This was made all the more incredible by the fact that I grew up in a time where knowing how to properly skateboard inevitable made you the coolest person. Bart Simpson did it. Marty McFly did it. Wally Bear did it in an effort to warn you about the dangers of drugs. And by the time I had grown too old for cartoons and teddy bears telling me not to smoke marijuana, there was a newfound skateboarding popularity craze thanks to Tony Hawk.

It’s no surprise that toy companies tried to capitalize on the coolness of skateboards. One of my favorite toy lines of all time is Kenner’s Savage Mondo Blitzers, basically a hodgepodge of grotesque and wacky creatures who traveled in “gangs” on their skateboards. (The line was even called Skateboard Mania in Greece.) But an even stranger toy line appeared years prior, and in many ways, toys like these might justify why I never mustered the courage to really try and become good at skateboarding.

In 1986, Playtime Toys (not to be confused with Playmates Toys) decided to capitalize on the “gross out” craze that had made Garbage Pail Kids and Madballs into overnight success stories. They created a toyline called Skateboard Smack Ups. There is no accompanying storyline, so we’re not sure what the relationships are between these characters. The package simply states that these toys feature “Real SKATEBOARD action! Hi-Speed Wheels!” and that you should, of course, “Collect them All!”

This amazing collection was sold on eBay recently.

But then you take a closer look at the characters themselves. For example, Wally Wallbanger met with an unfortunate accident when he skated head first into a brick wall. Ouch! Then there’s Patty Plate Glass, who looks like she skated through a window and is still riding despite the fact that shards of glass have punctured her body and split her head open. While these injuries no doubt sent these children to the emergency room, none are quite as disturbing as Tammy Tailpipe, who not only has a tailpipe that went THROUGH her head, but she’s quickly billowing out as she gets filled with exhaust fumes. SHE SHOULD BE DEAD!

Collectors of these 80s curiosities love the designs because, let’s face it, a toy line like this probably wouldn’t get made today, although if you didn’t want your child to skateboard, I’m pretty sure he or she would be completely turned off from the hobby via these outrageous toys.

Because of their relative obscurity, obtaining a set is a difficult-but-not-impossible task. I was able to collect all 12 figures without too much trouble…assuming that those 12 figures were the only ones made. Little did I know a fortuitous set of circumstances would lead me to the rarest of all Skateboard Smack Ups toys.

Last year, my sister and I acquired a large collection of Toy Fair catalogs from the mid-to-late 1980s that were given out at the International Toy Fair. These catalogs show what companies have planned out for their various toy lines, but because these are meant to showcase what will be produced if they have the means of producing them, they often serve as a showcase for several rare unproduced toys that simply did not see any time on shelves because toy stores didn’t order enough to justify it. One of the catalogs we obtained was the Playtime Toys 1986 catalog, which showed the Skateboard Smack-Ups line.

Imagine my surprise when I saw one I didn’t recognize: a deluxe, motorized one called Manny Manhole. Based on the image, this battery-operated toy was significantly larger than the rest of the toys in the line and therefore couldn’t have been packed alongside the other 12 figures in the series. I said, “Well, I guess they never produced that one!” and went about my day.

Since I had completed my set a while ago, I hadn’t thought about what the figures were worth, but I decided to take a look at what they were going for on eBay just to see if people were still interested in them. Imagine my surprise when someone had actually listed a boxed example of Manny Manhole! By gar, it was produced!

After being listed at a rather high Buy-It-Now price for close to a month, I contacted the seller about making an offer. Clearly, he appreciated the rarity of the item as much as I did. We came to an agreement, and while this item was on the expensive side, I knew the likelihood of me finding another boxed example was relatively slim.

In person, he’s pretty interesting. The box is fairly sizable to accommodate a figure that is at least twice as large if not three times as large as every other figure in the line. He’s also the only character in the entire line to have artwork created exclusively for his character, as everyone else was thrown on a generic blister card. Because he’s significantly larger than the other characters, Playtime Toys actually added stickers to his t-shirt. The back features the classic skull-and-crossbones design, while the front simply has the phrase “Trash” on it. Awesome!

The box also gives me a clue as to how this figure could have been obtained. There is enough price tag residue for me to determine that this had to be sold at Toy Liquidators. The toy soldier on the “alkaline batteries” sticker also gives it away, but I know enough about the look of various stores’ price tags to know that this was sold by Toy Liquidators and not Kay Bee Toys. The seller said it was obtained from a comic store that had acquired a large selection of “dead stock” toys, so while this toy is unused, it must have seen at least some shelf time.

