It's Been a Busy Summer

Elias' Fourth Birthday

Four seems to be that magical age where a kid really starts to understand what his birthday is all about and all the goodies associated with having a birthday. Elias was so excited about his birthday yesterday that he was ready at 1:10am to have friends over and open presents. He continued to sit in our bed and talk about his birthday party until 4:30 in the morning! Not quite the way I wanted to start a day of cleaning, grilling and hosting a house full of friends but we had a nice day none the less.

If it were up to Elias, every present would be a sword or at least a weapon of another kind. He did get this set of two Pirates of the Caribbean swords that he really wanted. Most of his presents fall into the categories of either Spider-Man, Superman, Pirates, Batman, or Ninja Turtles. For his birthday party we rented a moon bounce for the second year in a row. This year we had a twenty foot tall Spider-Man moon bounce and slide. All the kids loved it and it acted as a babysitter for the entire day making it worth every penny it cost to rent!

We had a nice turn-out and we want to thank everyone who came and gave Elias such nice presents. It was very enjoyable spending the afternoon with you all! After the party had pretty much emptied out, a few friends stuck around and we ended up doing another round of burgers and dawgs on the grill at about 8:00pm! Good Eats! Good Times!

Happy Birthday Elias!

Huckleberry Hound Fan Club

Being a kid used to be a lot more fun that it is for today's kids. Back in the day nothing was more exciting that having your own membership card into some Fan Club. I can't imagine many kids nowadays putting down their Gameboy to give a credit card sized piece of paper much attention. I would have been all over this Huckleberry Hound Fan Club if I were born about 20 years earlier! Well, I'd still like to send away for it but I have a feeling my check or money order would come back marked "return to sender."

One time when I was a kid I lost my play wallet at a Roy Rogers. Inside was my Roy Rogers Double R-Bar Club membership card and an ID card that I filled out in crayon. Where it asked for blood type I put: "red". Luckily, the bored buckaroo at Roy's took a few minutes from the roast beef shaver and called my house so I could come in and get my important documents.

Viva Las Reese Cup!

Yesterday when I was looking for a little something-something to satisfy my sweet tooth I came across this glorious new product sitting on the candy shelves - Reese's Limited Edition Elvis Peanut Butter & Banana Creme cups. First of all, I love products trying to cash in on a dead celebrity. Second, I love Hershey/Reese's Limited Edition products (Pina Colada Almond Joy we miss you!) And I love Banana flavored anything, so what a perfect combination! Anywho, these are certainly tasty little creations worth a try. They kind of do taste like a Peanut Butter and Banana sandwich, of which Elvis was known to down a couple in his day! The candy adds the taste of banana to the popular Reese's Cup flavor. You can definitely taste the banana but it's not too powerful, it mixes well with the Peanut Butter. The new product comes in four different Elvis wrappers if you happen to collect such things. Unfortunately one of the wrappers does not feature 1970's fat Elvis who would have eaten a couple dozen of these Reese's Cups in one sitting!

My Birthday With The Gambler

Not only do I share my August 21st birthday with the incomparable Kenny Rogers, but yesterday my wife surprised me by taking me to a Kenny Rogers concert! How sweet is that!? We had a great time because Kenny Rogers is the man. Whether he's wood roasting some chicken or belting out the hits behind the mic, you simply cannot top the Gambler himself, Mr. Kenny Rogers!

This is a cliche that you hear alot BUT Kenny really does make it look effortless. He came out on stage and sang hit after hit, classic after classic, and never stopped the show to take a breath. He rocked "The Gambler", "Ruby", "Coward of the County"...he brought the dump down with "Lady" and wrapped it all up with a Dollyless version of "Islands in the Stream"! Let me tell you two things..."The Gambler" is simply put, one of the greatest songs every recorded & a singer and a song do not go together better than "Lady" and Mr. Kenny Rogers.

Japanese Thomas Candy Wrappers

Today we feature these funky little candy wrappers from Thomas the Tank Engine candy made in Japan. I picked up the pack of candy back in March while I was at Walt Disney World. In the Japan pavilion at Epcot there is a large store run by Mitsukoshi, a four-century-old retail company. The stores sells all kinds of stuff like kimonos, housewares, and books but my favorite section is (of course) the food! They have all kinds of wild candy and snack items. My very favorite item (and it's become a tradition to pick some up) is Shrimp Chips! Yummy! Shrimp Chips are like a cross between Andy Capp's Pub Fries and Crinkle Cut french fries, except they taste like shrimp! Good Eats! I also like to pick up some Rice Candy which is also so very good. When we were in Epcot earlier this Spring, I also grabbed some Thomas candy, and something called Hi-Chew which was kind of like Starbrust but way better! I tell you what, if I ever went to Japan I wouldn't sleep in one of those hotels where you lay in a tube, but I would get my candy on...Godzilla style!

