Big thanks to TKMo for my b-day gift card to Border's which I used to buy a highly entertaining book The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir. I was reading it on the bus & started laughing nearly-uncontrollably at one of Bill Bryson's recollections (the "toity" jar) of growing up in the 50s/60s in Des Moines IA. The laughing triggered a coughing spell, and then my eyes started watering, & it was fortunate I was on a TTA bus, because there were so few around to witness this odd behavior.
Bryson's recollections mostly recount the age of Saturday matinees & walking to school, but occasionally foray into things I remember from youth. His fond skewering of the debacle that was Electric Football alone is worth the outlay (if it's not free for you, like it was for me & my gift card). I was transported back in time to Robbie Livingston's family room and detail-by-detail it was like every "game" we ever played. He had a great riff on model planes as well that Dad would enjoy. Just an amazing book. Kinda sad in the end as he detailed so many strengths of the bygone era & how they were gone forever, but overall just a nice journey back in time. I'll bring it for borrowing over Christmas.
(As an aside on Electric Football, click that link you just passed. Amazingly, people apparently meet for conventions to play others in Electric Football. There a some mind-boggling quotes in there.)
2 comments:
That electric football convention seems like something Bill Geist would like to highlight on Sunday Morning.
Glad you got something good with the gift card.
Kris
The book sounds like something I might like also. It will be a good reference book for you to refer to in your old age. You will have forgotten "the good ol'" days by then and you can fool your grandchildren by "recalling" the halcyon days of your youth! G'Ma
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