It’s very possible I could have remained patient and found this toy for a much better price at a flea market or yard sale (and given my track record, it’s entirely possible). However, while I’m more a fan of loose toys than packaged examples, I don’t mind having a packaged example of old Manny here. If I found one loose, he probably wouldn’t work, and considering the stickers on his shirt are peeling even with a plastic bag keeping him all together, I doubt a loose example would have both of the stickers intact.

In addition to educating the public on Manny Manhole, I hope that readers found this page through appropriate means. While I encourage you to Google Manny to see that nothing really comes up, unfortunately, other instances of Manny Manhole are not so PG-13 in nature.

The post Skateboard Smack-Ups Manny Manhole appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Among my favorites is this green 1954 Buick Skylark. I had a blue one when I was a kid.

In 2012, I wrote about the rediscovery of my Miller-Ironson lumber truck, a prized possession of my childhood that I found in my mother’s attic and now proudly resides in our home.

That journey back to my youth also led me reflect upon some of the other little vehicles of my youthful motorhead past.  Among them were Dinky Toys, Matchbox cars, and big fix-it type cars made by Ideal.  But the toy cars that I liked the best as a kid were the realistic little plastic gems usually done in 1/25 scale known today as “promo” cars.  “Promo” or “Promotional” cars got their name from  car dealers giving them away as an incentive to get traffic through the  doors to hopefully “promote” sales for the big cars they represented.

1958 Edsel with dealer handout

Back when I was a kid in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, we didn’t call them promo cars and we didn’t get them at dealerships.  We called them scale model cars and they were available in toy stores and hobby shops for $1.50 to $2.00 each.  The difference between the toy store versions and the dealer versions were that the toy store ones had friction motors to help them scoot across the floor and the dealer versions did not.  Manufactured by companies such as A.M.T. , JoHann, PMC and even Hubley, these miniature cars were made with the permission of the auto makers themselves who also rendered the assistance necessary to produce these model cars in exact detail.  Unfortunately, once in the hands of a child, these somewhat fragile objects that straddled being both a toy and a model often didn’t survive too long.  To make matters worse, the plastic bodies on these little cars had a tendency to warp over time, especially in the late 1950’s.  Non-warping bodies finally came out in 1962, but that doesn’t help anyone looking for a ’57 Chevy without a drooping back end or a ’57 Ford that isn’t just messed up all over the place.

1958 Lincoln Continental showing typical warping even though it shows little or no play wear.

A close up of the warping.

Nevertheless, nice, clean and hopefully minimally warped examples are very popular with collectors today. Rare examples can cost in the hundreds and, in a few cases, thousands of dollars.  Most examples in good condition today, however, can usually be found in the $50 to $100 range.  As always, original boxes add value and are a good indication that the car had little or no play to affect its condition.

1951 Chevys in different body styles by PMC. Chevy promos were produced in just about every body style from 1951 through 1954.

My favorite era for these cars is the 1950’s, which also happens to be my favorite era of big cars as well.  I am fortunate in that I still have a few of the ones I received as a kid, my favorite being my yellow and white Metropolitan made in 1960 by Hubley.  I received it in June of that year as a present from my father for getting promoted from third to fourth grade.

My favorite promo car is this Metropolitan which I received new in 1960.

I remember going to my favorite toy store, which was Glenn Toys, located on the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey.  Among the Steiff animals, Tonka trucks, toy boats and all sorts of other great stuff, there was always a good assortment of scale model cars.  You would enter the store and hang an immediate left and keep going to the wall.   There they were, all lined up bright and new like a miniature show room.  In this little car showroom, however, all the cars from a Ford Falcon to a Cadillac Fleetwood cost the same – two bucks!

1960 Ford F-100 Pickup, another survivor from my childhood!

Plastic-bodied scale model cars were first produced in 1949 and are still being made today.  Among the earliest examples are a 1949 Ford and Plymouth both made by AMT.  A very rare 1949 Oldsmobile was produced by a company called Cruver.  Before plastic, some metal promos were made by such companies as Master Caster and Banthrico, and continued into the 1950’s overlapping production of the plastic bodied models as well.

1949 Ford and Plymouth manufactured by AMT. Each has a wind-up motor.

Metal bodied 1/20th scale Nash from 1949 or 1950 along with dealer award plaque.

Most of the manufacturers eventually started producing model kits, AMT being the first in 1958, using the same body and interior and chrome molds as with the promos.  These kits became very popular with boys of my generation and could be “customized” by adding all kinds of accessories such as fender skirts, spotlights and flame decals. Unfortunately, if a kid put them together, they usually suffered from globby paint, glue marks  and sloppy construction!

