#136. or, Ho Ho Holy crap, this is a long post!

  I think that I'm finished putting up the Christmas lights in my yard. I could actually put more stuff up, we have more stuff, but there has to be a point where you just say, screw it, this is good enough, I've got other shit to take care of! The 22nd of December seems like a good day to make that call.

  I've been working on putting up our lights for some time now. I think that I've probably talked about doing it on at least a couple of occasions. And you probably have an image in your head right now, of Clark Griswald's house, covered in 20 000, imported, Italian twinkle bulbs. The truth is, it's not quite that grand. I like having lights in the yard and on the house. This year though, because we still have some puppies about, we've had to avoid putting things on the ground near the house.

  Cause puppies like to chew on stuff. Puppies chewing on stuff that plugs into electricity, isn't such a good idea.

  Also, if I were to actually put some of this stuff away, BEFORE July, I probably wouldn't have to spend as much time fixing things, as I do putting them up. And, a bit more care at putting the lights away, would avoid messes like this:

The warm glow of Christmas lights just before they melt through the kitchen floor

  So, this is the post where I try to take you back in time, (again) in an attempt to re-live some of the Christmases, of your childhood. If you read THIS POST, I had whipped out my magical Sears Wish Book, from 1974 and asked what you had wanted from it when you were a kid. The thing that grabbed you by the scruff of your polyester shirt, as you flipped through the pages with sticky little fingers from the death grip on your candy cane,  while you stole away to your private hiding spot to see what wonderful treasures the pages held for you.  The thing you circled 18 times in red felt pen, that was at the top of your list to Santa Claus, and made you take out the garbage that one time, without even being asked, just to bump your name, a line or two higher on the "nice" list.

  Let me reach into my magic sack, and see what I can find. (I know that sound dirty, but it's not! Get your mind out of the gutter.)

  It seems that the GI Joe's were pretty popular back in the day, One Day I'll Be That Guy, Queen Holly,  and Wily Guy all talked about wanting one of them along with his Kung Fu Grip!

   And a special add on for Wily Guy, who remembered having the GI Joe jeep:

From the Desert Patrol Set  $15.99

 For Shirley, who had the Barbie car that she had to share with her sister. It might not be the same as the one you had, but it's the only car that I could find that wasn't the motor home or the beach bus.

That's one good lookin' Ken in that car with Barbie!

Kianwi, was pretty adamant that I didn't forget her Baby Crissy doll. Here's 6 of them!

I believe the specific one she wanted was 3rd from the left. $4.99

 My friend CLR, thought she had dreamed about getting some skates.

The girls beginners skates were $10.99

  Stephen, The Chubby Chaterbox, said that in 1974, he was newly married and most likely didn't even check out the toy section. I figured, a newly married couple might be looking in a different section of the Wish Book.

The sexiest lingerie I could find, $11.98 

  So that was all of the items that I could find from the Wish Book. There were a few others who asked about items that I had to do a bit of searching for.

  Like Debra, who asked about the Brother typewriter she got as she went off to university.

hopefully that's close?

  And Heather, who is far too young to have been looking in the 1974 Wish Book, asked about Cabbage Patch dolls.

  Bryan, who lives in England, (I think?) was wondering about the Johnny Seven. I had never even heard of this before and had to google it. Once I found out what it was, I wished I had one when I was a kid!

 Michael said that he didn't have the GI Joe, but it did remind him of The 6 Million Dollar Man action figure that he had as a kid.

  Daniel, who grew up in the Soviet Union, suggested, that as a child, he probably was interested in things like books and microscopes.

 Youngman Brown, remembered having a Power Wheels. It seems that there are hundreds of Power Wheels vehicles. The ones that stick mostly in my brain are the jeep ones. That's the one I found.

 And finally, Shockgrubz and I got into a bit of a discussion about a green power wheels. Eventually, I think we narrowed it down to being The Green Machine. The pimped out version of a Big Wheels.

I remember wanting one of these, but had no concrete to drive it on.

  So that's my list. I hope that I didn't leave anybody out. Although I may have, this post became far more labor intensive than I had thought it would be. If you didn't get on, I apologize. I had a lot of fun remembering all of these things. I hope that you were able to remember some simpler times as well.

  This will most likely be my last post until after Christmas, I wish you all the best and hope the holidays are everything that you imagine them to be. Here's a Canadian version of a holiday classic for you to enjoy.

This week, I'll be joining up with the other Dudes at Dude Write, with this post. I encourage you to pop over and read what the guys bring to the table. You can get there by clicking on THIS LINK