GIMME SOME WADDAH
I have vague memories of the markers mentioned here. Anyone else?
I don’t remember the crayons, though, but I was much more of a marker kid.
Also, these crayon names:
They’re all pretty great, but http://www.purple has got me laughing so hard. It’s just…it’s just http://www.purple. Is it a .com? Is it a .org? WHO KNOWS, BUT IT’S PURPLE
Claudia’s Fake Radio Station from 1999
As I’ve mentioned on here multiple times, I was OBSESSED with my mom’s camcorder when I was a kid/pre-teen and was always making stupid videos, fake TV shows, and the like.
But before the camcorder came the tape recorder, and JESUS CHRIST it was the same sort of obsession. I remember having a tape player/recorder when I was really young (back when we lived in Troy, so like six or seven years old?) and it had this little microphone thingy attached by a spiral cord. I remember doing all sorts of interviews and other weird stuff with it.
Fast forward to the late ‘90s (1999 to be exact) and I had a fancier tape recorder but the same old desire to do weird-ass fake radio stuff with it. I recorded an entire tape of me doing commercials, interviews, news segments, and a decent amount of music I recorded from an old Monopoly game I had on CD.
Wanna hear it?
(Side 1 content starts around 0:17)
(Monopoly music on Side 2 stops around 4:27)
The “ZFAT 101” comes from the “Z-Fun 106.1” radio station in Moscow.
At least I’m not singing along with the Monopoly music. There’s a tape of me from fifth grade on which I distinctly remember singing about Rogaine to one of those songs on side 2.
Yes, there’s a commercial like every two minutes. It’s infinitely more entertaining than me going all improv on my electronic keyboard two-thirds of the way through side 1, though.
It’s shocking I didn’t go into journalism or mass media or film or something like that given all this nonsense I did as a kid.
(It’s actually not that shocking; I became much more introverted as I got older and also realized I was ugly and untalented and so had absolutely no chance of success in any of those fields.)
High School Band Throwback
This song came up on shuffle earlier today, so we gotta blog about it:
I don’t have any other songs composed by Michael Kamen, but this one is fantastic. I remember we played this in high school and I really enjoyed playing it. I can’t remember if this was one of the songs we played for critique at Disneyland or if that was the Pirates of the Caribbean song. Or something else.
I WASN’T BLOGGING YET, SO THERE ARE NO CLEAR MEMORIES OF ANYTHING
LOVE the chords at 1:21, OOF.
My CHILDHOOD
I don’t know why, but I suddenly really wanted some Nutter Butters today.
And this is probably the first time I’ve even thought about Nutter Butters since, like, high school. My dad always used to have them in his condo and I would frequently have them as snacks. I wonder if you can even buy them up here?
Kodak Yellow
I’ve mentioned on here several times how obsessed I was with my mom’s camcorder when I was a kid/teen. I made hours of stupid videos…in fact, enough to fill a shoebox with those old mini tapes.
I’d love to digitize these things before they crumble to dust, and perhaps this is the answer.
There are probably local places that do it, too, so I might want to check those out. But just being able to mail the mass of them to Kodak and then get the digitized stuff back sounds SUPER EASY.
As if any of you care, but whatev.
Elementary, my dear?
So my mom and I stopped by St. Mary’s, my old elementary school, and got a tour of it from my old principal, Sister Margaret.
I went to St. Mary’s Catholic School for six years (1st through 6th grade; seven years if you count going to St. Rose’s for kindergarten) and I remember some things about it very well. Since my going there, though, the building has undergone quite a few renovations and changes, including a huge gym add-on and the addition of a few more grades.
But MAN, some of the things we saw on our tour are things I remember very well.
The library. We just did a brief walk-through, but I remember checking out many of the books in there.
The classrooms. They’re so small! So are the desks! But I remember them very clearly.
The multi-purpose room. This lived up to its name back when I went there. We had band, choir, lunch, gym, plays, and concert rehearsals in there.
The bathrooms on the main floor. I don’t know why I have such a strong memory of freaking bathrooms, but I do.
It’s also wild that a few of my classmates from St. Mary’s are now teachers there.
Anyway, it was an odd trip down memory lane, but very cool to see what’s stayed the same and what has changed.
