Mushrooms!

Looks like it was a pretty good year for mushrooms in the spring of 1980.

I noticed that I am wearing my "Mr. Bill Show " shirt too.
Oooooh Noooo!

What's Happening?

Brett dressing up for spirit week at school.
At least I hope he was dressing up for spirit week at school.

Can't you see him dancing like Rerun from "What;s Happening?"?

Slide

Chad and I playing on a slide in 1974.
I think I see Brett in the back ground wearing his number 32 shirt.

Looking at this slide reminded me of the joys of a good slide.

• It seemed a slide was more fun when you would climb up it any other way other than the ladder.
• I remember that it was rare for me to get a good slide run, I always seemed to stick to the slide and just creep down it.
• Remember slide burns?
• How about having to jump at the end of the slide to miss the puddle or mud that was always there?
• How about holding onto the support bars and then walking up the bottom of the slide and then flipping over?
• Group slides where three or four of your friends would stack together behind you and you all slid down all at once?
• A good slide had a bar over the starting point where you could swing back and forth to build up speed before you launched down the slide.
• Proving how cool and fast you were by being able to run up the slide without grabbing the edge on the way up.

Gloomy Woods

October 1978 is the date on the slide.

Looks like a scary forest to me.
Dad's part looks kind of scary to me too. I can't say I remember him wearing his hair that way.

I do remember those cool hats though.
You can tell they are new because you can still see the ball on top of Brett's hat.

These fell apart quickly because when you got on the bus the other kids would swat at them.
Sometimes the kid in the seat behind you would pull out a strand or two before you could catch him.
I think we ended up cutting them off ourselves.

Goobers

My Brother Brett and I in 1982.

I think we were just being goofy. It couldn't be for school because the slide says August 1982 on it and school didn't start until September.
Good old days when you actually got the summer off.

Nice to see my first car too, a Datsun B210.

Yes those were our daily glasses.
We were not trying to be Steve Urkel that was the style of the day.
We were cool.

Swinging

I think that is Chad in the middle fighting over the swing.

He has the same color hair as Chad and the boy is wearing Chads crazy pants but his face looks a little different.
See what I mean?

I am pretty confident that that is my hind end at the left of the picture though.

The chain is twisted and I have my chest on the swing seat.

As a general rule I hate and have always hated to be dizzy.

Peer pressure and youth would win out from time to time and I would give it a shot.
If I were gonna get dizzy or have the potential to be dizzy I would prefer to have it happen on the swing.
I was in control of the swing and could stop myself at any

••••••••••

Swings were great fun.
It was the closet thing to flight as a kid.
Swing as high as you could and free fall back down, rise again and fall back in reverse.

Sometimes I was an astronaut experiencing weightlessness as the chain went slack and for a slight moment I hung in the middle of the air, weightless.

Other times I was in the army and the swing was my parachute.
At my elementary school we had a cloth-rubbery type swing that hugged you between the chains.
This was perfect for parachuting.
I would swing as high as I could and while in the full back position and hovering ever so slightly I would jump out of the seat.

That is right. I, and my friends, would jump out of the swing just before inertia pulled you forward again.
So while at the height of your swing you would push out on the chains giving you the slack you needed and jump out.
As you fell back forward and down the swing would go up behind you ever so slightly.
Time this perfect and you would catch the swing in your arm pits and grab hold of the chain just like a soldier hanging from a parachute.

Next came the tricky part.
You had to pull your feet in front of you to "Land" your chute or you would be dragged across the ground.
No good soldier wanted to be drug across the ground. Land it right soldier!
My knees still show the evidence that this soldier missed his landing a few times.

•••••••••••

Swings were great to jump out of in the forward direction too.
We went for distance and not height in this competetion.
We would take turns standing to watch for distance and then mark the farthest jump with a stick.
This event usually ended with some sort of injury for someone.
Ankles, legs and tailbones were prone be suffer.
Occasionally someone would get stuck in the swing and be dragged backward and suffer the fate of a bad soldier landing incorrectly. Ouch!

