FAN: Still A Fan The Early Years III

I'll open with this picture of Easter 1971 so you can see the drastic difference with how my mother dressed me. This outfit makes so much sense for me. Look at the little bow-tie! I was rockin a bow-tie in 1971 people! I like the jacket too. It's a cool little outfit, something I might still go for today as I like retro type shirts and stuff. My wardrobe consists today of about 15 different "bowling" shirts like Charlie Harper wears. Doesn't it look like Still A Sis is watching me as I look into her basket to make sure the candy division was equal? The garage behind us belonged to our neighbor and it always fascinated me as a kid. He was a local vending operator and had all kinds of junked pinball machines in there. Should a ball find it's way in there, I was careful to take my time while I looked around. I clearly remember an old bowling game being in there. I wanted that sucker so bad. Behind me you can see a train trestle which eventually lead me to name my 11 year fantasy football franchise The West Side Trestle Trolls.
That's my first dog, Happy. I really have little recollection of Happy and I'm not even sure if the dog was male or female. Sadly, living on a highway was not so good for owning a dog. Happy didn't last too long. Also notice the garbage cans are inside the yard. They used to enter the yard, take them to the truck then put your cans back. Ha! Try that today.
Christmas 1971. Hey man, if you don't have a fireplace, just buy one made of cardboard. That's tight! Look at the foil behind the dancing flames. You put an orange light bulb back there and it's a party. Think they don't make those any longer? Think again.
There's really no reason to whip this picture out except to talk about wardrobes again. Still A Dad, what was the fascination with covering my ears? It's April 1972, not February 1972. Did I leak at the ears or something? Did they stick out so far that you were trying to push them in? Minus the hat I can't really complain. There's my best man again, Still A Colt. I have two comments about his clothes. I freaking LOVE that sweater. Give me an XL and I'll wear that to work on Monday as it's all me. If My daughter saw that in those colors, she'd buy it for me as she knows how much I like stuff like that. Now the second point....the pants??? I'm not sure you could find a pair of pants and a sweater that didn't go together worse than this combo. I'm going to go ahead and give you an A++ for the sweater and an epic FAIL on the pants. Maybe in the fall whip those out with a brownish sweater. I can't tell if Still A Sis is wearing a hat too or if that's part of my grandmother's dress. Between the sidewalk we're on and the white house below where Uncle "Chew" and Aunt Vernie lived we had some epic whiffle ball games. Another great uncle of mine shot Estes rockets off there. I was there practically every weekend of my life until I started working on weekends. The road in the background goes to Stilladog's childhood house, maybe 2 miles away. To this day he owns another property where his dad used to live about 2 miles from where this was taken in the other direction.
This photo captures a lot. First, that's a decent looking house built out of Lincoln Logs for a 3 1/2 year old. This was 1972 and I thought I'd do a quick search to see when Lincoln Logs were first sold. I was guessing the 50's. I'd be wrong. Look at the tv kiddies. That sucker might be black-n-white, I can't remember. I especially like the radio in the background. Very retro. I'd drop one of those on my office desk just for the cool look. It's amazing how many pictures my sister and I have of our childhood. A lot of people don't so props go out (up) to Still A Mom. As you get older you realize how priceless these are.