Childhood was UNHINGED
In that wonderful tradition of “we did things in the 90s/early 2000s that would not be allowed today,” I present to you two things.
One: Raku firing!
Two: Batiking!
We did both of these in Art Camp. Scorching hot coffee cans and burning newspaper? Hot melted wax and big vats of dye? There’s no WAY 8- to 15-year-olds would get away with doing these things nowadays.
Seriously, though, we never had any accidents or incidents. I don’t know if artsy kids are just different, but we were always very careful with these more “involved” art projects. Even the kid that would shove oil pastels up his nose.
Art Camp was the best.
Need a cool kid’s book?
(Even if you don’t, this book is great)
I actually don’t remember if I’ve ever posted about this, but
1) I’m too lazy to check, and
2) I don’t have anything else to blog about today
SO.
Seeing, Saying, Doing, Playing by Taro Gami is a fantastic little book that I originally got when I was a very small child.
Basically, this book consists of giant illustrations of tons of people doing stuff, and each thing is described with a verb.
Example page:
Zoomed in:
I don’t know how hard it is to find this anymore, but it really is a great book. Even flipping through it now I can remember all the illustrations.
Piano Party 90s Style
I took piano lessons back when I was a youngster (like…6, 7 years old?). I hated it. I don’t know why I didn’t like it, but I never bonded with the piano like I did with wind instruments. Maybe because I didn’t start with wind instruments until I was a few years older…who knows.
Anyway.
In the spirit of N O S T A L G I A, I looked up the old books I used to use at my lessons and behold…they’re still a thing!
I don’t remember what level I got to (mom, do you remember?), but I remember these books.
Oooooooooooh noooooooooo
So for WHATEVER THE HELL REASON, the phrase “oh no, Mr. Bill” arose from the depths of my cavernous memory this afternoon and so I of course had to see if the old Claymation (and I use that word very loosely) sketches were anywhere to be found on YouTube.
And of course they were.
There’s more, too.
I think my dad had a VHS tape will all the Mr. Bill shorts from SNL on it. I have very vivid memories of watching repeated Mr. Bills on his old TV in the condo.
THE FRUIT
Y’ALL, they have Fruitopia up here!
WTF is Fruitopia, you ask? This.
This gave me a serious nostalgia trip. Fruitopia was something I used to drink a lot of in junior high because it was in one of the vending machines in the cafeteria. Mongolian BBQ also used to have it in their mini fridge. The green flavor always tasted SO GOOD with noodles, yo.
Edit: the green flavor is called Kiwiberry Ruckus. They don’t have that flavor up here, but they have something called Raspberry Kiwi Karma, which might be the same. I’m so tempted to get some and try it, haha.
Anyway.
More of my Terrible Teen Writing
HEYOOOOOOOOO so these are palindrome-based phrases that I wrote during a “writing partners” program in 7th grade. I thought these were GODDAMN GENIUS but most of ‘em are pretty dumb. Ready?
To reduce the growth of a Yam, grow it in May.
To cut out what Was, use a Saw.
To reverse the flow of a Dam, you’d have to be Mad.
What is Not is a Ton.
To turn off a Tap, Pat it.
Bob and Bob are twins, yet reversed. [THE FUCK IS THIS ONE OMG]
To make Don vanish, Nod.
To erase the Dot and the end of a sentence, hire Tod.
To make a dishwasher Stop, take out the Pots.
There is nothing more Evil then to Live without a purpose.
To stay far from Doom, make positive your Mood.
Don’t Yap, and your Pay will come more quickly.
Use your Time wisely, because you can’t Emit more of it.
Hahahahaha. Ugh.
SAY HELLO TO YOUR FRIENDS!
We had this on VHS. I loved the Baby-Sitters Club books when I was little.
SO 90’s, dude.
ALSO, this is one of those examples I mentioned a while back of something where I remember the intonation/rhythm of everyone’s dialogue (and I remember the music, of course) but I don’t remember exactly what they were saying. This is how a lot of my memories of early childhood movies/TV work. I can still anticipate every single change in intonation or rhythm because I remember that so well, but the actual words haven’t stuck.
Are anyone else’s memories like that?
HEY LOOK IT’S QUAKE
Everyone knows I love Quake.
(watch with the captions on, they’re pretty great)
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has an original Quake CD.
