# We were children once, and young... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 21, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333 "2004-10-21T02:55:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/21 "2004-10-21T15:52:22Z")
> [@swampbear](#): > > Milk at school was in those glass half pint bottles. (I am so freaking ooooold!) :eek: Wow, you are old. But you know that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/22 "2004-10-21T16:06:29Z")
_I hanker for a hunk 'a, A slice or slab or chunk 'a, I hanker for a hunk 'a CHEESE_ (Schoolhouse Rock in VHS can be borrowed from some libraries; it’s now for sale on DVD) ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/23 "2004-10-21T16:14:03Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > More tv related stuff: > > Remember records that had books on them? “Turn the page when you hear the chime!” I had the coolest thing that my mom picked up at a tag sale - it looked like a little TV, came with a bunch of books with accompanying filmstrips and records. There was a record player on top, so you could read the book, listen along with the record AND see a little slideshow, all at the same time. I have no idea what the thing was called, and I only ever saw the one that I owned. I had one of these too. I can’t think of what it was called either, but now I’m on a hunt to find out. Thanks, by the way - now this is going to make me CRAZY until I find out. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/24 "2004-10-21T16:19:17Z")
> [@Flutterby](#): > > The theme song popped into my head as soon as I saw the name, my dad used to play it on the recorder for us. Was it on Buffy? Which episode? The song is “Early One Morning” (which I sang in high school, so I was geeked out for entirely different reasons hearing it on Buffy.). It played a role in season 7: Before he was a vampire, Spike was an English ponce named William. He had a strange Oedipal complex thingy about his frail mother. She used to hum the song a lot. When the First Evil (in Season 7) decided to use Spike to try to destroy Buffy, it used this song as a hypnotic trigger: every time he hears it, he turns into evil Spike. (Remember, this was after he had earned his soul in an attempt to be a “Good Man” again.) ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/25 "2004-10-21T16:20:59Z")
> [@Missy2U](#): > > I had one of these too. I can’t think of what it was called either, but now I’m on a hunt to find out. Thanks, by the way - now this is going to make me CRAZY until I find out. 😃 Yay!!! [http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11736&item=5928750130&rd=1](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11736&item=5928750130&rd=1) It was the “Show 'n Tell Photo Viewer” Oh man, I want this!! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/26 "2004-10-21T16:22:06Z")
**Dante’s Tenth** , many black people object to the Eenie Meenie Minie Moe rhyme because in some parts of the country it went, “…catch a _n_\*\*\*\*\* by the toe”. I didn’t know even that until I was past forty y.a. because I’d always heard it as “catch a _tiger_ by the toe.” This came to a prominence when some passengers recently sued Southwest Airlines because a flight attendant had used the rhyme. When some passengers were dithering over their seat selections, she said, ‘eenie-meenie-minie-moe, pick a seat we gotta go’. Like many people, she probably didn’t even know about the ‘n-word’ variant. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/27 "2004-10-21T16:27:51Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > One just popped into my head; a book. > > “There’s a Monster at the End of this Book!” > > Man what I wouldn’t give to have that again. [It’s still in print](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375805613/104-1454816-0944746?v=glance) - but your title was a little off. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/28 "2004-10-21T16:29:15Z")
> [@Politzania](#): > > [It’s still in print](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375805613/104-1454816-0944746?v=glance) - but your title was a little off. And you know, that was the title I originally put; for some reason I thought I was wrong and changed it. Man just seeing the cover is something… ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/29 "2004-10-21T16:48:25Z")
> [@PastAllReason](#): > > My favourites though were The Friendly Giant (can still hear the theme song in my head and was quite creeped out when it showed up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the song that triggered Spike to turn bad) and Mr. Dressup (which was never the same once Casey and Finniganstopped being part of it). Those were my favorites, too. We lived in Northern NY and were able to get Canadian TV and radio stations, as well as NYC TV stations. Mr. Dressup and his tickle trunk will be missed. ☹ Anyone in the NYC area remember **The Magic Garden** , **Wonderama** , and **The Great Space Coaster**? Or the game on WPIX on weekday afternoons, where a kid calls in and plays a video game over the phone by saying “Pix” when he wants to fire or jump? Here’s an obscure one: \*\*Vegetable Soup \*\* on PBS. I always remembered the skit with the space ship and the puppets that had real hands. That always creeped me out. When Pop Rocks were called **Cosmic Candy**. \*\*Reggie Jackson \*\* chocolate bar Bill Cosby on **Captain Kangaroo** Waiting to hear your name called at the end of **Romper Room** (Krista wasn’t a popular name in the 70s, I guess ☹ ) BTW, I think the **Schoolhouse Rock** shorts were on ABC. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/30 "2004-10-21T16:49:43Z")
