Recovered a couple pieces of my youth--sort of

[human]

One thing about going through a separation and divorce is that some things that mean something to you get left behind. It's kind of stupid, but two things from my childhood that got left with my ex-wife that have continued to irritate me over the past 16 years since we separated are, of all things, a couple of my favorite board games. The games in question are Clue (the 1963 version) and Stratego (the 1971 version). I used to love to play both games when I was growing up.

Every now and then, I check through the board games at Goodwill on the off chance that either of these might show up. I've seen newer versions of both, with 'updated' graphics, which somehow didn't really interest me but within the past couple of weeks, I've found wooden box versions of both games with boards and game pieces sporting the original graphics at very paltry prices. The Stratego game is complete, except for the divided tray to keep the red and blue game pieces separated. I can live with that. The Clue game was missing the notepads and most of the weapons but had everything else. I found a set of weapons on eBay for cheap, albeit more than I paid for the game itself, and I re-created the notepad pages on my computer so I can print them out as needed.

I don't know why it gives me such comfort to have these things—or facsimiles thereof—again. It's not like I've even really wanted to play either game in years. But there you have it. Now if I can just find a copy of that marble game Stay Alive...

 

[suckolux]

Cool! I get it.

 

[hoover300]

I'm not sure if they are the version you are looking for, but there are some vintage copies of Stay Alive on ebay. 1971 and 1978 is what I saw, there might be more.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I think it's WONDERFUL

to recapture a piece of your life/childhood. I have every HOOVER model from every family member. I recently got my late aunt's 1076, the 1st one I ever saw........ that made me hunt for my own, which I did. Sadly, hers NOW was in terrible shape. I took it to N. Canton this past summer, where Tom Anderson and I (well, I was only the assistant) brought it back to life.
Xmas items, kitchen items, vacuums, etc, are nice to have. There's a lot of 'comfort' in having them, I think. Maybe I dwell on the past too much. Sometimes, it's good to look back, as long as you're just looking.
"Memories may be beautiful, and yet..............................."

 

[texaskirbyguy]

I find the attraction to things you enjoyed when you were young, just HUMAN!
I know how you feel, even for board games that we do not even play anymore. Just having them and seeing them brings back oceans of memories. I still have most of mine - Mousetrap, Voice of the Mummy, Life, Monopoly, chess/checkers, Chinese checkers, Stay alive, Connect 4, the electronic Merlin and Split second handhelds, Water works card game, etc.

There was one that my mom got rid of long ago and that I had to ebay back a few years ago, one called Mostly Ghostly. It had glow in the dark skeletons that you had to assemble in the dark. I was and still am a sucker for skeletons, skulls and glow in the dark stuff, so getting that one back was a natural. )

I did have the joy of playing a lot of these games with my ex GF's young daughter. She loved them and those are also memories I will not forget...

Although I do not play with any of these now, I hope to do so again in 4-5 years after I retire and actually have the time.

 

[human]

The Clue weapons arrived in yesterday's mail so that one's now complete. The wood box editions are growing on me. They're not the originals but they do offer a sophisticated nostalgia. I may try to fashion a divider for the Stratego game box to keep the blue and red game pieces separate. I don't know why that bothers me, other than I kept all the pieces lined up in their original dividers in the one I had as a kid. A little strip of balsa wood or something similar, cut to the right length and glued into place should do the trick and would test the limits of my woodworking skills. A pair of zip lock baggies will work just fine in the meantime.

I looked at the Stay Alive games on eBay but they're more than I want to spend. One will come along in time.

 

[human]

A friend of mine was over last night with her 10-year-old daughter and I showed them the two board games. The daughter has a newer version of Clue and was fascinated by the numerous variations—differences in graphics, weapons, rooms and characters—between mine and what she's used to. It was late, so we didn't play it but maybe we'll do it another time.

Stratego was completely alien to her and didn't really resonate.

 

[kirbyklekter]

On my birthday in 1963

My moms boyfriend took me to get a haircut and then we drove over to the bowling alley and we ordered 2 BLT's on toast and a beer for him and a Buck Rogers for me and ate in the lounge. I felt so adult,haha. Then we drove home and my mom had surprise birthday party with all my friends there. They all pitched in and bought me the game of "Clue" 1963 version. Like you, I don't have my game anymore for different reasons but I believe just as equally irritating. I was living with my dad but decided to leave the game at moms so it would be there when I came down for visits and I could play with my friends who gave it to me. Well, my youngest brother went through one of the truest "Terrible Two's" phases I've ever witnesses. Apparently he got the game out and some of my other treasures like my 45 rpm record collection which he threw out into the street and down the storm drain etc. The clue game ended up in the deep end of our pool and I had to go get my Hula Hoop back from a kid down the street he gave it to. He was actually four at this time, just a late bloomer to this stage in his childhood career of terror. Didn't mean to run so long but I feel your pain in losing what should have been a cherished talisman.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Being that I have my family home,

EVERYTHING, just about, is still here!
I was a very anal retentive kid (BIG SURPRISE THERE). I still have a Hot Wheels Supercharger Sprint Set... complete and in the BOX! Record players with 45 rpm records (anyone remember the "Show'N Tell machine"? The games, Battleship, Trivial Pursuit, etc are still here, in their original boxes. I gave my sister her Barbies (Jackie Kennedy style clothes)... you could tell what era we were from. There WERE space capsule toys, etc. which were given to others. But, when one looks into the 2nd cellar, it is a time warp.."just a jump to the left".

