Wish List Wednesday

When I was a kid, a favorite pastime of mine was climbing trees. There was an awesome tree in the field behind my house that I spent many hours climbing. I would climb up to my favorite limb, which was a thick but not so sturdy branch, that was parallel to the ground. While sitting up there, I always wished that I could build a tree house in it. Never was my imagination this grand.

Alnwick, Northumberland UK

Oh, I want one of these! It has 6,000 square feet (that is not a typo) and a restaurant inside! How awesome is that? Unfortunately, it costs about $7 million. So much for that idea.

Yellow Treehouse Restaurant (New Zealand)

This one is actually a restaurant but look how cool it is. If I had a tree house that looked like this, I would be a happy camper.

4Treehouse (Lake Muskoka, Ontario)

This is a two-ton, two-story, 410-square-foot tree house that is suspended 20 feet above the ground with steel airline cables. I am in love with the neat light effects.

  God's Treehouse (Crossville, TN) 

Now, this is one is the world's largest tree house with ten floors and 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. How is that even possible? Oh, I'm in love. I could imagine myself waking up every morning in this one. Except, I would need maids because I certainly wouldn't to have to keep it clean.

Childhood Memories - Source of Entertainment

I was a weird kid but after speaking with my husband about this, he was weird too because he did something similar. That's probably why we are together. It's the whole "birds of feather..." thing, I guess.

Anyway, when I was younger, probably about 5 or 6, I got a real kick out of viewing my kitchen upside down. Sounds fun, doesn't it? Yeah, whatever. Don't spoil my fond memory, please.

We had orange, cushy chairs in the kitchen (this was the 70's people) that would spin around. Very similar to these but bright orange:

I would lie on my back, stare up at the ceiling and pretend that the ceiling was the floor and vice versa. I would imagine walking around on the ceiling, opening up the cabinet doors and walking through doorways to other rooms. However, I could never figure out how I would use the sink without making a mess.

This would last about 30 seconds (remember I was 5 or 6 and my attention span was rather short). Then, I would flip over on my stomach and start to spin the chair around until everything got really blurry. I would use the legs of the chair to push myself faster and faster. If I would have fallen off at any point, I would have gone flying across the room. (My mother thinks that I actually did fly off a few times and hit my head. She says this would explain a few things. My mother thinks she's a comedian sometimes.)

Dramatization of what could have happened.

Note: As you look at this picture, you will see two things. 1) Even as I fly across the room, I do it with style, waving as I fly by. 2) I still have my McDonald's uniform on. My mother put me to work young to contribute to the family money pool. It was okay though because I could eat French fries all night long (I had to work the night shift because I had to go to school).

This spinning around would last a few minutes until my stomach started to get upset with me (after eating French fries all night, yours would too). I would then get up, try to walk without falling, and go to the living room to sit down until I felt better.

Usually, it would take about 10 to 15 minutes for the nausea to fade and then I would start the process all over again. It was a blast!

What can I say? It didn't take much to entertain me then. It still doesn't.

Happy Mother's Day!

Yeah, I know it was yesterday. But, I was spending time with my mother so I have a good excuse for the tardiness of this post. I just wanted to wish every mother out there a Happy Mother's Day!

It's days like this that really make me think about the important role mother's play in shaping one's life. It makes me think about how selfless my mother was for the sacrifices she made for her children. It makes me think about how strong she was for us after my father died when I was 14 years old. It makes me think about how brave she was to have to raise four children on her own.

It makes me appreciate that she was a strict parent, even though I didn't like it at the time, in order to raise honorable and decent human beings. It makes me appreciate that she grounded me for disobeying her rules (and I was grounded a lot!) because she was trying to teach her children right from wrong. It makes me appreciate all of her parenting methods, even though we butted heads on many occasions, because everything she did was for my benefit.

It makes me realize that she is now in her 70's and I need to spend more time with her while I still can. It makes me realize that I need to not let life get in the way of taking time to call her just to say hi. It makes me realize that I do not want to have any regrets when she is no longer here. It makes me realize that I need to think about all of these things more than just one day a year because it is Mother's Day.

Sweet Tooth?

When I was a kid, any money that I received from doing chores or from birthdays was spent on candy. Oh, did I love candy and my dentist is wealthy because of it. Thinking about some of my favorites, I can't imagine why I liked them so much.

Wax Bottles

Ugh, these things were 5 percent liquid, 95 percent wax. I would bite the top off of these bottles just to "drink" less than a teaspoon of liquid that was inside. Then I would chew on the bottle that was made out of wax. Does this sound gross to anyone else? Why in the world would someone want to chew on wax? Bit into a candle once and tell me how it tastes. Yuck! I don't know why, but I loved these things!

Buttons

These little yummy pieces of candy were stuck on a piece of paper. The only problem was that you couldn't get the candy off without tons of paper being stuck to the back of them. I think I have eaten about 10 pounds of paper due to these things.

