Me and Mom 1979

Mom and I standing in a side yard of our house.

I was looking in the background and I am pretty sure that that barn burned down a few years ago.

Our House 1989

The yard looks nothing like this today.

I can remember planting all these trees as saplings.
As we would dig the holes and water the little trees Dad would try to get us to imagine our kids playing in a forest of a front yard

I would try to imagine it and I can remember being a little jealous because they would enjoy climbing in trees that I could, would a did run over with the lawn mower.

Now all but one of my kids are married and I did enjoy my kids playing in these trees.
It was a source of leaves for school projects, a canopy from the Sun and fun for them to climb and hide in.

Better than I ever imagined as a kid.

Thanks Dad for letting (making) me help plant these trees.

Ps.  Can I have the ones that are dead for firewood?

Chad 1973

Chad on Lexington Ave. February 1973.

A 1980's Evening

This is our living room on a typical night in the 1980's.

I am on the couch to the left.

Looks like I am diligently reading the paper like a young adult but I am sure I am just reading the comics section.

I didn't even like most of the comics but I always read them just in case they might grow on me.  

Alley Oop almost did once but it didn't take.  Garfield did.

Dad is in the white T-shirt looking cool.

Maybe Brett and I were grounded and had to stay in with Dad?  

Nah I don't remember being grounded.  Brett is though.  He has an injured leg.

Brett is on the floor with our cat E.T., The extra Cat-terstrail.

Lets see what else makes it an 80's living room.

 Our gaming system or should I say THE gaming system of the day, Atari!

You can see the different cartridges stacked up next to the console.
I can't remember them all but we had several Atari and Activison games.

Ka-Boom - A clown or convict catches bombs in a bucket of water.
Freeway - Like Frogger but you had to get a chicken across the road and not a frog.
Dragster - Drag race a car. Duh!  Don't blow your engine though!
Superman - Superman flew around Metropolis and had to capture Lex Luthor and save Lois Lane.
Pitfall - It was an Indiana Jones type adventure.
Basketball - The ball was a square and only one leg moved up and down when you ran.
Arcade where you shot balloons and other games that I can't remember right now.  I am old.

Pong was in the closet at this point.

We played our Atari on a 13 inch black and white T.V.

I was married before my parents got a color televison.

Dad waited until the black and white one died.

This T.V. would be a mystery to kids today.

You had to walk up to the T.V. to change the channels or if you were Dad you told the kids what channel you wanted.

It had rabbit ears for an antenna.

There was a nob on the back to adjust the picture when the picture would start to roll or wrap around from side to side.

The vacuum cleaner would mess up the picture when it was running.

We watched some amazing shows on it and we/I loved it.

This was cool.  We had a real pinball machine!

Ours was called the Jolly Roger.

It was awesome.

My brothers and I would stack LP's on the cabinet stereo and play for hours.

Brett can probaly tell us the year because of the cast he has on.

He had to stay inside and watch T.V..  I was always there.

That is the cat I mentioned earlier.  His name was E.T. 

I told you it was the 80's

We also had a dog named 2D.

It was pronounce Tootie like the girl on "Facts of Life but spelled like R2D2.

It was the 80's.

The cat is helping Brett recuperate.

 Remember winning these at the fair?
A Coke or Pepsi bottle that had been heated up and stretched out real long.
Sometimes they were filled with a color fluid.

At our fair you had to stand a bottle upright buy using a stick with a string. The string had a ring attached to the end and you had to slip this around the neck of a bottle that was laying on its side and try to make it stand up without it falling off a small board.

My parents got me one of these for Christmas two years ago.
I opened it and said "Cool I remember these!"
Dad started to laugh and said "It is yours!  I found it in the attic!"
Dad regifted me my own stuff.

Well played Dad.