 

[kirbyklekter]

If human doesn't mind...

Just a few things we did as kids that I rarely see these days: Flying kites remember? Playing 'kick the can' or hide and seek, tag, you're it. Playing cards clipped to your bike so they touched the spokes as you rode making a sound like a motorcycle. You could use balloons also rubbing the spokes, that was a Harley! Making a tree fort,sorry no girls allowed. Playing marbles, having a bag of marbles. Cap guns, we'd hit a whole roll at once with a hammer. Hearing eventually returned.Building tents and having friends stay over night. Playing 'Cowboys and Indians' building a go cart from scratch, and later adding a gasoline motor from an old Maytag washer, and removing the speed governor to go faster and crashing it into a tree when you went too fast for the turn, and getting all scraped up, but you beat fat Eddie who said he could run faster than the go cart. We showed him! Water balloon fights. I better stop,sorry.

 

[human]

Show 'n' Tell

We had one of those. My sister and I got it for Christmas when I was about five or six. It was the basic red version. A couple of years later, Dad found a deluxe black version with a built-in AM radio and the red one went away after he scavenged the needle for the record player to put into the black one. I think it was still in my room when I was in my early teens.

For those who don't know what the Show 'n' Tell was, it looked like a 12-inch TV set with a record player on top but it was actually sort of an audio filmstrip viewer. It had little eight-frame, 16mm filmstrips on cardboard or plastic carriers that played along with seven-inch records that played at 33.3 rpm instead of 45 rpm. The record player could play 16, 33.3, 45 and 78 rpm records. To this day, I have never seen a 16 rpm record. The frames advanced automatically as the story played on the record. The story was on one side and a song was on the other. The songs were pretty random and had no relation to the story. I remember one record had Tennessee Ernie Ford singing "Goober Peas" and another one had "Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley". Pretty, which was morbid stuff to accompany a children's story. We had a bunch of the story sets but the only ones I can remember are "Last of the Mohicans," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Rumpelstiltskin" and "Aladdin".

 

[tolivac]

16 RPM records were "talking book" records used by the blind.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

My Show'n Tell is still in the box. along with numerous

"Disney filmstrips". Made in U.S.A.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

I loved that Show'n Tell

I used it for years. I used to use my Tonka trucks, wipe them off, and put them away. O.C.D? maybe?????
When I die, someone is gonna have a ball with this house!!

 

[kirbyklekter]

Do you remember "Mr.Machine"

"Here he comes, here he comes,and his name is,Mr.Machine" a walking robot. My sister got what looked like the dashboard with a tilt steering wheel that was taken out of a 62 Mercury convertible. Just a windshield,dash,and a radio and heater controls.Red dash with chrome trim. It was like a table top car that drove nowhere. She got the deluxe Easy Bake Kitchen that year. I always liked my little suction cup toy that you pulled the string and the toy,would walk up the wall and onto the ceiling and just stop. I think mine was a Bumble Bee. It had about 3 or 4 lg. suction cup on a spring loaded wheel and you pulled the string to wind it up. Erector sets, tinker toys and Lincoln logs all before the Lego invasion. Slip n slide for fun on the lawn, a large vinyl sheet hooked to garden hose and it became a landing strip for kids to run and dive onto it, and slide really fast. Did you ever order an "Ant Farm" Can't remember the name of this item that was made to drink you soda pop through, but it split in half, the bottom would fit on the top of your favorite bottled coke,root beer, etc. You put a scoop of ice cream in to bottom,snapped the top on to it, it had a spout you drank through. So you had a ice cream float with every sip. I don't know why they aren't around any more they were very popular back then. Very "space age" looking. Cotton-candy maker for kids,remember those?

 

[gottahaveahoove]

We had the Coca Cola dispenser.. loved that thing

We also had the 'sno cone maker' that looked like a snowman. These things were great. Now, I'm feeling old.

 

[caligula]

"Now I'm feeling cold."

Ever notice how ice cream in winter warms you up and hot coffee, or tea in summer cools you down? Crazy, but its true.

 

[huskyvacs]

There's some things that when you own them for so many years/decades and see them every day - to suddenly get rid of them, or take them away - things just do not work out the same ever again until you get it back.

My father had a collection of trucker hats that hung on the stairwell for 35 years. Took them down in 2013 to "clean house" but ever since then - the void that is on the entire stairwell of a cold blank wall and not about a hundred multicolored hats from the 70s to the 90s scattered all over the wall has just never felt the same.

I still have them, they are in a box in the garage, but I seen mice damage in one box a few years ago, so I pray they didn't get too damaged. I am going to build an outdoor sink this summer so I am hoping to wash them in there and get them hung back up on the wall.

 

[human]

I stopped in at Goodwill tonight and bought another game—one I didn't have as a kid but had wanted. Battleship! Several of my friends had that game and I enjoyed playing it. Even though I asked for it, my parents never got it for me. I always thought that was a bit odd, considering my dad had been in the Navy.