Candy Cigarettes

I'm not sure why someone thought these would be a good idea for kids. However, I think there are more disturbing candies available today that, in my opinion, aren't any better. These candy cigarettes are the reason I started smoking. Well, not really but there are some who would like believe that this is true. But, I'll save that for another post. I wish cigarettes tasted this good!

Bottle Caps

These were awesome! They came in assorted flavors but the root beer ones were my favorite. I would eat all the other flavors first so the root beer ones would be the last flavor to enjoy. Mmm, yummy!

Chewy Sweet Tarts

These were the cause of many childhood tummy aches. I used to eat them until my lips were permanently puckered! I was never a fan of sour candy but for some reason, these were the exception. I remember having to force myself to finish a bag of these because I just HAD to eat the whole thing. Oh, did I suffer afterwards!

Wafers

These, by far, are my favorite and I occasionally still eat them. I'll usually purchase several hundred of them at a time. No, that was not a typo. They will usually only last about a day or two because once I start eating them, I can't seem to put them down. Love them!

You can find all of these items and much, much more on this awesome website I found. I foresee more cavities coming my way. Enjoy!

Childhood Memories

I love thinking back about many of my childhood toys. I love the memories that are associated with them more than the toys themselves. I remember how much fun I had as a child before life took over with all the stresses and responsibilities. There are a few of those toys that I would still play with love to have. These were one of my favorites and I would spend hours and hours in the summer walking around with them.

The ones that I had were called Knicker Knockers. However, after doing some research, they have also been called:  Bangers, Bonkers, Clack Clacks, Ka-Bangers, Ker-Knockers, Klackers, Klick-Klacks, Knockers, K-Nokkers, Mini Poppers, Quick Clacks, Quick Klacks, Quick Wacks, Popper Knockers, Poppers, Rockers, Super Clackers, Wackers, Whack'os, Whak Kos, and Zonkers. By looking at some of these names, you can see how things have changed over the years as some of them could also work as a title of an, um, adult movie, if you know what I mean. Yikes!

I had two of these that looked a little different than the picture. Mine had a plastic piece to hold onto instead of the hoop at the top. You would hold onto the top and move your hand up and down. The goal was to get the plastic balls to hit each other at the bottom, swing up, and then hit each other at the top. The trick to get them to hit at the top was to move your hand fast enough to gain some speed. Once that happened, you would just continue to hit them together. I could sometimes go on for minutes at a time without stopping.

I loved these things! However, let me also just say that this was the most dangerous toy I ever owned. Try tying a rock to a string and whipping it around really fast and see what happens. Those hard plastic balls on the end could give you a lump on your forehead the size of a golf ball. I remember hitting myself in the face, chest, arms, and hand. But the worst spot to get hit was the wrist bone. Ouch! It hurt so bad, I would see stars. I wish I would have been a smart kid and thought about using protection. This would have come in handy!

So, what would I immediately do after whacking myself and able to catch my breathe again? Well, I'd start banging them around again, of course! I was a slow learner back then and it took about four blows to the wrist before I would decide that I had enough pain and put them down. But sure enough, the next day, I would pick those bone crushers up again and start the process all over again. For some reason, they were worth the pain.

I really wish I had these today. I would carry them around instead of a can of mace and use them to knock someone out if I had to.  

Childhood Memories

I loved playing with toys as a child. When I think back, I remember that I had my favorites. One of those favorites were Flatsy dolls.

Flatsy dolls were flat plastic dolls that were made from 1969 to about 1973. The bodies had wires in them so that they could be posed in different ways. Unfortunately, if you bent them too much, you would end up with wires poking out of their ankles or hands. Oops! (All of mine ended up that way eventually and their shoes were always the first accessory that I would lose. Darn it!) I loved the fact that they had wild hair colors (pink, yellow, blue, green, etc.) and stylish outfits. Each were sold with a frame that had some sort of theme, and would normally include a few accessories. These are some of the ones that I had:

Bonnie Flatsy

Dewie Flatsy

Filly Flatsy

Nancy Flatsy

Casey Flatsy

I never really liked the last one, Casey. I always thought he was kind of creepy looking, although I thought BOYS were kind of creepy at that age. To me, he looked like a girl with short, pumpkin colored hair. Not my thing, just saying.

The Flatsy dolls from my childhood are ripped to shreds neatly packed away but a few years ago I purchased a few from Ebay. I'm glad I did because a recent search showed some of these were selling for almost $200. Yikes! (Note to self: Need to buy a television, sell my Flatsy dolls. Just kidding, never ever!!) I think I paid a rather insane decent amount for the ones I purchased but not anywhere near that price!

Things have certainly changed over the years as far as toys go. It's interesting looking back and remembering how toys that didn't make a noise, have batteries, or blinking lights could entertain me for so many hours.