> [@fessie](#): > > _I hanker for a hunk 'a, > A slice or slab or chunk 'a, > I hanker for a hunk 'a CHEESE_ Oooo, right…_that’s_ the one that had the “wagon wheel” snack, not the one I mentioned earlier. Thanks for the reminder! ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/31 "2004-10-21T16:54:18Z")
> [@Nutty Bunny](#): > > Anyone in the NYC area remember **The Magic Garden** , **Wonderama** , and **The Great Space Coaster**? Or the game on WPIX on weekday afternoons, where a kid calls in and plays a video game over the phone by saying “Pix” when he wants to fire or jump? Oh man, that’s some good stuff there. No G-news is Good G-news… with Gary Gnu! And I had completely forgotten the call-in video games. Wasn’t WPIX also the one that supposedly had an interactive television show where you could help shoot the bad guys with a laser tag type gun? Oooh laser tag… ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/32 "2004-10-21T16:56:44Z")
Sorry, but I have to add… Anybody remember [KidVideo? With MasterBlaster?](http://www.kvflipside.org/characters/masterblaster.html) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/33 "2004-10-21T17:14:52Z")
TV was important, of course, and I well remember things like the ABC Afterschool Specials (okay, who recalls “It Must Be Love 'Cause I Feel So Dumb,” “Last of the Curlews,” and “Time for Timer”?). Being in Toronto at the time, I also remember “Friendly Giant,” “Mr. Dressup,” “Chez Helene,” and the rest of the CBC’s kid-friendly shows. And as someone above mentioned, many days after school were spent with Commander Tom on Buffalo’s Channel 7, followed by Irv Weinstein and the news: “Topping tonight’s Eyewitness News–fire in North Tonawanda!” But it was also just being a kid at the time. We had a lot of kids in our neighbourhood, and we’d all play outside together–kid games like hide-and-seek were always popular. Or playing street hockey or football in the local park in summer, and sledding down the hills in the winter. Or riding our bikes anywhere and everywhere, up to and including imitating Evel Knievel. There were a couple of humps in the local park that, if you got up enough speed, you could jump your bike over. Most of our bikes weren’t anything special either, just one-speed standard-looking bicycles, though the kids with the monkey bars, banana seats, and sissy bars were better at jumping than the rest of us. No video games, no computers, only six channels on TV and half of them were snowy–suddenly, I feel very, very old. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/34 "2004-10-21T17:21:10Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Sorry, but I have to add… > > Anybody remember [KidVideo? With MasterBlaster?](http://www.kvflipside.org/characters/masterblaster.html) Oy Vey! I had forgotten about that one. I always watched to see if they played a Duran Duran video. I’ve got more: **Dance Party USA** on the USA Network (Kelly Ripa was a regular dancer) In 1984, there was another dance show on Saturday afternoons at noon or 1:00. We always watched it after Soul Train, but I can’t remember the name of it. It wasn’t American Bandstand, either. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/35 "2004-10-21T17:21:18Z")
Oh yes…one of the best times of the year: **Monster Week** on Channel 7’s _4:30 Movie_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/36 "2004-10-21T17:21:39Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Sorry, but I have to add… > > Anybody remember [KidVideo? With MasterBlaster?](http://www.kvflipside.org/characters/masterblaster.html) And Glitter! My favorite pixie. 🙂🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/37 "2004-10-21T17:31:57Z")
I love the anti-smoking PSA’s, especially this one: [sing] To - oo GET right to the heart of the matter, where there’s smoke, where there’s smoke [shrilly now] WHERE! THERE’S! SMOKE! [gravely intone] Where there’s smoke, there’s fire and the danger of heart and lung disease. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/38 "2004-10-21T17:33:55Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Oooh laser tag… Oh! Oh!!! I worked/played/lived at the Chicago/Harvey Photon for years! Met my kid’s sperm donor there! Managed it for a while. Went crazy nesting/cleaning out the entire building the day I delivered my first baby. His first baby pics are in a Photon pod helmet! [Here’s real Photon](http://home.comcast.net/~snmavronis/photon/) (the original and only true laser tag) nostalgia for ya. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/39 "2004-10-21T17:47:07Z")
> [@Caricci](#): > > I love the anti-smoking PSA’s… When I read this, the first thing I thought of was an anti-smoking PSA from the late 1960s or early 70s. It showed a smiling man jumping up and clicking his heels together while an announcer said, “Kick the habit. Join the unhooked generation!” I’d almost prefer that style of anti-smoking PSA nowadays. I’d rather see somebody happy over quitting smoking, than the “Long, longering, painful death for you and those near you! Yep, plenty of death for everybody! Death! Death! Death!” PSAs that seem to be popular lately. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333/40 "2004-10-21T17:49:13Z")
Who can fill in the blank: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry \_\_\_\_\_\_ (I’m realizing now that I watched an awful lot of TV when I was a kid.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-were-children-once-and-young/270333.md?page=3)