MCF's Old School 100: Part V

MCF's Old School 100 is a list of 100 memorable things from my past, things that take me back to the good old, old school days of my life. For a little over a month I've been compiling this list, and I could probably put this list on this list at some point. Maybe it will be number one on my next list in 30 years; I should have enough to finish this one now:

81) Shrinky Dinks.

82) Colorforms.

83) Playmobil.

84) LEGO®.

85) Recording my favorite songs off the radio and making my own mix tapes, often “DJ”-ing and doing little skits and introductions between songs.

86) Climbing trees.

87) Learning to ride a bike with training wheels.

88) Riding my bike everywhere in the days before those dopey helmets and not riding on the sidewalk became mandatory.

89) Riding on a scooter that was as wide as any skateboard and had tires that were a little over 6 inches in diameter.

90) Handing wrenches to my dad while he fixed a car, instead of vice versa.

91) McGruff taking a bite out of crime.

92) ”Mr. Owl, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?”

93) My Buddy & Kid Sister.

94) Crispy Critters “INDUBITABLY!”

95) Playing with blocks, just plain old painted wooden cubes with letters of the alphabet etched on them.

96) Walking up to a television set to change the channel using one of two dials, setting the VHF dial to “U” when I wanted to use the second UHF dial to get other, fuzzier channels higher than channel 13.

97) Having one doctor as a general practitioner who took care of everything, instead of a system of specialists that requires you to go to someone different for every ailment.

98) Those playground structures that looked like giant hollow blue mushrooms or hamburger buns with holes in them.

99) Running through the sprinkler on a hot Summer day. By sprinkler I don't mean anything fancy, just this little metal thing on wheels that screwed on to the end of the hose, and had three prongs that had little holes in them for water to escape, and would spin with the water pressure.

100) A themed metal lunchbox with a matching plastic thermos inside. My Marvel Superheroes one, which I still have, was of course my favorite, and the one that taught me the names of those characters.