Childhood Nostalgia

Since I just did an entry about McDonald’s advertising memories, it only seems fair to do one about Burger King advertising memories too.

1. The first thing I think of for Burger King was the series of commercials with the slogan, “This is a Burger King town, we know how burgers should be.”

2. There was one commercial that I vaguely remember that had two young adult women sitting on swings in a playground. One had a McDonald’s uniform and one had a Burger King Uniform. At the end of the commercial, one was still sitting there and the other swing was empty. It’s been so long since I’ve seen it that I can’t be sure which company the commercial was actually representing.

3. The character of the Burger King – every kid wanted to get one of those cardboard crowns!

Any Burger King advertising memories you would like to share?
burger king

I was reading a book about advertising the other day and the author mentioned some McDonald’s advertising campaigns from the past. That got me thinking…

When I was a kid, I loved to go to McDonald’s (now I usually limit myself to only visiting in late February and early March for the shamrock shakes, although I did get a chocolate shake a few weeks ago too).

Anyway, I was trying to remember some of the various ads they ran over the years. This is the list I came up with.

1. The girls playing jumprope singing the rhyming lyrics Big Mac, filet-o-fish, Quarter Pounder. French fries – icy Coke, thick shakes, sundaes, and apple pies.

2. The character Grimace loving his shakes and the character Hamburglar stealing hamburgers, of course. The Fries Guys dancing around talking about Happy Meals.

3. The slogan: “You deserve a break today.”

Can you ad to the list from your memory?mcdonalds

I just came across the question, “Would you buy a tool chest for someone as a present?”I had to stop and think about it for a minute before coming to the conclusion that I would be a tool chest as a present under one simple circumstance and so should you if this applies to you as well.

If a family member or roommate in your home has his or her tools and do it yourself home improvement stuff all over the house or apartment, go right ahead and purchase the tool chest as a gift for the person since you will also be giving yourself the gift of a neater home at the same time.

Of course, you can also purchase toy toolkits for kids as presents too.  Construction toys are always fun for kids.  Though plastic is probably more popular these days, when I was a kid, I had a metal toolkit.  I used it for years until it got rusty and my mother insisted it be thrown away!tool chests

I was just thinking of some old frosty mugs that my cousin and I received as gifts when we were kids.

Before I go on, I should define frosty mugs in case people have other terms for them. I am talking about those mugs that are made of two layers of plastic with a liquid in between. You put them in the freezer and the liquid freezes. Then when you use them later, you are able to keep your drink cold for hours without ever watering it down with ice.

Notice I am saying “the liquid” between the layers. Although it is clear and looks like water, it has to be something else because I had a frosty mug in the cupboard which had never used. I just went to take it out and found that somehow the plastic cracked and the liquid leaked. Had it been water it would have evaporated because the mug has been in the cupboard for over a year. Also, some of the liquid crystallized around the bottom of the outside of the m ug so it is definitely not just plain water.

Anyway, we had similar plastic cups when we were kids. We used to call them icy freezes back then. Perhaps it was icee freeze. We may have been calling the item by its brand name.

Rather than just keeping your drinks cold, those we had as kids were supposed to turn the drink into a slushy, half-frozen consistency. They worked very well. They were great for soda, fruit juices, or Kool-Aid type drinks.

Anybody else remember having those as kids? What did you call them?frosty mugs

I had the funniest memory the other day of something that we used to do when we were kids. I guess you could call it training to live in a capitalist society.

I remembered loaning my cousin a dollar. She wasn’t able to pay it back for three days at which time I charged her a dime in interest. (We had agreed on the interest rate ahead of time.) I’m not sure where I got the idea to charge the interest or how I came up with that rate.

Not bad, huh? Imagine if you could earn ten percent on your money in every three-day period! Perhaps I should have expanded on those skills to become an international financier. childhood, nostalgia

Some adults go through an unbelievable amount of work to make or obtain the perfect Halloween costume for their kids while overlooking an obvious way to make the experience more fun for themselves.

All they have to do is get their own adult costume and join in the festivities with the kids!

Although some parents wouldn’t admit it (and maybe an even larger number of adults who are not parents wouldn’t either), dressing up for Halloween in a costume is fun. Every year, there are more and more choices for adult Halloween costumes on the market. Just like the kids, you can get a complete store bought costume, buy some basics and then accessorize it yourself, or you can create the entire thing from scratch yourself.

Whichever way you choose, putting together your costume will bring you back to the fun you used to have as a kid when Halloween was approaching.halloween, halloween costumes

Picture it – you’re pedaling away carefree, chatting with your friends while the wind whips through your hair. Does that bring you back to a memory of sumeer’s day or s summer vacation when you were out enjoying a beach bicycle cruiser?

Do you ever wish you still had your cruiser bicycles from when you were a kid. Serious bicyclists love their ten speeds and their mountain bikes, but what about just for some plain old-fashioned bicycle fun.

You don’t have to spend a fortune to find bicycles online either. The site XYZBikes.com currently has summer sale going in in which all bikes are only $88. You can still get that last bit of summer vacation fun in before the weather turns to cold to really enjoy them at the beach. The site also suggests you consider a beach cruiser for a short commute or just a fun ride.

When I think of bicycles, I always picture those that I had as a kid, but when I look at the pictures in an online catalog, it reminds me of how many different styles and colors there are to choose from. Who knows, you may even find that they still make the one you remember from your childhood summers.

beach bikes

Here’s a fun entry just to reminisce a bit.

How many of you remember V? It was the story of The Visitors, aliens who came to earth supposedly for peaceful means, but were really here to steal water and process humans as food. There was V: The Original miniseries (just called V of course before there were any sequels) at fours in length, then V: The Final Battle at six hours long, then the entire full season of the show with 19 episodes.

All of those mentioned above are available on DVD. I was recently watching the DVD’s and remembered the big cliffhanger scene one night. It was the one in which pregnant Robin Maxwelll gave birth to twins. The first baby born looked human, but sent everyone in the operating room into shock when the baby opened her mouth and a reptilian tongue darted out. If that wasn’t visually stunning enough, it was the final scene of the evening that had everyone talking in school the next day. The doctors backed away from her in horror and another baby crawled out and stuck its head over the blanket. That one was green and covered in skin more like that of a lizard. It also had an enormous mouth filled with teeth, similar in shape to a crocodile.

Remember the days when network TV could have everyone in America talking the next day?NBC, v tv series