[Michael Piziak]

I'd like to read about an item that takes you back to your childhood or early adulthood.

Be it a camera, a computer, a toy, what have you... I know many of you, on this forum, are taken back to a camera. Perhaps that certain film camera that you found yourself seeking out and buying as an adult - to nostalgically take you back...

For me it's computers. Born in 1971, my first experience with a computer was at my elementary school. I was in fourth grade. Strategically placed in the cafeteria was a single shiny new Apple II. Two of us were allowed to leave class at a time, to spend an hour at the computer. Most of what we did was plot pictures on large blocked graph paper and then “program” or “plot” the drawing on the computer – saving the image to disk that we could load back in at a later time. If we had not finished our picture, we could magically load the unfinished pic back into the computers memory, on a 5 & ¼ inch disk, and complete the image the next day. I don’t use the word “magically” lightly, as the process truly was magical to me.


I had to have a computer. My mother was a school teacher. We were not rich, but we were not poor. But we were not rich enough to afford an Apple 2 –the first Apple 2 cost around $1,300 at the time (completely out of the question). I knew nothing of what was a good computer and what was a bad one. When I showed mom an advertisement for a $99 Timex Sinclair 1000 computer, complete with it’s flat plastic keyboard,then off to Montgomery Ward we went. Turned out the computer, with its tape drive, still in my opinion, was the worst home computer ever released to the market. The next day we took it back and traded up to a Commodore VIC-20. It was no Apple 2, that I quickly learned when I found it impossible to learn how to program/plot images on the screen. However, I could type in programs, from computer magazines,and some times they would work and the tape drive worked about half the time also – a big improvement over the Timex Sinclair.


To make a long story short, my next computer was an Atari 800xl, probably a Christmas present, and I even had a floppy disk drive this time – taking the same size disks as the Apple 2. Later even adding a 2nddisk drive, which was invaluable at pirating games (copying from one disk to another). Goodness knows how many of those disks I owned(boxes and boxes of them that had 99% games). Later, I would sell it and get a Commodore 64, as it had many many more games available for it. However, I quickly learned that the Commodores disk operating system was far inferior to the Atari’s – not only was it much slower, but it was much less reliable.

Which brings me to the conclusion of my story. I’ve been surfing the auction site,looking to buy an 8 bit computer system – to take me back down that nostalgic road of my childhood. One thing is for sure, the prices of the 8 bit computer systems now fetch a premium, for what they technologically are. I dismissed a Commodore system. I looked long and hard at the Atari systems. I’ve actually decided to go full circle and get the first computer I had ever been exposed to – the Apple 2. First I thought about getting the original Apple II, but after reading up on several of the models, I’ve decided to get an Apple 2c. It’s the one that had a 5 ¼ inch disk drive (unlike the2c plus that has a 3 ½ inch drive.). I have my other reasons, but that’s not the point of this post. I kinda want the Apple 2 because it’s what I always wanted as a kid, but couldn't afford at the time. I want to plot some pictures with it and explore some other things on it. And now, I can finally afford one.

I’d love to read about anything nostalgic, be it a camera, a toy, or whatever, that you have bought, or pondered buying, to take you back down that nostalgic road.


Regards,

Michael

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Last edited by Michael Piziak; 06-06-2022 at 10:57 PM.

[35mmfilmfan]

For me, it's often books - I used to read a lot (still do), in those days to escape family atmospheres. First and Foremost (which I recently spent £100 replacing !) was The Island Of The Pines, by Elleston Trevor). Then the Romany series, by 'Romany of the BBC' (G. Bramwell Evans), the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome, and the Doctor Doolittle series by Hugh Lofting. To me, proper adventure stories (probably totally non PC).

'When I became a man, I re-purchased the Things of Childhood'.

[BigMackCam]

Great post, Michael

There are four items in particular that I look back on with fondness and a sense of nostalgia for my childhood...

(1) A quite long, orange flexible plastic track - I think it was by Matchbox, or perhaps Hotwheels - for my many small die-cast cars... I never got tired of playing with it

(2) LEGO - undoubtedly my most-used toy, I spent countless hours building things and had a huge box of different parts. This was before the days of the Technic kits... it was just the basic, small bricks in a variety of colours. Some of the parts fitted together very tightly, and I had a rather bad habit of prising them apart with my teeth. I still have a chip on one front tooth as proof

(3) A Realistic DX-160 shortwave receiver, bought for me by my Mum and Dad as a 9th birthday present. It ignited what until recently was a life-long interest in broadcast and amateur radio. I *loved* tuning round the bands to find different international stations, and in those days long before the internet, hearing voices from distant shores seemed very exotic indeed. The world was a much bigger and more mysterious place back then.

(4) My first computer, a Sinclair ZX-81 (I think it was branded "Timex" in the USA) bought for my 11th birthday (at my request)... I learned to program on this (playing computer games was never really my "thing"), and because of the incredibly-limited 1K of RAM (of which around half was available for code and data), coding efficiency was a necessity. It served as an amazing introduction to what would become my early career... so, whilst I was having a lot of fun and didn't think about the educational aspect, it was indeed an education

[nosliwmit]

I had a collection of Bossons Heads that my parents bought me when I was very young. I remember especially the Sardinian fisherman and the pirate (with a parrot on his shoulder). I don't know what happened to them but wish I still had them.

My first computer was the Japanese market equivalent of a VIC 20 (I think it was called a VIC 1001). 3k of RAM, 22 characters across the screen, a tape drive unit, an RF modulator for the TV, etc.

I had lots of Lego and Matchbox cars.

