No new post this week since I AM ON VACATION! Taking the family on a little road trip. Nothing major, just wanting to get the kids out and have some fun for a change this year. Hope all of you are having a great summer. Remember when the stress and heat get to be too much, just CHILL OUT!
Ah, the Summer of 1993! I had just finished up 6th grade and was a few months away from my 13th birthday. Sports had become my life, especially basketball, the weather was crazy hot and Janet Jackson was topping the charts with her song "That's The Way Love Goes".
Me and my Dad didn't really spend too much time together unless it was sports related. He worked in the day and most evenings I was off doing something stupid with my friends. Our paths rarely crossed, but one major pop culture phenomenon put an end to all that in June of 1993.
The movie Jurassic Park was unleashed on the world and my Dad, being the sci-fi fan that he is, decided he was going to take me to see this movie in the theater. Not me, my 2 brothers, my 2 sisters and my Mom, just me and him. This was so unusual, that it shocked me at first, but then it became clear that he wanted to connect with me. Maybe it was because I was about to become a teenager or maybe it was just to get to know each other. Anyway, he made this trip a pretty big deal.
We stopped at a local comic shop and picked up some of the newest issues of the Superman comics. This was a huge time for the series as Superman had just recently been killed by Doomsday, his friends had a funeral for him and now 4 new Supermen were being introduced! AMAZING! I gotta say, my favorite of the 4 was John Henry Irons aka Steel.
While there, I also remember picking up a few packs of the 1992 Skybox Dream Team cards. Me and my brother were trying to complete a second set and all we needed was one dang Charles Barkley card to do so! It didn't happen from these packs, but many years later I just gave up the pack chase and purchased the card off ebay. Now me and my brother own a set of these cards.
After this surprise trip to the comic shop, we eventually made it to the theater and saw the blockbuster movie of the summer, Jurassic Park! It was mind blowing! The action was fast, the special effects were fantastic and the story was entertaining. After the credits rolled the entire audience applauded and so did I. It was the first and only time I experienced that in a movie theater.
Since experiencing this cinematic miracle, there was much discussing that needed to be done. Where else better to do that than at my favorite restaurant, McDonalds. Not only was this my pick for place to eat, but they were also waist deep in their own Jurassic Park promotional campaign!
We both "Dino-Sized" our meals and had some great one-on-one time between father and son. Not sure what we talked about, but I'm sure it was great. We walked away with 2 Jurassic Park cups. I know I got the Dilophosaurus and I think my dad got the Raptor cup.
It would be a long time before me and my Dad did anything like that again, but anytime I drank out of that JP cup, it brought back some great memories from that one cool Summer day in June of 1993!
This week the comic book I am most excited to read is...
DC BEACH BLANKET BAD GUYS SPECIAL #1
It's summertime in the DCU and the bad guys are taking over! Beat the heat with 10 all-new stories by top comics talent starring DC's most spectacular super-villains! In this issue, find out what Mr. Freeze does on the hottest day of the Gotham City summer! Learn what made Grodd such a bad gorilla! Then, while in a small beach town, Deathstroke gets hired for murder by the last person he'd expect! And The Joker and Bizarro team up for a truly weird summer bromance!
(W) Paul Dini, Lee Bermejo, Gabriel Hardman, Corinna Bechko, Tim Seeley, Rod Fontana (A) Carlos D'Anda, Gabriel Hardman, David Williams, Otto Schmidt
Sorry, no feature post this week. You know why? Cuz it's vacation time brothas! Taking the family out for a little vacation time this week. 20 Years Before 2000 will return to it's normal schedule next week. Thank you and enjoy your summer!
This past week I organized the second of four Cookouts that my job puts on as a fundraiser for our local American Cancer Society. Each year we raise approximately $5,000 for the cause, but this year I was looking for a way to earn some extra donations when my wife stumbled onto the Facebook page of a local woman who runs an ice cream truck! I checked out her page and saw she had done some previous ACS events and looked at her pictures. I saw this...
She had Ninja Turtles, Sonic The Hedgehog, Batman and Minions ice cream pops available! I immediately messaged her and we were able to have the ice cream truck show up for the latest Cookout and she agreed to donate a portion of what she made to the American Cancer Society!
I was so excited to indulge in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ice cream bar! I had not had one of these in decades! Mikey was cherry flavored sherbet with gumball eyes. Holding this really took me back to when I was a kid and my Dad would let us get some ice cream at the local general store. It was the same general store that was used as a filming location in the original Friday The 13th film!
More often than not myself and my brother would choose a Good Humor Fat Frog bar.
These things were amazing! They were made of green colored vanilla ice cream with candy eyes. I'm pretty sure they disappeared from freezers in the mid to late 80s. After that I would enjoy a Choco Taco, Bubble O'Bill, Flintstones Push Up or Strawberry Shortcake bar from the local ice cream truck.