1952 and 1954 Pontiac dealer promos. No friction motors!

New models came out each model year and the previous year’s models were discontinued as with real cars.  It’s usually pretty easy, therefore, to date a promo car.  There are, however, some reissues in later years to add some confusion, but originals are usually easy to spot over their later counterparts.  The reissues often have plastic screws holding the body to the chassis and the bodies do not warp.

1965 Pontiac GTO dealer promo with original box.

The nice thing about these little cars is that they don’t depreciate and you seldom get a lemon.  You don’t even have to change the oil!

1954 Nash with original box (dealer promo)

1957 Plymouth Taxi by Jo-Hann. Whoever heard of a two door taxi?

The post Promo Cars – Little Cars Used to Sell Big Cars appeared first on The Collector Gene.

I really liked the Nashville store.  First of all, it’s in a great old brick factory building, the Marathon Motor Works.

We were heading into Nashville on I-40 from west to east, and our GPS took us through the city, past Fisk University, for quite a few blocks.  Getting back on I-40 was very easy.  The whole Marathon Motors complex looks like something being re-purposed into a trendy shopping area.  Next to the Pickers’ store, for instance, is a candy store.

Unlike the Iowa store, which had an intimate feel to it, the Nashville store is quite a bit larger.  I’d say it has close to three times the square footage.  If nothing else, it has very high ceilings.  Whoever arranged the stock did a great job.  It was almost like walking around through a really cool museum of wacky retro stuff.  (And, since the prices were astronomically high, just like in the Iowa store, we knew we couldn’t afford anything, so it WAS like visiting a museum.)  This is the view when you first walk into the store.

One of the recognizable things was the huge Piggly Wiggly head.

There was a fabulous canvas circus sideshow sign up on the ceiling.  Who wouldn’t pay money to see a pig with an elephant’s trunk?

There were great advertising pieces, funky one-of-a-kind things like the giant bib overalls or the 1940’s slacks with the first names of Big Band music greats (Benny, Bing, Frankie, Dina, etc.), rusty bicycles and motor parts, and manikin heads sporting hats, helmets, and goggles.

As we did in the Iowa store, we searched for something small and affordable.  It was tough.  They had a lot of 1990’s music trade magazines that were supposedly picked from Mickey Gilley.  Priced at $5, they fit the bill.  We also found a wire basket with a handful of paper items in it for $5 each.  There was an ad for the Chile pavilion at the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo.  (That’s the same exposition where William McKinley was shot by an assassin.)  Five dollars didn’t seem too outrageous at all.  Those were our “old” finds.

As with the Iowa store, there were plenty of t-shirts, hats, magnets, shot glasses, metal signs, paper fans, playing cards, etc., etc. for sale.  (I particularly liked the baby onesie that said, “Future Picker” on it.)   I’m sure sales of those items are the main source of revenue for the store.  There definitely were a lot of shoppers – or at least “lookers” – at this shop.  There were two counters for sales, one to the front left side of the store and one in the back, staffed by pleasant young people who looked like they could be college students.  Based on what the young man who waited on me said, it sounds like Mike shows up about once a month at the store.

We’re glad we’ve seen both of the American Pickers’ shops.  If you’re a fan of the show and ever get to LeClaire, Iowa or Nashville, Tennessee, do stop in.  Then, when you watch the shows, you’ll have a reference point when they show interior/exterior shots.  Believe me, things never look the same in person as what you imagined.

The post Last Travel-Log from the Road – 10/4/12: Antique Archeology-Nashville Submitted by Carol appeared first on The Collector Gene.

There was the familiar 1950 Nash out front.  And there was the shop itself.  Ten minutes before opening, the small parking area was already filling up with fans of the show like us.  Most were out-of-staters, and most were at least middle-aged.

Suddenly, the “closed” sign was turned around and said, “open.”  Then the garage door opened and a young female employee (No, not Danielle.  Apparently she only works after hours.)  wheeled out the familiar little electric car.  I was busy snapping pictures, but Jim was already inside the shop.  It’s divided into two sections.  The original office portion of the old garage is where they sell all sorts of souvenirs:  caps and t-shirts, shot glasses, tote bags, banks, magnets, etc.  Were they reasonably priced?  No.  A basic postcard of Mike cost $3.  T-shirts averaged about $22.  Did we leave with some items?  Of course.