5:13: “Episode 1: the one everybody played because it was a shareware.” Hahaha, I actually got a hold of Quake because the guy who was working on our house at the time had a pirated version of the whole game. Same thing with Half Life, if I’m remembering correctly.
5:46: I’ve been playing this game for like TWENTY FIVE YEARS and I never noticed that it was the Nine Inch Nails logo on the nail boxes. Though to be fair, I play original Quake, which is so freaking pixelated it’s a wonder I can recognize the nail boxes themselves.
The NAILGUNS. I love the nailguns. My “Nailpit” name was oh so cleverly derived from them when I was seven.
But no, really. It’s an extremely linear game that’s exactly the same every time you play it, but like I said, I’ve been playing this for 25+ years and haven’t gotten tired of it. It’s exactly my type of game and is very satisfying to play.
Earthsearch
Remember that Klutz book, Earthsearch, that I mentioned a few months ago?
I bought a copy. I re-read this book many times; I remember a lot of the pages.
The start of an exercise to demonstrate just how much space is between the planets of the solar system.
A bag of rice used to demonstrate how much food some people get to live on per day.
A spinner for a game to demonstrate the distribution of wealth.
A spinner wheel you can use to determine what colors make up your skin tone.
This is such an interesting book; I really enjoyed it as a kid!
M&M’s THROWBACK!!!!!!!!1
I bought a baby pack of M&M’s today.
Why?
Because I was feeling nostalgic.
I used to have a very specific way of eating these packs of M&M’s for a good amount of my childhood/teenhood. This is how I would do it: I would dump the whole package out, sort the M&M’s by color, and then order each color’s candies by size from smallest to largest. I would then line up the ordered colors in the order yellow, orange, red, green, blue, brown. Finally, I would take the biggest candy from each color and order them from smallest to largest in a final row.
To eat them, I’d start with the smallest yellow M&M and just go up the lines.
I have no idea why I always used to do it this way, but I felt the urge to replicate this old ritual this afternoon.
So yeah. I know nobody cares, but it’s something I remember doing a lot when I was a kid/tween/teen.
Perspective (yet another nostalgia-driven post)
You’re probably thinking, what’s with all the nostalgia, Claudia? NO ONE CARES!
Yeah, I know no one cares.
But I think they’re all coming from how much I’m missing Moscow and thinking about all the time I spent there as a kid/teen/young adult. Just the constant thinking of Moscow is dredging up a bunch of old memories.
So yeah, that’s the explanation. Sorry if you don’t like it.
ANYWAY.
The random thing I remembered today was a set of fairy tale books I had when I was a young kid (first and second grade, maybe?). The series was called “Another Point of View” by Alvin Granowsky and it presented classic fairy tales/fables from the “traditional” perspective and then from a different perspective based on one of the other characters in the story.
I think my mom got me several of these, but the one I remember was “The Three Billy Goats Gruff/Just a Friendly Old Troll.”
Edit: sweet, here’s a lady reading it on YouTube.
I remember my mom always emphasizing the importance of critically looking at stories, especially movies. Thanks, mom!
Lunchbox Nostalgia
I remember having a very distinctive lunchbox in elementary school. It was this big hard plastic thing that was pink and purple and it had these funky dials on it that you had to turn to open it. I would use it to put worms in after rain storms to keep them from drowning in the puddles (see this blog post about my “worm saver” nickname from elementary school; yes, I was an odd child).
Anyway, I was talking to Nate about this lunchbox and wondered if I could find it by just googling something like “purple lunchbox with dials.”
And lo and behold, here it is!
That’s the exact freaking lunchbox, OH MY GOD. I don’t remember if I had the thermos, but I put so many worms in that little sandwich compartment.
The nostalgia is real.
Also, these images are from an eBay listing for the lunchbox, and it’s sooooo tempting to get it just for the sake of having it again.
UGH.
Thinkin’ Things
So I have NO IDEA what triggered my memory of this, but back when I was in elementary school, my dad had gotten me the Thinkin’ Things collection (original, Collection 2, and Collection 3). These were three computer games that consisted of sets of puzzles, interactive playthings, and things that made a lot of music/sound.
I LOVED them. I have so many memories of playing through them for HOURS at my dad’s condo on that old Mac computer that he had.
