FAN: Still A Fan The Early Years VI

This is Muffins on Nov 18th, 1974. This is the dog that made it 17 years even though our first two never made it to one. Muffins was a great family dog...mostly some type of spaniel but still some mutt in her. I'll have more pictures of her as she gets older. When she finally had to be put to sleep, neither myself or Still A Dad could do it. Still A Sis was already living in Florida and my mom had passed. Still A Unc ended up taking her to the vet. It was circa 1991 because I know where I was working at the time and it was shortly before I moved to Philly area. How about that couch with those curtains! 1974 indeed.
This picture is blurry from Christmas day 1974 but I wanted to include it because of the toy to see if any of you owned it as well. I wasn't sure of the name my mom wrote it on the back of the picture, Road King Mountain. It was awesome! The road had what I'll call a continuous string of plastic with yellow BB's on it and the trucks clipped to the BB's. You turned a crank and the entire loop turned making it look like the truck was moving. Very cool stuff.
This picture rocks for several reasons. First, Still A Dad's shirt is priceless. This is 1975. I turned 7 that day. All my friends had the Steve Austin Bionic Man "figure" (not a doll). Funny thing is, they also had the spaceship which opened up into an operating table. I didn't have that so I made my own....out of a Pringle's can...lol. I cut a hole for the face where the window was on the real ship. One day while playing at our great aunt's house in Somerset PA, Still A Colt and I decided Steve had died (for whatever reason) and we buried him. I pretty much remember the spot we did it and I would LOVE to go to that house and try to dig him up 35 years later. I'm sure being made of plastic from the 70's he will last in the Earth about 1,782 years. I wouldn't be surprised though if my aunt dug him up after we left that day and cleaned him back up.....and sold him at the Comet Drive In flea market. This picture also features has Still A Pap - one of the greatest human beings I've ever known in my life.
Ok, for the regular readers here who know this girl, please don't mention any names in the comments. I don't want people looking for her on Google to land here. I included this one to be a little funny and point out that on August 14th, 1976, Still A Fan was already enrolled in the school of the hound. I think I said before I had numerous neighborhood crushes one I hit a certain age, but there were three girls on my side of the street all on the same 6 house block who were close to my age and very cute! One moved away around this time but the other two continued to "torment" me until they got to high school and moved on to older boys because they were both a year or two older than me. Let me state for the record that there is NOTHING better for a young man's confidence and knowledge about how to act with women than growing up and interacting with them every day. Seriously. Look at the shit eating grin I'm wearing! I clearly remember Still A Sis being a cheerleader or something for a local youth football team and having the crew over to our house the first year we had our pool. I think I was in 4th grade and she was in 6th. Those girls flirted and teased me all day and I even remember a few of them kissing me. To this day I remember some of their names. My daughter is in 5th grade and we all know if a boy kissed her now the little son of bitch would come up missing from his backyard. This is my 8th birthday. Again, even though Still A Dad didn't hunt or own guns (then), look at my gifts....an army truck, handcuffs and another assault rifle. Same couch, new curtains? I would venture a guess that Still A Colt, his younger brother and myself spent more hours over our childhoods playing with guns more than with whiffle balls. The basketball hoop was a failed sequel to that plastic field goal kicker. They still sell the kicker today. Makes sense as the football just needs brute force, no touch. How can you hit a basketball player on the head shooting a plastic basketball against a plastic backboard and expect it to go in. I remember playing with this for a day and then forgetting about it. Pretty snazzy slippers, huh?