Darrin - You have been AWOL! I know that Lego rustling sound very well. And what a fun hallway you had!

Like James, I was always rustling around piles of legos to find that right piece. Sometimes I didn’t always build stuff with them, though. My brother and I would each stand at an end of the hallway and chuck one of the large rubber lego wheels at the other in an attempt to get it past and score a goal. And that’s how all those black scuff marks got on the hallway, Mom…

When we got sick of collecting baseball cards, we dumped them in a pile, got into a running start, and slid on them in the same hallway. When we started collecting them again, we lamented the fact that many of them had creased-up “heel marks.” And then we’d slide on them again. Damn, every child should have a hallway.

Of course, a little floor space was all I needed to play the living crap out of seven Atari 2600 cartridges on a black & white TV. I was intrigued when I went over a friend’s house and saw that the Pac Man ghosts were actually all different colors.

Catching frogs was one of my hobbies, I think. I didn’t know what to do with ‘em once caught, so I just let them hop away. It’s a cool, tickly feeling when the frog hops out. Maybe that’s why I caught them.

Okay, folks, I’m moving on to the Stusser interview thread because I’m not good at juggling or multi-tasking. See you over there! xo

My favorite game, by far, was red rover, for reasons I don’t quite remember. We also played kickball, wallball, and four square. Though if we’re talking about board games, I would have to say Monopoly.

What toys did you play with? >>
Evel Knievel toys. All the damn time. (I sometimes wonder if I still live in Spokane because I have the belief that Evel might start hanging out here again.)

What kind of candy did you eat? >>
My grandfather used to get this big block of black licorice from work, and it came with a little miner’s pick, and you had to pick pieces of licorice off the block. I loved that stuff. Also lemon drops.

What was your first record (okay, CD for the true kiddos)?>>
I don’t remember my first 45 because I had an uncle who worked for a juke box rental company, and he gave us dozens every Christmas, but I do remember the first 45 I purchased was “Love Is Like Oxygen” by Sweet (mp3. I think my first album was News of the World. Though it may indeed have been Double Platinum.

My folks never bought us games. To cheap. They’d give us blank paper and make us entertain ourselves by drawing. We’d play the scribble game: one person makes a scribble, the other has to turn it into something.

Later I was able to get paid for this.

My friend next door had cool parents who bought him everything, so we played Mouse Trap, LIFE, and Operation. He also had Vaccuforms and a Creepy Crawler set, then he got Incredible Edibles, which was just like Creepy Crawlers, but you could eat them. They tasted rank though.

I liked sour and hot candies: Sweet Tarts, Pixie Sticks, stuff like that. I liked to fill my mouth with a whole box of Red Hots to feel it burn and ooze red. And I liked Hot Tamales (a weird gummy worm thing coated in Red Hot candy coating - do they still make those?)

My favorite record was The Flintstones. There were a couple of whole show sound tracks and several songs. Also The Smothers Brothers.

Most of my time was spent building forts and digging holes. We were always digging holes for some reason.

(crap…did I just say that out loud)