The work area of the garage is where the antiques are sold.  Did we recognize items that were picked on the show?  Yes, we did.  Were they expensive?  Yes, they were.  Do not expect bargains at Antique Archeology.  Remember the huge pile of moon landing souvenir felt pennants that were picked a couple of seasons ago?  You could buy one for $40.  Remember the toy metal police cars that were picked earlier this season?  Several were out for sale at $100 each.  Some items in this area were very familiar but were marked “not for sale.”  High up on a shelf were those goofy Laurel and Hardy heads that Mike and Frank wore a season or two ago, but no one was taking them home.

We did, however, find one little thing to purchase.  In a basket were a few dozen small metal license plates that had been cereal premiums in the 1950’s.  They were priced at $10 each.  We knew this was a little more than they were worth, but they were in good condition.  And they were small, which is a prerequisite for almost everything we purchase on this trip.  We had hoped to find an Iowa plate, but, alas, had to settle for our home state of New Jersey.

While we didn’t score any bargains at Antique Archeology, we didn’t expect to.  We scored an experience.  American Pickers has become a cultural icon; even people who never go out hunting for antiques love this show.  We appreciate what Mike and Frank have done for antique collecting.  More and more people, especially younger people, are discovering the fun of “the hunt” thanks to them.  Frankly, I don’t blame them for cashing in on their fame while they can.  If you’re ever in LeClaire, Iowa, be sure to check out their shop.

That said, make sure you don’t leave town without checking out some of the other shops, too.  We would especially recommend the Big River Antique Mall at 423 N. Cody Road on the other end of town.

This antique mall contained some really fabulous stuff, particularly when it came to antique advertising items.  They were pricey, to be sure, but the quality was outstanding.  There were plenty of moderately-priced items as well.  We left the shop with two items that we liked a lot and that we felt were reasonable in cost.

The first was an adorable bobble-head clown.  He’s in excellent condition and was marked “Japan” on the bottom, so he probably dates to the 1950’s.  And he only cost $18.

The other item we purchased was a cardboard sign that advertised the Marx Brothers movie, Animal Crackers, which would date it to the 1930’s.  It would have been used on a bus or trolley.  Most of these signs would have been tossed out shortly after use.  This one, while not in perfect condition, seemed like an excellent buy at $16, and it’s small enough that we might actually be able to find a place to display it when we get home.

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I have a long history with M.A.S.K. I have video footage of myself as a five-year-old asking for M.A.S.K. toys for Christmas. I had a M.A.S.K. birthday party where my guests wore Spectrum-like party hats, and the Bullet with Ali Bombay was my cake topper that year. The toy line combined my fascination with transforming vehicles likes Transformers and Go-Bots with a manly, multicultural cast of heroes and villains like G.I. Joe. I was helpless against the awesome power of M.A.S.K.

In terms of collecting M.A.S.K. as an adult, it’s been a weird experience. I’ve picked up pieces here and there if I found affordable examples. However, it’s a toy line that lasted for four years, so there are a lot of toys to collect. They broke easily and came with small pieces in many cases, so finding complete and unbroken examples is a challenge. There are a few variations, and there are several figures that were only available overseas. When you collect as much as I do, it’s difficult for you to pull the trigger one piece at a time. I had an okay collection with some of the better, harder-to-find pieces, but my collection was still woefully incomplete.

In March, I found a collector online who was looking to sell his entire collection in one shot. He didn’t want to ship it, which is understandable, because it’s a lot of stuff. The toys were not necessarily perfect, with a few pieces having some condition issues like missing accessories, sticker wear, or a broken tab or piece here or there, but for the most part, it was a really nice collection of a dedicated collector, and many of the pieces did have their original boxes.

There was one catch, especially for me: This collection was in Ohio. I was in New Jersey.

I contacted the collector anyway seeing if we could work something out. After all, Ohio is not an insurmountable distance away. He got back to me and said I was the only person who had contacted him who was interested in purchasing the entire collection. And I get it. I mean, after all, I had more than half the collection already before contacting this particular collector, and I’m sure most collectors are like that, so we all wanted to own the really tough to find pieces. However, I have several local connections in the toy industry. I have a friend who is also trying to put together a M.A.S.K. collection who needs several of the pieces I already have, and vice versa, and if there is anything extra after we’re done sorting things out, there are a number of collectors I know locally who would be more than happy to take my duplicate or triplicate pieces off of my hands. So it’s not like I’ll be “stuck” with a bunch of extras I don’t need.