So finally I was happy to have that feeling again of being a little kid in the summer holding an ice pop shaped like one of my favorite cartoon characters. On a side note the ice cream truck owner donated half of what she made to the American Cancer Society! Very generous of her! Now in honor of ice cream peddlers everywhere, let's take a look at a classic commercial!
The feature length movie Tiny Toon Adventures: How I spent My Summer Vacation was released exclusively on VHS in 1992 by Warner Bros. The film was later released as a 4-part event during the regular airings of Tiny Toon Adventures on our local FOX station (FOX 5 NY) and became a summer tradition for a few years in my house. We knew summer was here once that special aired after school.
Just last week my kids had their last day of the school year and we celebrated by popping in the "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" DVD. I hadn't seen this movie in years and I really loved watching how much my kids enjoyed it. A lot of the jokes were dated and over there heads but the overall stories of Babs & Buster on the river, Plucky & Hamton heading to Happy World Land and Fifi fawning over Johnny Pew really kept them entertained. If you asked them "What were your favorite parts of the movie?" my kids would more than likely say "EVERYTHING!", in my case here are my top 5 moments from Tiny Toons: How I Spent My Summer Vacation!
1. The opening musical montage
This is the very beginning of the film and it shows the students of Acme Looniversity counting down the seconds on the last day of school and discussing what they planned to do in the summer. This brings me back to those final days of grade school when all we did was watch movies, clean the classroom and goof off with our friends one last time before going off for vacation. The song is catchy too!
2. Superman Cameo
After falling off a waterfall while floating down a river created by Babs and Buster's reckless water fight the two bunnies are rescued by none other than Superman! He is promptly told by Buster & Babs that he is in the wrong movie and he should get his own video. This leads the man of steel to drop the bunnies back into the raging river.
I like how the depiction of Superman in this brief cameo resembles his appearance in the Max Fleischer animated Superman series from the 40s. Don't believe me, take a look at the video above and judge for yourself!
3. Immature Radioactive Samurai Slugs
While Plucky and Hamton's family are on their way to the Happy World Land amusement park, Plucky tries to find a way to pass the time. He pulls out his mint condition, first printing of Immature Radioactive Samurai Slugs #1! These homages to the TMNT made an appearance in another episode of Tiny Toons complete with AWESOME theme song!
I was a huge fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the time, so I could sympathize with Plucky when Hamton threw up all over his prized comic.
4. Masked Maniac
As Plucky & Hamton went about their long road trip they encountered a ton of craziness including Uncle Stinky's sweat, rest stop bathroom clean-ups and playing the "There's A Car" game, but none was more dangerous than when the family picked up a hitchhiker who turned out to be a pork loving, chainsaw wielding raving masked maniac!
5. HAPPY WORLD LAND
After overcoming all of the obstacles and family friendliness, Plucky finally made it to Happy World Land. I loved seeing the rides the park had to offer as a kid and always wondered what it would be like to ride the Happy Go-Pukey, The Gargle, Slap Happy and the Happy Centrifuge. Unfortunately for Plucky he was left wondering also. The Pig family rode the monorail and then it was time to go home and subdue Plucky to one more form of torture...a SLIDESHOW!!!
Now we end this post with a picture of Babs dressed up like Jessica Rabbit, just because!
Growing up one of the best things about a hot summer night in NJ was the anticipation of going to Dairy Queen at night to cool down with a Dilly Bar, Blizzard or hot fudge Sunday. Most of the time whenever you ordered something from DQ in the 80s it would be served up in a sweet disposable Dennis The Menace cup like this one:
Other times if you were lucky it was that special time of the year where they served up frozen treats in an AWESOME mini Major League Baseball Helmet! I was lucky enough to find a few of these at a local thrift store for $.25 each!
I grabbed some of my faves based on retro appeal. Here they are!
Montreal Expos
I picked up the Montreal Expos helmet because this team is no longer around. They moved to Washington and became the Nationals in 2004. I also love the old school logo. They don't make them like this anymore!
Philadelphia Phillies
Living close to Philadelphia the Phillies were always in the papers and on TV. This logo has not been used in years, but reminds me of the days of Mike Schmidt, Darren Daulton & Lenny Dykstra. Plus this logo kinda looks like the top of a DQ sundae?
New York Mets
This was the one I always coveted as a kid. I had this and never used it for eating once the sundae was gone. It sat on my shelf of sports collectables for years. My original helmet from the 80s, like many other amazing treasures, is packed away in my mother's attic. Man, I gotta make a trip and get all that stuff someday!
I hope you enjoyed this delicious trip down summer memory lane, I know I did! Gotta take the kids to DQ now! Enjoy Dick Clark talkin bout Blizzards in this ad below!