[timb64]

Too many!

Lego (as previously mentioned),

Airfix model kits of WW2 aircraft,

Hornby 00 railway layout,

Endless days playing board games(especially Monopoly and Escape from Colditz),

Action Man (GI Joe in the US?)

I am glad computer games weren’t about as they seem to limit the imagination/creativity.

I’ve often heard at funerals the 1Corinthians13 passage quoted:

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

It always makes me think how sad!

The BBC2 horror film double bills that started in the summer of 1975.
BBC Horror Double Bills

[Just1MoreDave]

This Old Town HW 16 CS which my dad bought when I was 5. Here they are in 1970.



In 2017 we got it out to Colorado and I looked at it for a year. Typical wooden boat repair story starts here. Maybe just a bit of fiberglass repair and it'll be fine.



OK, a handful of structural issues could be addressed.



Or I could fix everything. This picture is just the start of disassembly. I replaced 34 of the ribs out of 52 total, plus a lot of other parts.



Somewhat later, I was able to take a similar photo.

[c.a.m]

Some of my nostalgic possessions:

• The Modern Handy Book for Boys by Jack Bechdolt, published by Greenberg, 1933. As a boy, I spent hours reading and re-reading this amazing collection of neat things to make and do. Much later in life, I found a copy to replace my long-lost volume.
• Radio Shack Realistic DX-150A shortwave receiver, which I paired with a borrowed Johnson Viking Ranger transmitter for my first -- and very modest -- amateur radio kit.
• Heathkit home-built SB-102 amateur radio transceiver, which my parents bought in my mid-teens. I spent many evenings building it. Wow, what a step up from my DX-150A/Viking Ranger! I later sold it and bought a Kenwood rig.
• Seiko digital watch, mid-1970s, LCD display. Another gift from my parents. I still have it, but not sure if it works.

- Craig

[lesmore49]

My Matchbox / Dinky toys from England. This would be back in the 1950's.

My dad made me a garage, quite large, had fuel pumps, a showroom with two 1/18th scale early '50's Hudson Hornets in the glassed in showroom, an outer inclined ramp, to a roof parking lot and a service area with a large garage door, folding, with glass wooden framed panels which lead to a main floor service area for cars.

It was wonderful, unfortunately it went to a cousin when I was about 11.

[pschlute]

Mine was from around when I was 8 or 10. I got a Secret Sam attache case with all the spy kit, including a camera that would take pictures while the case was closed. I felt so 007 !

[ehrwien]

Or I could fix everything. This picture is just the start of disassembly. I replaced 34 of the ribs out of 52 total, plus a lot of other parts.

Are you that Theseus everyone in philosophy class was talking about? You're a legend

[BigMackCam]

Mine was from around when I was 8 or 10. I got a Secret Sam attache case with all the spy kit, including a camera that would take pictures while the case was closed. I felt so 007 !

That's awesome. I'd still play with that now

[BigMackCam]

My Matchbox / Dinky toys from England. This would be back in the 1950's.

My dad made me a garage, quite large, had fuel pumps, a showroom with two 1/18th scale early '50's Hudson Hornets in the glassed in showroom, an outer inclined ramp, to a roof parking lot and a service area with a large garage door, folding, with glass wooden framed panels which lead to a main floor service area for cars.

It was wonderful, unfortunately it went to a cousin when I was about 11.

My Grandad was in the car trade, and he built me a garage too! Not quite as detailed as yours, I think, but it was kind of a replica of the showroom he had at Newton Hall in Durham, just a few miles from where I now live again. It was wooden, with large perspex floor-to-ceiling windows, an area for cars to go in and out of the showroom (room for 4 or 5 of the smaller matchbox models inside, a forecourt outside etc. It was quite basic, but pretty cool - and I loved it

[timb64]

My Grandad was in the car trade, and he built me a garage too! Not quite as detailed as yours, I think, but it was kind of a replica of the showroom he had at Newton Hall in Durham, just a few miles from where I now live again. It was wooden, with large perspex floor-to-ceiling windows, an area for cars to go in and out of the showroom (room for 4 or 5 of the smaller matchbox models inside, a forecourt outside etc. It was quite basic, but pretty cool - and I loved it

On a similar theme my Dad made me a farmyard and fort for successive Birthdays,loved them both.

[BigMackCam]

On a similar theme my Dad made me a farmyard and fort for successive Birthdays,loved them both.

Brilliant, Tim! I wonder how many of today's kids would appreciate and be happy with DIY / home-crafted presents like these - as we clearly were - rather than commerically-produced toys and electronic products. I'd like to think plenty, but my hopes aren't high

In a similar vein, a Vindec bicycle I'd had for several years finally wore out after I'd spent months practicing wheelies and riding up planks of wood to jump as far as I could (I fancied myself a junior Evel Knievel ). In fact, I broke the main tube between the handlebar and seat columns, due to a particularly harsh landing I was crestfallen, as I rode my bike every day. At the time, my folks couldn't afford to just go out and buy me a new bike right away, so my Grandad replaced that tube - welded beautifully, I might add - and, whilst he was going about it, trimmed the rather dog-eared, slightly-rusted ends of the mudguards (and curled the edges) so they looked more like motor-cross / speedway guards. He then re-painted the entire bike in a fetching silver, with contrasting petrol-blue mudgards and trim. It must have taken many hours (though he never mentioned it), and it looked amazing compared to the previous, rather-girly metallic orange colour. I was absolutely thrilled with it - even happier than I'd have been with a new bike, as I already loved this one. I rode that repaired-and-refinished bike for several more years before my parents bought me a cool BMX