or my mom’s beef stew.
Staying up late Saturday night after ‘Hootenany’ tv music show to watch the Creature Feature with my brothers. I still love folk music and old black-and-white cold war monsters arising from the sea or one-eyed aliens crashing to earth.
I used to house-sit on weekends in my early teens and scare myself silly reading Ray Bradbury short stories, Alfred Hitchcock collections of scary stories, and one memorable weekend, the whole novel ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker. Still have those books on the shelf now decades later.
That, and those stores are benefiting (?) from the shrinkage of specialty hobby stores. JoAnn fabrics, and countless other specialty hobby stores are now all gone, especially with online availability for a lot of things. So it looks like there isn’t shrinkage in the retail side of things, but if you look more closely…
Not to mention @TriPolar’s excellent point:
But again, internet business eating at all levels of the retail space is IMHO a bigger issue.
Do you have a source for those nowadays? I scour antique shops for the original smaller paperbacks (not later collections or Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; too large).
Those are my favorite books to take on holiday. They’re small (4x6"ish), and easily fit in a pocket/fanny pack/safari shirt. I’m embarrassed by the silly covers, so I make my own in Photoshop*.
*On a recent trip through the Balkans, it looked like I was reading “Prognosis: Negative!” (a movie in the Seinfeld universe… but the book’s better).
I read Alfred Hitchcock anthologies of scary stories in the 60’s or 70’s - library books. Try googling, Amazon, eBay, online bookstores might have some. Paperbacks might not have held up in 50+ years, if any are around.
I lived in Bellevue, NE from '69-'74. I watched the Omaha version from '71-'74. Dr. San Guinary was the host. LOL
The Monkees. I first heard about them during their 20th anniversary, when MTV was playing the show in 1986/1987. I was 7 or 8 years old and my sisters were teenagers, so I learned about the show from them. While they loved Davy Jones, my favorite was always Mike Nesmith (which they thought was hilarious). He was my first celebrity crush.
I have always loved the Monkees since then. I still love 50s-60s music and anything with a “bubblegum pop” sound. And I grew up watching Nick at Nite so I always enjoyed older TV shows.
I was extremely disappointed that Mike didn’t participate in the 20th anniversary tour, but I did go to see Davy/Micky/Peter with my sisters. After Davy passed away, Mike/Micky/Peter went on tour around 2012/2013 and I saw them then. I still listen to their music, and watch their show, to this day, at age 45.
To add to my previous post, the Monkees are/were about the same age as my parents. When I first watched the show as a 7-year-old, they all seemed like fully-grown adults. Now when I watch them as a 45-year-old, they look like such young kids! (But still good looking 
) As a kid I was also very confused at the repeated references to them having “long hair,” because to an 80s kid, their hair seemed very short.
Same with the Beatles and the hair. Apparently their mop top hair was considered long.
Sometimes on MASH they mention Hawkeye’s hair being too long. BJ, too, sometimes. I would have no idea if they did not mention it directly.
Or as we called it “barfaroni.” I was never a big fan of recipes to stretch a pound of ground beef to feed six people.
There was a store (?) shop (?) that was just a bunch of slot car set-ups that my little brother lived at. He and his friends had to ride their bikes about 5 miles in traffic to get there, but that didn’t deter them. It eventually went out of business and became a laundromat. It was originally called Speedway, so they just had to change the ‘y’ to an ‘sh.’