When I was a kid I wasn't into toys that much.
Oh I certainly had toys but I was more into function than fun. I loved my Radio Flyer red wagon so much that the story told by my parents is that I fainted when I found it under the tree. I don't know if that's really true but it might be. I know I used that wagon a lot more to haul things than ride in it.
I can remember one of my favorite Christmas gifts being a model service station. For the youngsters out there that's what we used to call the place where someone filled my Dad's gas tank on his car with twenty-five cents a gallon gas, checked the oil and cleaned the windshield. Some stations even gave us stamps after a fill-up that we could paste in a book and once enough books were filled we could actually redeem them for half-way decent merchandise. Obviously that was before words like globalization, light sweet crude and OPEC existed. But I digress.
I think I was always into sports things more than toys--footballs, baseball gloves, etc. But if a toy were sports related I was all over it like white on rice. I still remember the Christmas I got Electric Football (hat tip to I Remember JFK). 
That was huge for kids my age. It was something like the XBox or WII of it's time. I'm going out on a limb here and guess that my friends Alois and Ridge Walker remember it. I'm older than both of them so maybe not.
Of course it was really primitive even for that time. You had these little figures that you placed in formation both on defense and offense. There was a little cotton ball shaped like a football that you placed in the ball carrier's "arms" or you might give it to the quarterback who could "throw' the ball with a little manual lever that you had to operate.
The players had little thin perpendicular "blades" on their bottom and when you were ready to run a play you turned the entire playing field on which vibrated and hummed and caused the players to move. That's when things would go really awry. Basically the players from both sides went everywhere. You could easily have your ball carrier running toward the wrong goal or in circles. If a defensive player touched the ball carrier it was a tackle. That didn't happen easily but neither did scoring. Most of it occurred with the kicker who like the quarterback had a lever that you operated. Eventually you had to turn the field off and get the result.
It was frustrating to play in many ways but it was still a pretty cool toy for its time. Now I hear kids (and adults) complaining about the resolution level on Madden not showing the blades of grass.
If they only knew.
March 11, 2008 in
Games |
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Oh yeah, I remember electric football. We weren't lucky enough to have one ourselves but the Bellenger boys did! To be honest though, I was more of a Tonka Trucks kind of guy.
Posted by: Ridge Walker at Mar 11, 2008 7:14:00 PM
I, like Ridge Walker, had a friend with Electric Football (so I doubt you're much older than me, Lewis--I'm 51).
But I was too much of a spaz to play it very well--just like real football.
These days I confine myself to watching football, and I'm a happier man!
Posted by: Pete (Alois) at Mar 12, 2008 11:55:53 AM
My father had the electric football - we played with it for hours!! Then sat down and watched all the college and pro games the TV would show. No wonder I love football!!!
Posted by: Katherine at Mar 13, 2008 12:39:41 PM
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