Long John Christmas

All the males in my family revived long handle underwear for Christmas back 87? 88?

I think I will submit this to Awkward Family Photos.

Sparkle Suit Chirstmas

Christmas with the cousins.
Sharon, Gary, Me, Mom Karen, Georgina, Trina Steve and Larry.

Christmas 2009

We have had a couple of busy weeks as I am sure you have too.
Here is a brief review of our Christmas.

We had a progressive dinner with Elaine's family.

My nieces and nephew entertained us at their home where we had appetizers.


We went to our house for the main course.

We then finished up at Elaine's parents house with desert.

Elaine's Dad read part of the Christmas story at each house.


A few days before Christmas Levi asked his girlfriend, Hope, to marry him.
Thankfully she said yes and they came to our house so we could congratulate them.

Elaine welcomes or new addition to the family.

The ring!

Here is the happy couple.

Christmas Eve found us at my parents house and it can be seen HERE in a smile box that my Mom created.




Christmas morning at our house and we wake up to our tradition orange rolls.
I still haven't fixed the oven so Elaine made them in the toaster oven.


Levi is anxiously awaiting the orange rolls.


Joel got his letter jacket.

Megan and Levi got netbooks.



Scooby got a flying squirrel.


The master mind of a great weekend.

Don't worry, I got some toys!

Happy new year!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and that you get something as cool as I did in 1977.
A King Kong black light poster!

Brian B

Cousins 1965

Christmas 1965 has me with my cousins on my Mom's side of the family.
I am on my Grandma Whites lap.
And now I will take a stab at the rest,
Rhonda, Sondra, Dee Dee, Bret, Steve and Doug.

Happy Birthday Brett

Happy birthday little brother.
I say little meaning I am older than he is not that I am taller than him.
This is Brett opening presents in 1973.

The first thing I notice is the Mego Tarzan in the box on the floor.

I also see a paint set and another box I can't make out to the left.
Brett is wearing some cool moccasins too.

I am guessing Brett is messing with a gun holster.

Brett is never more than a chest hair away from some sort of weapon.

I also noticed a left over Halloween decoration on the floor.

This next Christmas is four years later, 1977.


I'm not sure what is in the box but I can just hear Brett's thoughts now.

"Oh! I hope it's a sweater! No. A sweater vest! Yeah that would be cool."

"No it's the box is to heavy. Oh boy! Oh boy!"

At this point Brett says out loud.
"I hope it is something to do with the second amendment!"

I say, while digging through my stocking looking for something Batman.
"What in the world are you talking about?"

Brett replies. "You know the second amendment? The right to bear arms."

Which after hearing this I look at him and this is what see in my mind.

Cousins 1966

Aren't I a nice little sailor?

Mom is holding me and my cousins with us are Ann, Georgina, Steve, Gary, Trina, Karen and Larry.

I might have Gary and Larry switched.
Maybe Karen will correct me in the comments.

Triming the Tree

Brett trimming the tree in 1973.
Looks like a lot of hair spray is in the chair in the foreground.

Christmas 1966

Aren't I the snazzy dresser?

I would love to see one of cardboard fireplaces today.
If I remember right it had something that spun in behind the fake logs.
The spinning device crackled and flickered like flames.

I also see one of Mom's Christmas candles on the cardboard mantle.

Cha Ching Christmas 1975 (Part 2)

This is a continuation from yesterday, Christmas morning 1975.

Here you can see the awe on my face while opening my Aurora Batman model.

Chad has a serious face while doing his unwrapping too.

Here Duke that I had a post about HERE.

You can also see fireplace that will soon be filled with wrapping paper for Dad to set ablaze.

Cha Ching Christmas 1975

Wow! A lot of good toys in this picture, Christmas morning 1975.

This slide show my brothers Brett and Chad.
I am sure I am off hugging and thanking my parents while they are playing with their toys.

Boy, what toys they were.

Here we have Brett with The Ricochet Racer.

Ricochet Racer was a gun where you loaded cars
into bullet casings and fired them
at each other and watched them crash and jump.

