Going to the Antique Store: Part 2

 

Last week I wrote about my family's trip to a local antique store. We found all sorts of cool things like X-Men action figures and old cartoon reels. I would have liked to add any of those items to my collection, but the prices seemed a little high. There was one item I did pick up though...

This O.J. Simpson Pog Slammer! It was only $1 and reminded me of the trial that had everyone glued to their TV in late 94 through early 95.

When I say this trial was big, I mean it was huge! Everyone knew the details of the crime, everyone had their own opinion and every TV station covered the case religiously! It turned Johnny Cochran, Judge Lance Ito and Robert Kardashian into stars. The phrases "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" and "The Juice is loose" became a part of everyone's vocabulary.

As you can imagine, with a huge, high profile case like this a lot of people wanted to cash in on the celebrity of former NFL superstar O.J. Simpson.

Sets of cards highlighting O.J.'s career to the trial popped up in stores...

Bootleg shirts were sold in mall kiosks and street corners proclaiming O.J.'s innocence...

Of course Mad Magazine had to get in on the parody action...

And then we had the official O.J. trial Pog sets. Which is where I assume my Slammer came from?

My biggest memory from this event was watching Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets, then news came in that O.J. was on the run in a white Bronco driven by former O.J. teammate Al Cowlings in a slow paced chase with the LAPD. NBC disrupted the broadcast of the game to show the chase and put the Finals IN A SMALL BOX AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN! I was kinda pissed about this! Now over 20 years later there has been an award winning mini-series (The People vs. O.J. Simpson) and award winning ESPN documentary released about one of the highest profile court cases of all time. People are still cashing in on this tragedy! Not sure I will watch them, but damn can you imagine if this all went down in the time of social media and smart phones? It would have been craziness!