Panthers are Pink, Aardvarks are Blue

The other day I was coloring with the kids and came across some pages in a Pink Panther coloring book of the slightly obscure cartoon series THE ANT AND THE AARDVARK. The Aardvark cartoons were a theatrical series produced between 1969 and 1971. They popped up on TV years later in different syndicated packages with the Pink Panther. Anyhow, The Ant and the Aardvark are also on my long list of favorite cartoon characters, and since you don't really ever hear about them anymore, I though it was cool to find some artwork of them in a coloring book. Not that coloring them would be much fun for a kid...except for their white eyeballs the Aardvark is all one shade of blue and the ant is red from head to toe! Here's a couple of pages I wasted my time scanning...

It's The Muppet Show Season Two DVD

A season of a TV show on DVD is like a good book. It takes a while to get through it all but you savor every moment of it while it lasts and and when it's over you want more. Such is the case with last week's release of the second season of THE MUPPET SHOW on DVD. Easily one of my favorite shows of all time, The Muppet Show has not been aired in reruns all that much in the last two decades so it's fun to see all these great shows again. Season two, which aired in the 1977-78 television season, has some big guest stars on it's roster. Singers, actors and comedians all lined up to share billing with the popular Muppets. Seeing some of the greats in entertainment is really a treat with this set. Disc one alone features Don Knotts, Zero Mostel, Milton Berle and Rich Little. I loved Rich Little when I was a kid, even though I had no idea who half the people he was imitating were. Other comedy stars on this set include the legendary Edgar Bergen, Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, George Burns, Dom DeLuise, Peter Sellers, John Cleese, and Bob Hope. From the world of song ya got Judy Collins, Elton John, Lou Rawls, and Petula Clark.

It wouldn't be a 70's variety show without a handful of guests that have no relevance in today's world, and they would be Teresa Brewer (who?), Cleo Laine (who?), and Nancy Walker (the Pamolive gal.)

In my book, this stuff is better than 99.8% of the television they are making today!

Tanner Eats and Sleeps

Coloring with Kellogg's

Here's a fun little item from the archives, actually this is from a box of old stuff from my wife's childhood that my mother-in-law dumped off at the house one night. It's a 1980 coloring and activity book celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Kellogg's Cereal. There's no bar code on the back, so I'm assuming it was either an in-store giveaway or something you send away for. Although it could have been shrink wrapped to a box of cereal too, I guess. This fun book has comics, games, and pages to color featuring the entire cast of Kellogg's mascots. Like everything else wonderful in our universe most of these characters are no longer in use. Just looking at the cover of this book my favorites are the little Apple Jack kids that look like they were drawn by kids. They never really got the attention they deserved. Here a couple of pages from the book...

Click on the images to enlarge them and play along at home!

The elephant's name is Tusk and he could be found on the Cocoa Krispies box. In this picture it looks like he borrowed his sunglasses from one of the Banana Splits. Tony Jr. was on Frosted Rice cereal. I think nowadays both of those cereals have Snap, Crackle and Pop on them. Dig `Em the frog used to enjoy a hearty bowl of Sugar Smacks. Today he eats Honey Smacks and dresses like he's in an L.A. street gang!

Kellogg's Corn Pops have had so many mascots over the years. Here's Poppy, who I personally don't remember so I guess he wasn't around that long!

Nothing says fun to kid like coloring 75 year old breakfast cereal boxes!

Here's part of a game that we featured in the book. It gives a neat glimpse at the 1980 line-up of products that Kellogg's had to offer. There's the old Sun dude from Raisin Bran, the Honey & Nut Cereal before they changed to the beloved Nut & Honey version, and something called Raisins, Rice & Rye which I doubt even sounded yummy back in those less enlightened years.

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Today is my wife Jennifer's birthday. Let's all give a great big "Happy Birthday" to Jen! Love ya honey!

"I Tawt I Taw the Shirt Tales!"

Last Tuesday I did a post about those lovable Shirt Tales and their stint at Six Flags Over Georgia. Basically, I was surprised to have found out that the Shirt Tales appeared at the park, but then was kind of ashamed that I didn't even remember that. So, this weekend I'm at my mom's house and she presents me with these photographs of the Shirt Tales show from our trip to Six Flags in 1984! How me coming face to face with some of my favorite greeting card mascots/crime fighters escaped my mind, I'll never know! Even though the pictures don't have me on anyone else in my family in them, it's still proof that we saw the Shirt Tales live! I'm sure I was keeping an eye on the entertainment schedule and my Michael Jackson watch all day to make sure we didn't miss this tour de force performance.




And look, Digger even came out in the audience and walked right past us! Granted, he's no Bogey...but still, It's Digger for crying out loud!