Here is a cool ad for it HERE and HERE along with an ad for the Ghost Gun that we had.
•
We played with the Ghost Gun in the space under the stairs.
With it you loaded a translucent strip of paper with ghost pictures on it into the gun.
When you switched the gun on it projected the "ghosts" image onto the wall like a flashlight.
The back part of the gun could move around so you could aim at the ghost.
BANG! When you pulled the trigger it put a hole in the paper strip and blasted the ghost.
You could blast the ghost all to pieces, shoot a face on him or shoot off a hand or something.
You did have to buy replacement ghost strips though.

Chad got the Fischer Price Castle.
Mom and Dad still might have this one in the barn
with a mouse living in the secret hiding place under the stairs.
•
Looks like a view master reel pack laying on the floor behind the castle.

Aurora Batman model. Sweet!

I had Batman and Brett got the Superman model.
We assembled these but we never painted them.
•
There is a shooting gallery behind my Batman model that I vaguely remember
which means it broke fast.

Blocks, the accessory to every toy.
We used these with every toy we ever owned.
Used and abused them and they still held up over time.

This one is laying on its side.
Looks like its called "Sea Diver".

You squeezed the sides of the bottle causing the diving bell to dive and you tried to hook different things with it.

Fun toy.

Fischer Price movie cassette.
We already had the viewer (Mentioned HERE) but it looks like we all got some new movies because I saw another one on the floor somewhere.

Even Spooky the cat seems to be taking all the toys in.
Probably trying to decide which one she wants to have her next batch of kittens on.

Quit a haul in one slide but we have more slides to come tomorrow!

Effects Of The Hat

Dad got a hat for Christmas and it seems to have the same effect on his sons and grandsons.

Merry Christmas

Have a very "Double Bubble" Christmas from the Butler boys and the neighbor kid , Kurt.

Christmas At Our house 1973

Christmas at our house with Uncle Jerry, Aunt Laura and Monroe the deer.
Monroe did become more than just Dads trophy,
he became a member of the family but I will go into that in a later post.

Me, Shari, and Brett digging our presents.
•
I also noticed some of Mom's candles in the bottom corner.
A Nativity and a snowman.

More pictures of the candles HERE.

In this one I noticed a Rip VanWinkle decorative bottle,
up on the mantel,that Dad received as a gift.

It did have whiskey in it but the seal went unbroken for years
until we had a get together.
Dad spotted the broken seal after our guests left, so he must have saw them drink it.
We asked "What did it taste like?".
Dad said "Nasty" but this didn't satisfy our curiosity and we didn't stop asking the question.
So Dad had us drink some vanilla extract and that stopped our questions.
Nasty was right.

His hat unscrewed.

I also noticed someone playing with Tarzan

I posted some better pics with him HERE.

It also got posted on the site MEGO Museum which is dedicated to these toys. HERE

Christmas At Grandma Whites 1973 (3)

Brett eating and Dougie checking out the presents under the tree.

Look what Brett has! A View-Master with a projector!
I also see a Snoopy toothbrush holder on the floor.
•
Grandmas advent calendar can be seen hanging on the wall behind Brett.
We had one too.
Each pocket held and ornament that we would hang on the felt tree each day until Christmas.
Brett always got to hang up the 17th because it was his birthday. That pocket held Rudolph because it was Brett's favorite ornament.

It was a sad day when we had to throw ours away but one of the cats dyed it yellow.

Chad has a puzzle and a semi truck.

I got a typewriter that I think Sondra wants.
•
This typewriter ended up in a tree fort and we mostly used it to type on our fingers.
We checked it for any "dropped" letters
after watching a Brady Bunch episode
and like to see how all the mechanics worked.

Aunt Loraine helps Chad with his semi while Mom looks on.

Dee Dee oversees the crowd while I look mad.

I remember being disappointed because I didn't get a toy for Christmas.
Mom told me how I was growing up and harder to by for.
Everyone has learned since then that I am easy to buy for,
just buy me a toy.

Naked tree until the next year.