Here’s a place where you can play the first one.
My favorite was the shapes that all made different sounds (the icon with the white dot grid and the geometric shapes on it)
And the second one.
I think my favorite game in the second collection was the one where you could draw a path and have a set of shapes follow it (the one with the window/circles icon).
I can’t find an interactive version of the third collection, but here’s a YouTube vid:
The one with the balls and the sand (7:34), OH MY GOD I LOVED IT. I remember all of these sounds, man. And the half time one (25:01) EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Yay nostalgia.
Did anyone else have these games?
Pantsylvania
Have I mentioned this game on here before? I’m not sure and I’m too lazy to check (pro blogging, yo), so I’mma mention it now.
Among the funky computer games I played as a kid was this one called Pantsylvania. I remember playing this with my friend GE in Troy a lot. It was basically this game where you could explore the town of Pantsylvania through several different buildings and with the guidance of different characters that had you do different things in the buildings. It was super point-and-click fun for young kids and I remember really enjoying it.
The frog gets a lot of hate, apparently. He was my fave.
Edit: here it is if you want to play it yourself!
HEY YOU PEOPLE WHO WERE CHILDREN IN THE MID-NINETIES:
Do you remember those nights when you got to stay up late after your parents went to bed? Do you remember when Cartoon Network went off the air (prior to Adult Swim being a thing) and having to find something else on TV to entertain yourself with?
If so, I’m sure you remember this:
This immediately brought me back to Saturday nights at my dad’s old condo. It was infomercials, Early Edition, or Baywatch once my dad went to bed.
Hark! A Pointless Blog!
So this song came up on shuffle today:
I hadn’t heard it in a while and I forgot what a tremendous feeling of anxiety that opening gives me.
Why, you ask?
(Shut up, just pretend you asked.)
Well, we were going to play this in band in 7th grade. We didn’t have any oboe players to play that opening solo thingy at 2:18, so being the nerdiest band nerd that ever nerded, I said, “hey Mr. Garrett, I’ll learn oboe, an instrument I’ve never even touched!” So I got my hands on an oboe and had about three weeks to learn how to play it (and play it well enough to do the solo thingy). I remember being so incredibly anxious about it every single time we practiced and, of course, when we performed it. I can’t remember how badly I botched it, but I’m sure I botched it quite nicely.
Anyway.
Also, cannons have nothing on the MAHLER HAMMER!
Old Piccys
My mom sent me some old pictures she found while cleaning/organizing her stuff. And since my blog is nothing but random nonsense that no one else cares about but me, here are said pictures.
My grandpa in the military. He never seemed like the military type when I knew him, but there ya go.
Case and point: here’s my grandpa (and my mom) with books on their heads ‘cause I had a book on mine.
Apparently we had an actual factual pony when I was a kid. I have zero memories of this pony. This is, obviously, my mom and me.
My mom and a kitten!
Me with our cat Wooder sleeping on me.
“We ride at dawn!”
The end.
Childhood Reads
Do you ever have the sudden urge to re-read books that you loved as a kid but haven’t read since then? I don’t know if it’s because COVID has me in a super nostalgic mood or what, but I really want to revisit some of the books I enjoyed as a kid. Some of the ones I can think of off the top of my head include:
ALL of The Baby-Sitters Club books (Ann M. Martin) – I had almost every single one of these books when I was a kid/early teen. I always liked that there was a character named Claudia and that she was super artsy.
Skinnybones (Barbara Park) – I remember this book being absolutely hilarious to me as a kid. I loved the writing style.
Sixth Grade Secrets (Louis Sachar – yes, the guy who wrote Holes) – Another book where I remember liking the writing style. I also liked the story.
Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade (Barthe DeClements) – I have vague memories of this book, so I’d like to read it again to see what I’m actually remembering.
The Fudge books (Judy Blume) – I had most of these as a kid, I think.
Crooked (Laura McNeal) – This was a book I read when I was a little bit older…7th grade, I think? I remember this was one of the first books I read that had a plot with a more “serious” tone. I remember liking it a lot.
Anyway. There were a lot of other books I read as a kid (obviously); I wish I had the memory to recall the names of all of them in case there were others I wanted to revisit.
Are there any books that you remember you liked as a kid that you would like to read again now that you’re an adult?
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