Flicks Candy

My friend Darrin over at Dad's Dish Retro Blog loves to go on little shopping sprees for cool retro stuff all the time.  Since I live in a small town I don't really have access to the type of stores that have the inventory that includes these great finds.  But - I do have memories and every now and then - something triggers one of them.  And - I have the internet that can instantly show me pictures to help with my memories.


Flicks!

I don't even know what it was that brought this memory back.  UPDATE:
My brother gave me a call this afternoon to say he had read my blog about Flicks.  He asked me what it was that reminded me of them.  I again asserted that I wasn't sure what had brought back the memory, at which point he pointedly reminded me the HE had called me and told me about a display of them he had seen in store just the other day!!  (Insert "getting old" jokes here).  Anyway - with his reminding me of these, I did have these great memories of Flicks.

I do know that I remember that there was nothing better than getting some Flicks and slowly eating the large chocolate chip shaped candy.  The shiny foil covered tubes were super cool looking and fit easily in your hand.

I've done some searching and found some places I can buy them.  Sounds like I'm planning ahead for stocking-stuffers for next Christmas!

Old Fashioned Treats

So - I had a memory pop into my head the other day, and it was like "No Way!  Was that right?"  I called my brother to verify I wasn't just making things up, and he confirmed it.  When we were kids, on hot summer days, we had a very special treat... ice cubes.

Yes, you read that right...

Ice cubes.

We'd be running around like little banshees and sweating up a storm.  Almost on cue, we'd run into the house and start whining at mom for some sort of cooling refreshment.  Well - this would have been a common occurrence on hot summer days - and I'm amazed at my moms resourcefulness.  At some point, she must have been out of anything else, so she opened the freezer and got out the ice trays.  And then, in a moment of sheer brilliance, she probably asked "Who wants an ice cube?!?"  Being dumb, hot kids, we all yelled, "I do!"

She grabbed some paper towels, wrapped them up and presented us with our "treats.  Ice cubes!  Wrapped in a paper towel so our hands didn't get cold and wet.  Knowing us - we probably spent as much time playing with them as sucking on them - but they definitely did the trick.

I tried to replicate this, but between my automatic ice cube maker's much smaller ice cubes, and the fact that I couldn't get the camera to focus right - you'll have to use your imagination. 

Suffice it to say - though it didn't look like much (and admittedly, it wasn't) it was a great treat for us.  And - we were dumb kids - it was all great to us. Kind of makes me wonder what kids today would do with such a "treat" presented to them.

You gotta check this out...

To begin with - I was out on sick leave the past week (read "near-death-with-a-terribly-infected-leg-but-it's-almost-all-better-now") - so I apologize for being away for a bit.  The injury I sustained while back-packing last summer, I found out, is now a weak spot in my body.  So - I'm susceptible to recurring infection there, and that's what happened. Missed a week of work... slept for 24 hours straight...  on three different anti-biotic drugs...

I'm doing much better now, but it was a bit of a rough patch there.

Today I'm going to brag on my daughter.  I'm right-brained - artistically inclined - and I'm so amazed and delighted to see how she has taken after me in this way.  I love to take pictures.  I was one of the first in my family to get anything other than an instamatic.  A Pentax K1000 SLR.  Bought a lot of lenses, filters, etc. over the years and took a lot of pictures and did pretty well at it.  Then - As the years went on - and for a lot of varied reasons, photography took a backseat to the rest of life and my other hobbies / interests.

My daughter got the photo bug at about age 18.  She has continually upgraded her camera, read up on techniques and methods, and has taken thousands and thousands and thousands of pictures - an advantage she has in digital photography that we couldn't have begun to imagine in the '70s and '80s.  She now has a really nice camera, a Facebook page for her photography, and is close to setting up a website and trying to start a business.

She's really good and is naturally talented.  She's mainly into landscape photography and has a great eye for subject matter and composition and does a excellent job of capturing it all with the lens.  These are just a few examples of he work.  I encourage you all to take a look - click on them for much larger images - her pictures are for sale!  you can check them out on Facebook!

Here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/kainicolephotography

Troll Dolls

So - I'm sure that I probably at least made mention of some of the toys that I grew up with here in my blog at one time or another, but I was just reminded of a certain one the other day.

Jimmy Fallon had Kyra Sedgwick on his show and she got to talking about how much loved those little Troll dolls.  And Jimmy loved them, too!  You remember them...the little yellow/fleshy skinned guys with huge frizzy wild colored hair and the funny little grin?!?

Notice the gemstone-less belly button!

Well, it turns out that there is quite a history behind these things.  The Troll dolls were originally known as Leprechauns, and were also known as Dam dolls, Gonks, Wishniks, Treasure Trolls and Norfins.  We only ever called them Trolls.  They were a huge fad from 1963 through 1965.  Their popularity faded out for awhile, but surged again for brief periods in the '70s, '80s and '90s and were made by a bunch of different manufacturers.

They were originally created in 1959 by a Danish fisherman and woodcutter named Thomas Dam - Hence the "Dam dolls" name.  He couldn't afford a Christmas gift for his youngest daughter and so he carved the doll from his imagination.  How cool is that?  These dolls that we all grew up with all came from him making a toy for his daughter!

Some of the clothes that the Troll dolls wore

We used to play with them - somehow it was ok for us boys to playing with "dolls" since they were Troll dolls!  We had clothes for them... we brushed their wild and colorful hair... we really did play with them.  Kind of weird now that I think about it.  But - it was a part of my growing up, it was a cool thing of the '70s (although I think I really did this more in the late '60s); and it's neat to look back on them now!

A boy Troll and girl Troll - It was all determined by colors

It seems like I couldn't find many pictures of the older ones.  The newer ones have gemstones in their belly buttons. Did you all have Troll dolls growing up?

Invinvcible

One of the good things about satellite TV is the hundreds of channels that are available.  And... one of the bad things about satellite TV... is the hundreds of channels are available.  You know how it is...

But the other night, there I was, surfing up in the 200's and I saw a great movie.  I'd seen it before - but I watched it again and it was really good.

  It's called "Invincible" and it stars Mark Wahlberg.  It's a great, heartwarming story about a guy who was a walk-on on the 1976 Eagles and did great on the team.  It's based on a true story and has a "Rocky" type feel to it.

The REALLY cool thing is that it's set in '76 and is super well done as a period piece. It's chock full of clothes, cars, incredible music, actions, attitudes and everything from that era.  The movie is great already, but the '70s eye candy makes it all the better. If you've never seen the movie, I highly recommend it.  I think that you'll enjoy it, and I know you'll enjoy the trip to the '70s.  Since the Superbowl is tomorrow, this is a good after-the-game movie - whether your team wins or loses.

Remember me?

Ok - I will make no excuses.  I've been a bad, bad, boy!  Halloween was quite awhile ago, and that was my last post.  I... uh... I've been... um.  You see, it goes like this... I was, that is, I've been... uh... busy - and - like, stuff happened and...

No excuses.  I'm guilty.  Life hit me and some things got waylayed... and blogging was one of them.  And I do apologize to all my blogger friends - whom I have also largely ignored over the last couple of months - I have been spending a lot less time on the computer at home in general, as well as just taking care of a lot of other things.

This tickled my funny bone...

Of course - a lot of things have happened over the last couple of months - and I bet I can even find a few of these things to blog about.

I really do hope to get blogging here soon.  Here's one of the things that has been taking up my time...


http://www.taximusic.com/hosting/home.php?artist=darryll-sherman

looking forward to getting back in the swing of things...