•••••••••

Last time I tried to swing it made me feel dizzy so I quit. :(

Reflections

My brother Chad by the creek in1974.

The tree behind him was a vital place for us when we were younger.
It wasn't a big tree but it was a unique tree.
One limb of this tree arched over the creek and we could jump up, grab it and swing across the creek when it was to wide for us to just jump over.

Thanks Mom and Dad for giving us a place to jump and crawl around as kids.


I think they were still building the house when this slide was taken.
Chads plane is made out of scrap lumber from the construction site.

Does he have his pants on backwards or were they made that way?

Spring Mill 1975

1975 finds us at another park, Spring Mill Park.
This is a pretty neat place with an old fashioned settlement you can go through.


We are wearing some nice threads.
Purple and green jeans and look at all those stripes!

Exploring 1973

Mom and her sons on an expedition in the forest.

Posing by some rocks elsewhere that same day.

A fun little jaunt through the park....or is it?

It has been a few years so I think it is time that we confess that we were really a secret spy family preparing for a mission.

There, our true identities are now revealed.

I mean look at us. The world should have known it all along because we wore the fashion and faces of the spy world.

So how did our friends not catch on?

Training. Hours and hours of training.

Here is a close up of the last group shot to demonstrate to you what I mean.

I take the lead, being the oldest, and put on my regular day face.

Masters of espionage!

Three Brothers

1973
Can you feel the brotherly love?

How about Motherly love?
Three boys wearing matching clothes, posing for a picture and smiling?
We do look young enough though that we wouldn't care if we did have matching clothes on.

I don't remember caring what I wore until middle school.

I also notice Monroe up on the wall behind us.
Look for his strange story in future posts.
No deer has ever had as much life as he has had.

Can you all help me out too?
How much should I charge when AT&T approaches me to use this pictures in their ad campaigns?
For those who need help with my humor watch this. Click HERE

The Carters

These are some pictures of a visit that my family made to my Aunt and Uncle Carters house back in 1974.

This is my Uncle Leslie in his easy chair telling some big story.



He would also do magic tricks for us.

He would make marbles disappear and then they would fall out of our pant legs or come out of our ears. We loved it.
This is my Aunt Dixie.

Looks like she is cooking supper. Mmmm!

We loved to see her but hated to leave her.
When we left it was required that we give her some "sugar".

As she kissed us good bye and while my cousins laughed and giggled she would declare that we had "Strawberry sugar!" and that she wanted more.

Which means my brothers and I hid behind our Mothers legs.


This is Linda.

Thats right Linda Carter.

When Wonder Woman was on T.V. I told all my friends in middle school that I was related to Linda Carter.

They would say "Really? and I could honestly say "Yes".
I didn't bother to tell them that the Linda Carter I was related too wasn't Wonder Woman though.
Why ruin it for them?

Here is the face she made for me so I could show all my friends a picture of Linda Carter.

That is her sister Brenda sitting next to her.


Now Brenda has magically changed into my cousin Loretta.

I suspect that a phone call caused Brenda to leave the couch.

I remember the girls sitting on the floor with their fingers shoved into their ears trying to talk to their boyfriends on the phone while we were there.

Their Dad tormented them while they were on the phone.
My Dad joined in on the teasing too.

I just took notes and now torment my kids while they talk to boyfriends and girlfriends on the phone.



This is Brenda after getting off the phone.

Dad or Uncle Leslie must have gone to far in their teasing.


Loretta and Linda don't look to sure about the story that their Dad must be telling.

I noticed something on the shelf above them.


See that Mickey Mouse I have circled?

I made that.

We had a toy called Shaker Maker.
You added some powder and water into a mold and shook it for all it was worth.
After it set up and you pried it from the mold you could paint it.

I made a Mickey Mouse for my sugar stealing Aunt Dixie.
I think I thought this might help me escape the sugar raid but it probably just made it worse.

