When I was a kid, I had a classic Spirograph set. I had not thought about this in decades, until I saw someplace…was it a crafting magazine or message board…the idea to use a Spirograph to make backgrounds to use for cards and scrapbook pages.
You can still get a Spirograph today, but it’s this rather lame version. It doesn’t look anywhere near as cool as the original one that I had, and apparently, it’s not gotten good ratings from people who bought it.
So the next obvious step in my acquisition of a classic Spirograph set was, of course, eBay. I found one which set me back $45.00 plus shipping. It was exactly like the one I had as a kid, and it was in good condition…no pieces missing or anything, not even the instruction booklet. The seller said that even though it still contained the original pens, the ink was dry on them. Well, what should I expect from something that’s 40 years old? I simply solved that issue by buying a package of Bic Z4 Roller pens…$3.99 at the grocery store, with the same colors (black, red, blue and green) as the originals. They work just fine.
The Spirograph seems to be just one of many toys from my childhood that have become lame now. Tonka trucks used to be made mostly of metal, and some of them still are. But many are now made of plastic.  Tinkertoys used to be almost all made of wood, now they are using much more plastic than they used to. For a higher price, though, you can get “classic” Tiinkertoys made of wood, not that lame plastic crap.
And a lot of the cool stuff I had as a kid simply no longer exists! When’s the last time you saw a book of paper dolls? Not these fancy expensive artsy ones that nobody ever cuts out…but the old Whitman ones, the ones you used to find on a rack at the five & ten along with coloring and “sticker fun” books?
I used to have some cool ones…Partridge Family, Brady Bunch, the Archies, and more. Of course, my mother threw them all away eventually, and now these things are selling for a lot on eBay.
Many kids’ TV shows today are lame. What’s the deal with that weird Teletubbies and Boo-bah or whatever it is crap? Those things are scary-looking, and not very entertaining.
I guess Sesame Street is still cool, even though I think Elmo is a dork. He’s very annoying. They didn’t have Elmo on the show when I was a kid.
But there use to be a show, from the makers of Sesame Street, for older kids, called “The Electric Company”. Now, that was a cool show. I should buy it on DVD. “Schoolhouse Rock” was another cool show, it’s out on DVD now, too. Actually, SR wasn’t really a show, it was short segments that came on during Saturday morning cartoons.
Saturday morning cartoons now are a joke. Most of the PBS shows are stupid and annoying, and so are a lot of the network shows. I guess kids aren’t allowed to watch old Bugs Bunny cartoons any more, too violent, you know. Well, let me tell you that I grew up watching Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry and all…and I can truthfully say that NEVER had I had the urger to drop an anvil on somebody. Really.
I’m glad I’m not a kid today.