I don’t want to discuss the price I paid because you also have to factor in a few tanks of gas, tolls across Pennsylvania and Ohio, an overnight hotel stay, and maybe a little bit more buying (seeing as how I hit an antique mall, four collectible toy stores, a flea market, AND a toy show on the way to and from this destination). However, the price was reasonable enough for me to say, “Yes, this is worth doing.” And yes, after having the entire collection in my possession, I can tell you with authority this was a trek worth making.

Another collector friend recently remarked on how I’m willing to put in the legwork more so than a lot of local collectors. I suppose that’s true. However, as you can tell from the rest of this site, for us, a lot of the thrill is in the hunt, and so even though this was a long drive to and from Ohio for me, the thrill of picking up this collection made the time fly by.

So here’s what will most likely be my second-biggest score of the year (tee-hee, what a tease!), the entire set of domestically released M.A.S.K. toys!

Well, minus Boulder Hill… but that wouldn’t fit in the picture.

The post Pick Of The Week: Huge MASK Collection appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Though sand sculptures may have their origins as far back as ancient Egyptian times, the first documented sand sculptures were done in the late 19^th century in Atlantic City, New Jersey (yet another reason to be envious of my home state). It seems as though kids must have taken to liking the hobby at some point in the early 20^th century, since there is a market for vintage sand buckets, and while tin lithography buckets are out there, I’ve also seen other examples that are clearly from the 1920s or earlier, like this one that recently appeared on eBay.

This Pail sold recently for $130.

Think about it, though. Once you get to the beach, you have a virtually unlimited supply of sand at your disposal, and all you need to play with it is a little imagination, just like any toy. Sure, you can’t take it home with you at the end of the day (unless you’re playing in a sandbox in your backyard, but even then, I doubt your parents would let you take your creation inside the house). But with a few tools, you can create pretty much anything you want out of finely compacted granules of silica.

However, let’s say you’re an executive at a toy company in the 1980s. You’re looking to corner every market imaginable. Sure, kids are buying your action figures, and between a cartoon, party supplies, board games, coloring books, radios, stickers, and every product in between, you’ve got virtually every desirable kid-based market covered…except the kids at the beach playing with all that free sand. How do you reach them?

You do it by creating the coolest set of sand building toys in existence.

Behold the Transformers 6-in-1 Sandbot! This toy was made in 1984 at the height of the launch of the Transformers brand by HG Toys, a company that would scoop up popular licenses (or licenses they THOUGHT would be popular) and use the images of characters to create more basic toys like puzzles and games and role play items. In other words, Hasbro had the master license to produce the action figures, but HG Toys could produce virtually anything else that featured Transformers characters. While getting off to a slow start with fairly basic toys in the 1970s, by the 1980s, they were crafting more interesting, exclusive designs based on popular properties. For example, check out the wide array of Masters of the Universe products they created here, including role play sets with light-up swords and an inflatable ride-on Battle Cat!

Sandbot is obviously based on Optimus Prime, even if they don’t come out and say it on the package. From the front end of a Kenworth K100 cab truck to the design of the character’s helmet to the color scheme, there’s no question which character inspired this toy. However, they did a rather ingenious thing by taking sand building toys, which, let’s face it, haven’t really changed a bit in several decades and use them to create a functional looking character. Sandbot breaks into 5 components:

• -Pail
• -Shovel
• -Rake
• -Sieve
• -Scoop

So why is it called 6-in-1 Sandbot if it breaks down into five sand toys? That’s because whenever you’re finished playing in the sand with its constituent components, you can put everything back together and play with Sandbot itself! It’s a rather clever way of getting your kid to take a Transformer to the beach. Also, here’s a riddle for you hard core Transfans: Does this make Sandbot the very first Transformers combiner, since it was released prior to Devastator? WHOA. Blew your mind, didn’t I? Perhaps there is more to Sandbot than meets the eye. Yup. I mentioned the tag line required in every story about Transformers ever written.

There isn’t much more to say about Sandbot other than it’s an incredibly creative way of taking a series of toys that haven’t really benefitted from any new ideas for decades (sand building toys) and found a way to not only incorporate a popular character but make it their own. Truly, this is something that every Transformers fan needs to own, even if it’s not necessarily canonical to Generation One.

I bought this without much hesitation at a small toy show held in Maryland. Unfortunately, it’s missing the yellow stickers that made the “eyes” on the “helmet” portion of Sandbot. However, all of the contents are here, and the original cardboard sleeve around the handle is still intact, so this is an unused example. Sand toys are notoriously mistreated, so this was probably the only way I was going to pull off a complete example. I paid $15 for it at the toy show, and I didn’t hesitate for a moment in that price. It went from something that I knew existed but wasn’t on my radar all that much to becoming one of my favorite finds so far of 2012.

