When I was a kid, the dome jungle gym was the heartbeat of most playgrounds. You always had a slide (that got awfully hot under the sun), swings, a see-saw and the dome jungle gym. As the old playgrounds are destroyed and replaced with modern, safer ones, the dome jungle
My brother Ryan made a great speech at my wedding last month, and I've got a copy of his notes. This is an excerpt from his speech in which he tells the tale of "the game we always play" and "the game we almost always play". I recall a baseball
This entry originally appeared on July 2, 2003. I've gotta share this story, because it's too surreal not to post. Yesterday my buddy Marc gave me a call and asked me if I wanted to join a pick-up game of softball a few of our fellow teammates started up. With
During yesterday's 18-inning Blue Jays game, my brother Steve and I reminisced about the best games we've seen live. One such game, on September 18, 1992, featured a highlight from Domingo Martínez. Domingo Martínez was a beast, and with Rance Mulliniks on base after his final career hit, he hit
I just assembled a nice 30 minute playlist for my swim tomorrow. It took me less than a minute. That got me reminiscing about the mixes I used to make for my old Sony Walkman when I was in grade school. I had this big ol' dual cassette stereo from
I went to high school at Michael Power / St. Joseph's. Today the school is located near Centennial Park in Etobicoke, but when I attended the school, it was nested between Bloor and Dundas just west of Islington. Today, you'll find Michael Power Place condos where I once studied history. During
The first home team clinching game I recall was when George Bell squeezed the last out to clinch my Blue Jays the AL East in 1985. It wasn't until that next April, however, that we broke out the Diet Coke. The Maple Leafs were awful in 1985-86, finishing 25-48-7. In
I've written about my old blue transistor radio before, but it's been almost seven years so I thought I'd reminisce once more. It was a Christmas gift in the mid-80s and I used to fall asleep listening to it. More often than not, I was listening to Tom Cheek and
I'm still south of 40, so I don't remember Anne Murray's heyday with "Snowbird" and her other early and mid-70s hits. I missed the Anne Murray era, but I have very strong memories of her. In 1977, Anne Murray released There's a Hippo in My Tub, and my parents bought
Vid Kids was a show that aired on CBC in the mid 80s for a couple of seasons. I stumbled upon it in 1985 and was completely mesmerized by this performance by Bob Schneider of a song I called "I Am The Computer Man". That was almost 30 years ago,
I just read that Atari has filed for bankruptcy in the US. The oldest brand in video gaming is to sell of (sic) its distinctive logo and the rights to classic games such as Pong, Asteroids and Centipede.My first home gaming experience was with Atari. In the early 80s,
I'm going through a few old crates trying to get rid of crap I don't really need to keep. One box is full of old relics like my 1995-1996 University of Toronto datebook. As I peruse this datebook, I see it was my Google Calendar before I had a Google
As a happy owner of the Nintendo Entertainment System growing up, I know all too well the frustration when the NES wouldn't recognize my game cartridges. My trick, learned from friends, was to blow the cartridge connectors with all my might. It always worked... eventually. I spent years blowing my
If you're a fan of canned pasta, you've come to the right place. After all, I'm the guy who tracked down the Alpha-Getti Gobbler and posted the erotic Zoodles label. Now here's another flashback, courtesy of Retrontario. It's Pac-Man pasta! Pac-Man was everywhere in the 80s. I even slept on
The Nintendo Entertainment System is probably my favourite gaming console of all-time. I came from the Atari 2600, which was great, and left the NES for the Super Nintendo, which was also great, but I played the shit out of the old 8-bit Nintendo. It came out on October 18,
Before you blow this off because it's a whole 9 minutes, trust me... it's worth it. [via Reddit]
I'm not sure what happened to ProStars cereal, but it was around when I was a kid. General Mills made the cereal and slapped The Great One on the box. Heck, if ProStars was good enough for Wayne Gretzky, it's good enough for me. Here's an ad for ProStars, courtesy
As far as I'm concerned, there is no other way to count to twelve. That's The Pointer Sisters on vocals, by the way.
When I was 8 and 9, I just assumed every song I heard on the radio was an original song by the artist. I didn't know artists could cover songs originally performed by other artists. So when I heard Tainted Love by Soft Cell, I just assumed that was Soft
Every time I smell burnt toast, I ask aloud "burnt toast, Dr. Penfield? That's what happens when you see this ad a million times during your formative years. Who else does this? There's no way I'm the only one...
In the 80s, when we were trying to act adult and cool, we'd drink Sarasoda. Sarasoda was non-alcoholic, but everyone in school knew it contained 0.9% alcohol, so it was our booze. It had this grapefruity flavour, as I recall. Here's an ad for Sarasoda I dug up. Does
In late 1989, I was reading the Toronto Star and they were asking folks what they thought were the best albums of the 1980s. Somebody picked The Clash's London Calling, despite the fact it was actually released in 1979. That very next Saturday, I headed downtown to Yonge and Dundas
There's not a lot of blogs left that go back 9+ years. Plenty of bloggers were writing 9 years ago, but most disappeared long ago. My archives go back 9.5 years, so I can read what I wrote about SARS exactly 9 years ago today. Here's the entry: SARS
I just saw a tweet about someone considering getting a season's pass for Canada's Wonderland. I haven't been to Canada's Wonderland since the mid-80s. My kids have gone, but not with me. I hear it's changed a little. This is the Canada's Wonderland I remember (click to embiggen): Smurf Forest,
We had the old 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System growing up. We didn't have R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy), however. As you'll see from this NES ad, initial marketing efforts put a lot of focus on R.O.B., the robot you play with. Despite loving my NES, I barely