Just for fun I dug up a picture of this Shirt Tales at Six Flags button on ebay. Somebody wants at least $50.00 for it. It's a pretty sweet button, but it ain't worth no $50! Notice up in the rainbow it lists all the parks in the Six Flags chain at the time. This was of course before they owned just about every amusement park in the United States!

This Cheese Sandwich is a Triangle

In addition to bringing you high quality retro-crap here at Wonderful World of Blog, I'm also on the review staff over at UltimateDisney.com, easily one of the best sources on the internet for information about Disney DVDs. My latest assignment was to review another instalment in the Baby Einstein library of preschool videos. The 24th title in the series is Baby Einstein: Discovering Shapes - Circles, Squares and More! Here you'll see videos of grilled cheese sandwiches, sailboats, boxes and lots of eggs all categorized by their shape. It's spellbinding entertainment. Anywho, click here for my review.

Hanna-Barbera Survivors

Outside of Scooby-Doo, any references to anything Hanna-Barbera left at Kings Dominion is strictly a matter of economics. Sometimes it's just cheaper to leave things the way they are. On my recent photo-taking spree at the theme park, I captured a few images of some things still hanging on from the time Yogi Bear was the park's mascot.



This sign can be seen hanging over the entrance to the Dodge Em Bumper Cars, one of the parks original rides. Here, Mumbly shows us the proper way to secure ourselves in the bumper cars. Mumbly was the star of his own Saturday morning cartoon around the same time Kings Dominion was built. He later appeared in the classic Laff-A-Lympics series also on Saturday mornings. Mumbly looks alot like Muttley, another Hanna-Barbera dog but they are actually two different characters.

At the loading station for the Blue Ridge Tollway antique car ride there still hangs a sign featuring characters from a late 60's show called WACKY RACES. These characters are so obscure, I don't even know their names!!!

In the original kiddie section of the park, Hanna-Barbera Land, there was a few Flintstone themed attractions all grouped together along with some other Flintstone landscaping and structures. The only remaining bit o'Flintstones at the park is this kiddie bumper car building that doesn't have any direct references to the show, but it was built to look like it would have existed in the Flintstones world. The cars inside the ride are just regular looking bumper cars.

Last we have these graphics that still remain outside of what was once Yogi's Cave. Yogi's Cave was an awesome walkthrough attraction that we've discussed many times here at WWoB before. It's now called Treasure Cave, and (almost) everything inside it has been removed. In fact, the contents of the Yogi-less cave are a subject for an upcoming post on this very blog. The outside of the end of the cave to this day features these Hanna-Barbera style graphics. If you look closely you can see where some other graphics have been removed. I believe Yogi or the Ranger once stood here pointing to the entrance to the cave. Now, it's just kind of these weird cartoony forest sitting among real plants.

Does Your Chewing Gum Loose It's Flavor After 25 Years

If you thought my memory of breakfast cereals from the last couple of decades is bizarre, check out this post over at Dan's A Sampler of Things. He's got some scans of old bubble gum wrappers from the 80's. You're likely to see something you haven't thought about in a long time! The cool thing is these aren't images he's collected from various sites, he's actually got all these wrappers in his massive collection of stuff! Drop on by and take a look.

Arts & Crafts with Weapons

Sometimes I get asked what I do all day at home with the kids. Well, some days it's just errands, swing set and TV...other days might be a little field trip. Yesterday we got creative and did some "arts and crafts" and made superhero stuff. Elias was using a book as a shield and I suggested we make our own shield out of some cardboard that I had in the garage. I thought it would be a good creative thing for him to design and color himself. However, he wanted to make a Captain America shield. So we got a book about comic books from the library and we looked up the ol' Captain and designed a circular shield like his. I drew the design and then the kids helped color it. It's made out of cardboard with a cardboard handle ducktaped on the back. The kids love it! Elias is showing off the shield in this picture.

Then I took the scraps of cardboard and made two swords for the boys, covered with tin foil for that shinny effect. While I was doing this, big brother Joey woke up and wanted to get in on the fun. He's a master duck tape artist, so he whipped out a couple rolls of his colored tape and made both the kids masks. Tanner wasn't too interested in posing for pictures, but for Elias we added a security blanket cape and he was ready to fight the bad guys:

also...

Proud Papa Moment The other day Elias was doing some kind of weird dance on his tippy toes. I asked him what he was doing. He replied, "This is the way Scooby-Doo and Shaggy run away from the ghosts." Ahhh...I spent many hours of my youth trying to perfect the "jumping up and running in place before darting off" method of leaving a room a la' Fred Flintstone.

Charming Local Site of the Week A man at a road construction site simultaneously operating his Stop/Slow sign, a walkie-talkie, a cigarette and a Arby's Roast Beef sandwich.