The post Transformers Sandbot appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Whatever the reason, toys have been and remain among the most popular areas of collecting.

My interest in collecting toys did not take the normal path.  For some reason I considered the toys of my own childhood as not old enough to collect.  I was too busy buying the toys of older generations or as I once heard it harshly referred to as “dead people’s stuff”.  While I still like the older toys,  several years ago I came to the unbelievable realization that my own childhood was half a century ago.   I was finally ready to search for my little kid self.

This change of heart started during the Christmas season several years ago.  We like Christmas so much in our house that we put up two trees.  The one in the living room is the “Victorian” tree and is strictly for antique decorations.  The one in the family room is less formal and is decorated with ornaments we’ve picked up as souvenirs on vacations, those given to us by friends and family and the ornaments made by the kids when they were in elementary school.  We also started putting toys of the fifties and sixties under this tree as well.  We had some of Carol’s childhood toys, which were all in excellent condition (she was a girl after all), and I even had a few things from my youth as well, but suddenly a yearning came over me to locate one of the best toys of my childhood – my Miller- Ironson lumber truck!  As far as I knew it still existed and was somewhere in my mother’s house but I wasn’t exactly sure where or what kind of condition it was in.

I received this truck the Christmas of 1956, when my family lived in the house my father grew up in.  It was in a working class neighborhood in Gloucester City, New Jersey, which as a six year old, seemed as good a place to grow up in as anywhere else.  The neighborhood was filled with little boomers like myself and my older brother John, and there was a store selling penny candy around the corner.  What more could a kid want in those days?

Christmas morning 1956.  The bleary-eyed kid to the left is my older brother John and the little waif to the right is me.  The truck can be seen in the center of the photo under our 21 inch black and white TV.

Even though my depression era parents kept reminding us how much better off we were than they were when they were young, growing up in the 1950’s would seem primitive by today’s standards. The only days of the year that you stood a chance of receiving really good (as in not cheap) toys was your birthday and the day Santa came down the chimney.

To come up with my want list that year I looked through a toy catalog (possible Sears), saw a toy lumber truck which appealed to me – perhaps it was the logs – and put it on my growing list.  I’m sure the one I saw in the catalog was a rather modest one, possibly a Hubley which wouldn’t have set my father (err Santa) back too much.  What I got that Christmas morning  was the Cadillac of toy trucks – a Miller- Ironson!

Miller – Ironson was the successor of Smith- Miller of Los Angeles California.  The company wasn’t around for too long and sadly, was probably out of business by the time I received my big present.  While it was around, however, it produced the some of the best toy trucks of the post-war era.   Did my father get in on sale?  I’ll never know.  These trucks were expensive in their day and mine probably retailed for at least $10.00 in 1956 money, which would be well over $100 today.  The best part to me was that the doors opened and the steering wheel worked.  The lumber could be removed by disconnecting two chains and dumping it by the use of a side lever.   In an era before video games, this was great stuff!

Fifty years later, I thought my truck had survived three moves and years of neglect, but I hadn’t really seen it in decades.  This truck had suddenly become a portal to another time for me and I wanted it back in the worst way.  It was the way back to my childhood!

Fortunately this quest only required a five mile drive to my mother’s house and a look in the attic to find my childhood treasure.  Suddenly there it was, a little dusty, but in amazingly good condition.  The yellow cab showed only minor wear in the paint, the lumber had darkened with age, and the chains were a little rusty, but all in all it was in great condition.  I felt like I connected with an old friend again, but this time we were going to stay in touch!  It was also a way of sharing my childhood with my family.

Objects like my truck aren’t only important for what they are but what they represent.  For me this was a tangible connection to a time and place that I hadn’t been to in a long time.  It was proof I was once a kid!  It is now proudly on display in our computer room.

I’d like to thank that little kid that I once was for taking good care of his/my truck.  If, somehow, I could get into some sort of magical time machine and go back and meet him, I would ease his mind and let him know that he doesn’t have to worry about those pesky Russians.  Those air raid drills at school are a waste of time.  He’ll never have to find out if hiding under a school desk will actually protect him from a hydrogen bomb.   Yes, his father will eventually buy a color TV and, best of all, he will get to go to Disneyland – someday, but he’s going to have to wait a long time for both of those.

I’ll let him find out the rest on his own.

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