I do remember being surprised the next time we visited and I saw that the Mickey Mouse was up on the shelf.
After this surprise I made it a point to look for Mickey year after year and it was always there.

I swelled with pride seeing it each time.

It shank each year I saw it but it remained on public display until they moved.

Image from HERE and thanks too to Brian A for helping me remember the name of the toy.

You can visit Brian A's toy blog HERE.

Last but not least this is my cousin Leslie Kay.

I remember that she asked Brett and I if we wanted to play Jacks.

We said "Sure" but Brett and I were expecting a card game.
Nope. It was Jacks. A little rubber ball and metal jacks that look like something Batman would throw down to explode the tires of a car.

She taught us the rules and we had fun playing a girls game.
Onesies, towsies and so on.

We then went outside to shoot basketball.

Good memories.

The Calico Frog

This is my Mom inside of the Calico Frog.

The Calico Frog was a store that she owned for quite a few years while I was growing up.

Can you guess what decade it was? Macrame, paisley and antique green are a few clues.

The slide up above was taken in 1975 where the store was first located.

This slide was taken in 1977 and it is of the stained glass window that was on the front door of the stores second location.

The doors were hand made with wrought Iron door handles and hinges.
Very cool.

Tough Guys

What a bunch of goobers.
I am just plain goofy. Chad is doing his best Sears catalog pose.
And I think Brett is working a Teen Beat magazine cover look.

Water Slide 2

Me in my cut off half shirt zipping down the Zoom Floom in Bloomington.

My kids can't believe shirts like this were popular but they were.

The one I am wearing was made as a half shirt but I made plenty of them myself.

Here is one at this LINK.

Here is more pictures of the Zoom Floom.

Here it is today and from a satellites view.

Leisure Suit Larry

Yeah that is Chad in the center frame with his head turned impressing Melissa.
I don't know who Melissa is but that is what her name tag says is her name.
Looks like maybe a class trip to the Zoo or a farm or something but I love Chads clothes.
He was styling.

Indy 500 1976

Brett, Chad, myself and my friend Todd at the Indy 500 track.

I can't say I remember this particular trip but it has some elements I remember from other trips that we took to the track.

I do remember that Todd's Dad operated the yellow light during the race.

I see some sort of program in my hand.

Chad is sporting a home made T-shirt.

Brett, and I have on out little league baseball hats while Todd wears an opponent teams hat.

Tank tops were a must for track attire as well as the beer tab necklace I am wearing.

I think I made one of these every time I went to the track. Pull tabs have been gone for a while but I bet If I went to the infield at the track I would still be able to find enough to make a necklace. I only say this because I spotted some on the ground this weekend and a touristy place.
Am I giving a thumbs up?

Aaaaay! I am The Fonz!

Hoosier in Hawaii?

Looks like we are on vacation with The Brady's in Hawaii but were in Hoosier Hawaii. (Florida)

Not sure where we are in Florida but I know we were glad to leave the blizzard we had that winter of 78.

I remember Dad pointing out the snow that was still on the ground as we left that spring.

He told us to make sure we told our Uncle Jack that snow was still on the ground in Indiana.

•••••••
Mom must have been scared of the Tiki's. Look how blurry the picture is.
•••••••
My kids make fun of our socks in the 70's. They say "Look how tall they are!".

They are coming back though because Megan has some just like the ones I am wearing in this picture.

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.

Snowman

Yeah like we built this snowman. No that would be my Moms handy work.
1973 and we had a Santa snowman so we were guaranteed a stop by him.

Where were we? 1451 Lexington.

We posed with Dad in a picture I posted HERE and we talked about our favorite gloves there.

Chad is eating the snowman with his Tweety gloved hand and sporting his dog puppet on his other hand.

Bugs and Yosemite Sam for Brett and I

Mom built some other cool snowmen so when I find some of those pictures I will post them.