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Tag Archives: Throwback Thursday


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Throwback Thursday – Cars Edition

1973 VW Bug 007It seems that most of the cars I remember from my childhood had something peculiar about them. This is no surprise, since oddities stick in the brain. Here are some of the cars I remember.

1. My grandmother’s sapphire blue Ford LTD. She was tiny, so she drove around on a pillow. It was a square thing and really old. Like her. Well, except for the fact that she wasn’t square.

2. My other grandmother’s Pontiac Grand Am. It was a hideous olive green color, but what a cool looking car!

3. Mom’s 1973 T-Bird. That was the car that I got my leg closed on. It was an almost white shade of light green, and the dog chewed up the armrest when my mother took him to run errands one day.

4. The Oldsmobile station wagon. This is the car I learned to drive in. It was enormous, pale yellow, and complete with faux wooden paneling.

5. VW Bug, before it was a punchbug. My friend’s mom had one, which later became her brother’s. I loved riding around in that little bug.

6. The earliest version of the Honda Civic. Back in those days Honda’s were only motorcycles. A Honda car was weird, and very tiny. I remember being squished in the backseat of one on the way to a concert during my teens.

7. The Lincoln Continental, for some reason, bugged me. One of our neighbors had one, and I thought it was the most gawd-awful looking thing around.

8. VW Thing. Another neighbor had one of those, in bright yellow. For some reason I found this car preferable to the Lincoln. Go figure.


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Throwback Thursday – Internet

Remember the good old days, before internet? No? I do, but it seems like ancient history now. Here are some of the oldies but goodies from my personal internet past. How many of these experiences do we share?

1. Dial up. Ugh. It was so slow, and it tied up the telephone line. Some people even went so far as to put in a second telephone line. Imagine.

images2. Prodigy Online Service. I was never an AOL girl. I got my start on Prodigy and liked it just fine. I participated in a bunch of online quilting swaps through Prodigy, and really enjoyed connecting with quilters across the country.

3. Parent Soup. I loved this online community when my son was a baby. I participated in the mom’s group for the month and year of his birth and really got to know many of the other moms and their babies. We created a cookbook together, we celebrated milestones together, and one of the girls even sent me flowers in the hospital when I had surgery.

4. Geocities. They hosted all sorts of cheesy webpages. Our baby webpages from the Parent Soup mom’s group were hosted by Geocities, and by golly they were adorable.

5. Yahoo Message Boards. My scrapbook buddies and I were part of a group that used a Yahoo Message Board, and it worked really well for us. In addition to all the conversation threads, there was a chat feature, which we used for a formal chat session once a week, and informally all the time. It was so cool to chat with friends in New Zealand!

Today’s technology makes these formally cutting edge services seem antiquated, or at the very least, quaint. I wonder what’s around the corner to make today’s internet seem like it’s from the dark ages. Whatever it is, I’m sure there will be a place for me.


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Renaming and Reframing the Week

I’d like to take credit for Throwback Thursday, but of course I can’t. It’s been around for about a million years, give or take a few.

Still, I didn’t notice it all over facebook and everywhere else until I started doing my own little Throwback posts. Isn’t that the way? You think you’re doing something fun and out of the ordinary, then it turns out that everyone is doing the same thing.

Learning to speak Hindi? You’ll meet three people next week who are learning it as well. Thinking of moving to Siberia? Funny thing, your new next door neighbor just relocated from there. Think you just purchased the only purple car in town? Probably not, since you’ll notice one parked in the lot at work next week. Turns out that nothing is really original. Still, you have to follow your inspirations.

Speaking of inspiration, I’ve been sorely lacking it lately. As a result,  I’ve decided that maybe we should rename the days of the week. Here are my thoughts, as they pop into my head:Purple-Suzuki-Liana-hatchback-car

Melancholy Monday

Tumultuous Tuesday

Whiny Wednesday

Thick-headed Thursday

Fickle Friday

Slovenly Saturday

Sedentary Sunday

What do you think? They would bring some different ideas to mind for writing, that’s for sure. On Mondays we could reminisce and wax poetic about what might have been. On Tuesdays we can write about all hell breaking loose, both literally and figuratively. Wednesdays will be popular, I’m sure, as there’s no shortage of topics to whine about, from bratty neighbor kids, to paychecks that could always be larger to nasty grocery store clerks. Yes, I’m sure Wednesday would become the new favorite day of the week under this system.

Moving into the home stretch of the week, we could reflect on all of the boneheaded things we have done on Thick-headed Thursday. A little self-deprecation isn’t a bad thing, but if you’re not up for it, why not remember all of the boneheaded things other people have done? I know it always makes me feel better about myself when I realize that there are many people on earth who do a lot dumber things than I do. Finally, on Fickle Friday we could spend the last day of the work week on the fence, avoiding making decisions or standing by our convictions. We could spend the whole day waffling, and never have to commit to anything.

The weekend sounds like a blast too. On Slovenly Saturday we could spend the day in pajamas and eat ice cream out of the carton. Of course the dirty spoon can just sit on the coffee table along with that half read magazine and the empty box of sweet and salty cashew granola bars. Sedentary Sunday will find us on the couch under a pile of filth that we’re just too lazy to clean up, watching movies and avoiding responsibilities. It’s a perfect lead-in to, you guessed it, Melancholy Monday.

What do you think of the new week? Anybody in? No? I hope not. No matter how hokey or overdone they might be, I still prefer Marvelous Monday, Terrific Tuesday, Wonderful Wednesday, Thrilling Thursday, and Fun Friday. And the weekend? Well, that speaks for itself.