The original Slime caused numerous problems for parents all over the country. Before the slime with eyeballs, or worms, or even colors, there was plain, original, snot-like, plain old slime.
And it stained. I took a "can" of slime to my grandparents, and was encouraged to play a prank on my grandfather. I pretended I was about to sneeze, and he whipped out his nice hankerchief, at which point I pretended to sneeze, but instead deposited a full can of slime into his hankerchief. Very funny, and everyone laughed. After explaining to my grandfather that the snot like substance was a "toy", I tried to gather it back into it's can. I did, but only after leaving a permanent green stain on my grandfather's hankerchief. I found out later that it never came out, they through it away. It was hard to explain this "toy" to my grandfather, which brings us to the next tale of a violent 4 year old Bobby.....
I was playing with an etch a sketch on the floor with my Aunt, with other relatives looking at us, including some older relatives, who had never seen an etch a sketch, and were slightly hard of hearing. After drawing for a long while, with my Aunt looking on, my oldest relative, saw me raise the toy into the air, shake it violently, almost hitting my Aunt in the head. As I did this, shaking the etch a sketch clean, my oldest relative exclaimed what a violent outburst I had just had,
out of the blue. My other Aunt patiently explained the concept of an etch a sketch, while I once again drew a picture, calmy and quiety. About when my Aunt had it all explained, and they moved on to other conversation, I once again held the toy above my 4 year old head and shook it clean.
"There he goes again! Someone needs to take that away from him! He's almost hitting her!" Once again, my Aunt tried to explain the concept to her, as I began drawing. My Aunt started to get a littled ticked off, as apparently I was a wonderfuul child, calm and pleasant, never causing any problems, and this relative was basically defaming my good character. After a few more tries of explanation, my Aunt gave up and we left. Luckily, this news was kept quiet, and my good reputation was not ruined until much later in my life.
I wonder what toys our children or grandchildren will have that we just won't understand? And what toys will our children not understand that we had as children?
The original Slime caused numerous problems for parents all over the country. Before the slime with eyeballs, or worms, or even colors, there was plain, original, snot-like, plain old slime. And it stained. I took a "can" of slime to my grandparents, and was encouraged to play a prank on my grandfather. I pretended I was about to sneeze, and he whipped out his nice hankerchief, at which point I pretended to sneeze, but instead deposited a full can of slime into his hankerchief. Very funny, and everyone laughed. After explaining to my grandfather that the snot like substance was a "toy", I tried to gather it back into it's can. I did, but only after leaving a permanent green stain on my grandfather's hankerchief. I found out later that it never came out, they through it away. It was hard to explain this "toy" to my grandfather, which brings us to the next tale of a violent 4 year old Bobby.....
I was playing with an etch a sketch on the floor with my Aunt, with other relatives looking at us, including some older relatives, who had never seen an etch a sketch, and were slightly hard of hearing. After drawing for a long while, with my Aunt looking on, my oldest relative, saw me raise the toy into the air, shake it violently, almost hitting my Aunt in the head. As I did this, shaking the etch a sketch clean, my oldest relative exclaimed what a violent outburst I had just had, out of the blue. My other Aunt patiently explained the concept of an etch a sketch, while I once again drew a picture, calmy and quiety. About when my Aunt had it all explained, and they moved on to other conversation, I once again held the toy above my 4 year old head and shook it clean. "There he goes again! Someone needs to take that away from him! He's almost hitting her!" Once again, my Aunt tried to explain the concept to her, as I began drawing. My Aunt started to get a littled ticked off, as apparently I was a wonderfuul child, calm and pleasant, never causing any problems, and this relative was basically defaming my good character. After a few more tries of explanation, my Aunt gave up and we left. Luckily, this news was kept quiet, and my good reputation was not ruined until much later in my life. I wonder what toys our children or grandchildren will have that we just won't understand? And what toys will our children not understand that we had as children?
12 comments:
That's funny, because I had an Etch A Sketch, and I routinely shook it violently and threw it across the room out of frustration because I couldn't coordinate my fingers to roll the buttons in the right way to make curved lines. I'm much more patient now -- perhaps because I don't play with the Etch A Sketch anymore.
Ah, the old grandparents not understanding the toys. My grandpa used to scream "You spoiled brat!" and take my toy away if he didn't understand it. I didn't bring toys over to their house often. I'm glad you kid rep stayed untarnished.
Librarian, I never claimed to be good at it. My cousin could do amazing things on it, and would erase it, which I always thought was sad.
Rit, my kid rep only stayed good for a few more years. It was hard to explain putting slime in my cousin's hair a few years later.
I'm still trying to figure out the appeal of the Tickle Me Elmo.
BTW, I totally forgot about SLIME. Great memory. Thanks.
Hah! Bobby reads either TV Cream or Fark. I was just over at TVC and saw that, then saw it again on FARK. I wallowed in memories of my childhoos toys. I'll post next week about which ones were my favourites.
LB, Elmo was a little after my time. But I didn't understand it's appeal either.
Edee, I never liked Operation, my hands were too shakey for it and models.
Alistair, actually, the Etch a Sketch story was told to me a few weeks ago by my aunt. The slime memory came from boingboing.net but I still think of it once in a while. Slime rocked.
oh my gosh, SO FUNNY.
I have just reclaimed my vintage 1973 etch-a-sketch from my parents' discard pile. It doesn't work very well, but it will never be landfill!!!
Yeah, Slime DID stain. I remember now. My teeth were green for DAYS.
I've been in Bobby withdrawal. Ahhhh, it's good to be back.
Sg, I've missed you too.
I'm that way with stuff, it may not work, but I don't want it to be trash either.
And all the things I did with SLIME, I never tried eating it. I wonder why? (I am a very picky eater, maybe it just didn't look good.
HILARIOUS...
I remember the stains too...My mom getting pissed cuz i stained my white school uniform blouse...
And etch-a-scetch...those were such a delight...
I miss those ghetto etch-a-scetch thingys with the red plastic "pen" and the gray sheet you lift up to erase...what the hell?
I was not misunderstood. I was a violent child ;)
I still don't understand the slinky
What's to understand? It's fun for a girl and a boy! That's all you need to know, baby.
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