TV Shows

I'm sure to Mom's surprise, one of the most influential shows of my childhood was a show that I never remember watching. We grew up watching --- sometimes against the rules --- shows like GI Joe, Square One, Murder She Wrote, Perry Mason, This Old House (Mom's 'show') and others. Going back and watching these shows is always bitter sweet (except for Perry Mason which is still as good today as it was when it was made). Shows like, forgive me Peter, MacGyver have simply not stood the test of time. I watched an episode of Night Rider a while back and almost cried it was so bad. I would suggest that these shows are often so bad it might be a good idea to never go back and re-watch them. It's better for me to know that the new GI Joe movie is pure crap and believe that the real GI Joe movie (the animate one) was pure cinematic excellence instead of putting on the old movie and realizing it wasn't quite the same as I remembered.

So what show could live up to my memory. For years I have made references to a show that Mom used to watch. I knew it was about Vietnam and I knew, more vividly than anything else, that the theme music was Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones. Still every time I hear that song I see helicopters flying over a jungle (the only clip I could remember ever seeing from the intro or the show). We weren't aloud to watch, but I couldn't help hearing. That song, the twangy guitar, the beating drums, that song, beyond it's words, beyond it's intended meaning is Vietnam to me. And beyond that, not knowing what branch of the military the show was about, to me that song is about Marines. I remember Pop being away from home a lot when we were kids, away on a ship, away in the field. Paint it Black, that haunting song from the lips of Mick Jagger, that song was a lullaby for me, maybe not as much as Africa by Toto was, but in the black of night I knew that the show was about Pop, and that when the show was over he was coming home.

Nam: Tour Of Duty:

Saturday Morning Cartoons

So I am guessing most of you are not waking up this morning thinking: I wonder what Ben has posted on the Crum Family Blog? But maybe you did think that, and if you did, this post is for you.

Enjoy these cartoons from days gone by:



GI Joe, Mask, Bugs Bunny and more...

416 Walnut Ave.

I have a tendency to be nostalgic on here and want to take a few seconds of your time to inform you of a new (to me) feature on Google Maps… Street View. I did not research the technology behind this feature, but basically my guess is that a vehicle of some kind drives around cities, primarily in the U.S., with a panoramic camera attached, and records still images as it goes. This has led to the following discovery, our old house on Mare Island. It has the address wrong, but it has been almost 20 years since we lived there. As I took a virtual tour of the island I stopped by several memorable locales - St. Peter’s, the park with the gazebo and bunkers, the field where we played soccer, and the golf course. I found other houses, in Creve Coeur and Valrico, but this feature has its limits and houses in Landisville, Camp Pendleton, and Catonsville did not make the cut. I Hope this opens a new realm of searches and brings back many good memories.

Hooray

I don't know why I am so sentimental when it come to nostalgia. When we lived in Pennsylvania I never thought "this is the greatest state in the entire union" but now I think that. When we lived in Missouri I never made a conscious note of the slope of the hill and the curve of the drive down to the swimming pool, but it's as vivid in my mind as any road here in Bloomington.



Just looking at this picture makes me think of a few things, and I'm sure it will remind others of you of even more. The first memory I have is showing up with a bunch of people (maybe some from our church, a lot from the community), swinging a hammer, and building our Dream Park (which is the best playground, though that word really fails to capture the awesomeness of the park, ever). The second thing I see is the backstop where we played home-run-derby (I don't remember playing this too often, but I think Matt played more often that I did). There are so many other memories of this little plot (smoking in the tree, Nate finding a wallet and turning it in to the Police just up the road, and so many more).

Bad Words: Part Two

NOTE: For those of you at home (under the age of David), you may want to read this one quitly to yourself thus avoiding a possible bar-of-soap in the mouth.



NERD (Definition: A person with limited social, but advanced technological skills and interests)

Even though calling someone a "Nerd" is not necessarily an insult, we were certainly not allowed to do so as children (Mom may contest that we are still not allowed). It's funny how calling someone a name, especially one that is only defined by the intention by which it is called, can produce such pain. For some reason, it really hurt to be called a nerd, or even to be called "dummy fummy". I mean really, who tarewles?

Due to the restrictions (and harsh enforcement) on using the word, we often cleverly called each other "dren", which as I'm sure our astute readers realize is simply the inverse of the word nerd. This tactic worked less well with names like "dork" and "idiot" simply because the inverse is very difficult to say (especially if you already have a speach impediment).

Bad Words: Part One

NOTE: For those of you at home (under the age of David), you may want to read this one quitly to yourself thus avoiding a possible bar-of-soap in the mouth.



BUTT (root: buttocks, the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on)

When we were kids there were certain words that we were not allowed to use. It is interesting to think back on what some of these words were. For the life of me I can't figure out what's wrong with the word butt. If we had known to, we could probably have used the word 'buttocks', but for whatever reason, shortening that to just 'butt' was unacceptable.

Granted, the context was more than likely attached to the word 'head', thus creating one of the most clever insults in human history. To claim that a brother's head was in fact a butt would have been as painfully insulting as kicking him in the... neck.

One of my favorite games to play (when I got old enough to forgo getting my mouth washed out with soap) was to trick Mom into saying some 'bad word' and then repeat that word over-and-over, claiming "Mom said it, it must be okay!" This was most fun when, somehow, it coincided with watching Dr. Quinn.

Cool Stuff

As a child I loved playing with Legos. In fact, I would still love playing with Legos, I just don't have any. I really look forward to Daniel being old enough to play with those great plastic bricks without trying to consume them. I just hope that I'll be able to find some good, old bricks, not the newfangled sets that require no creativity (or even construction). I still remember building our first aircraft carrier upstairs(?) in the house on Maire Island, the first of many Carriers to come. I know there were a lot of toys that we had as kids. Maybe even some that, at the time, we thought were "better" than our Legos, so what do you guys think? What were (or are) your favorite toys?

Wouldn't it be sweet?...

Now I know many of you remember this one, Wings of Fury! Hours and hours of time has been spent by the brothers Crum dive-bombing the Japanese in this World War II classic, routing machine gun nests and obliterating their bunkers. I still have the 'ping' ringing in my ears from my machine gun fire hitting a running man trying to re-enter a sandbag fortified machine gun position.

Now, I know what you're all saying, "thanks a lot Ben, bring up all these great memories and then make my current gaming experience suffer because of the nostalgia for the best game ever" Well, if you do say such a thing, have no fear, I wouldn't leave you hanging like that. There are still three ways for you to play this game:

One - Own an Apple IIc and the original floppy.
Two - Download this file (sorry Thomas, this only works on PCs). Users Guide here.
Three - Play the online Flash version here.

Enjoy

The First Record (Red Album)

The First Record of the Red Album from The Beatles.

For those of you wondering, Papa asked me to remove his posts.

Roadtripping

For those of you who don't know... I'm guessing all of you... Jon has embarked on an ambitious roadtrip across America (or, at least across the blog-sphere). Read about his adventures on his all-new-and-improved blog.