Nobody could ever accuse me of being too normal…

Holy smokes, the first website I ever made is on archive.org!

Check it out!

It was last updated February of 1998.

Man, I was a hyper teenager!!

Superkids

I went to Brunswick Acres School in South Brunswick, NJ and my first grade teacher was named Mrs. Weiss. First grade was pretty cool, except for math. I remember it pretty vividly, but then again, I have a freakishly good memory.

What I remember the most from first grade is Superkids. Sometimes I even sing the Oswald song to myself.

I remembered three of the characters names: Cass, Golly, and Oswald. I remembered that Cass liked to cook, Golly was a dog, and Oswald made up animals. The book that we read about Golly had scratch-n-sniff in it and I think it smelled like bubble gum.

Just now I Googled “superkids cass golly oswald” and I found that website all about Superkids. I listened to the Oswald song and I couldn’t believe I still remembered how it went! After *cough*21*cough* years.

Wow, that last sentence was really difficult to type out. 21 years since first grade. EEEEK.

But I am glad teachers are still using Superkids! If I were a teacher I’d definitely use Superkids!

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

We used to watch it every Thanksgiving growing up. The house smelled of turkey and my sister and I would be watching the parade and drawing while watching the floats go past.

We only went to the parade once. It was probably one of the coldest Thanksgivings I remember. I was 13 and we got up early to get on the train. We found a spot towards the beginning of the parade so it wasn’t as crowded. I remember climbing up on the base of a lamp post to see the parade better. Snoopy was always my favorite float.

Right behind where we were standing, there was a coffee shop, so we went in there and drank hot chocolate while watching the parade from the inside.

I don’t watch the parade often now, but today I’ve been watching. The best part was that the PARADE GOT RICKROLLED! And it was awesome. Some puppet even said, “I love Rickrolling!” I had to sit through Miley Cyrus but it was worth it.

Time machine

This evening I stepped in a time machine, pressed “1-9-8-8″ and went back 20 years.

First I went to Friendly’s, where I had grilled cheese and a Conehead Sundae. (My favorite meal back in 1988)

Then, I went shopping and I bought leggings and leg-warmers. (Some of my favorite types of attire back in 1988, but now leggings are only to be worn with full and proper butt coverage)

I stepped back into the time machine and pressed “2-0-0-8″ but everything must have carried over. I’m still stuffed from the grilled cheese and the sundae, and leggings and leg-warmers are back in style.

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY

Did I just step into a time machine and end up in the mid 90s?

I think I must have.

Our neighbor has construction people doing work on their house, and all day I’ve been hearing 90s music. Here are a few songs I’ve heard:

- That “Paranoia, Paranoia, everybody’s coming to get meee…” song.
- “Wonderwall” by Oasis
- “When I Come Around” by Green Day
- “Ironic” by Alanis Morisette
- “Criminal” by Fiona Apple
- “No Rain” by Blind Melon

Currently playing is “Jumper” by Third Eye Blind.

I feel like I’m 16. And actually, my skin is really broken out today, so I even look like I did with 16. Ha. Zits.

“I play, I play…”

THIS was one of the best toys I ever had:

Except mine was yellow.

I composed many hits on it, including the famed “Mommy Sick” and “I Play, I Play.”

I can hardly find any evidence of this toy online, aside from that picture I found and someone selling it on Australia’s eBay. If it was for sale here, I would get it. My goal in life is to find one of those by the time I have children, because I think they would take great joy in it and compose a few gems on it themselves…although, I’m not sure “I Play, I Play” can be topped.

THIS is PBS

You know what used to scare me when I was little? The creepy face on the PBS logo.

The old PBS bumpers were creepy, too!!!

Absolutely terrifying!!!

Googlers love Mount Airy Lodge

Since I wrote my post about Beautiful Mount Airy Lodge last summer, I have gotten almost 900 hits from people searching for “Mount Airy Lodge” or variants of that phrase. Some people found my blog post from Googling the line from their old theme song: “All you have to bring is your love of everything…”

I think that term gets me more traffic than anything else I’ve ever written. My I Hate You, RMV post, my Harriet Carter post, and my kugel recipe (or really, my family recipe…I can’t take full credit!)

I guess there are a lot of people feeling nostalgic for the commercials aired in Greater NYC from the 70s-90s!!!

A few other gems were the Carvel Commercials will the creepy Tom Carvel urging you to buy a Fudgie the Whale or Cookiepuss:

Or Crazy Eddie…as you know, his prices were insane: