Episode 96: 🎄 Episode 96: Big Wheels to Big Meals—Our Favorite Childhood Toys & Texoma Christmas Joys!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You make this rather snappy,won't you?
I have some very heavythinking to do before 10:00.
Hey, welcome to anotherepisode of Get It Right Texoma with
the Trio.
I'm Mike Hendren.
This is Terry McAdams.
That's Trey Sorala.
Glad to have you here with us.
We are fast approaching Christmas.
We are days away now.
Barreling it down at it's fullsteam ahead here.

(00:24):
Does it feel like 20, 24should be over already?
Whether he feels like it is,it is here.
I don't know.
Some of us are ready for it tobe over.
I am too.
We.
It's been.
This has not been a great yearfrom a business standpoint.
No, it's.
It's been so up and down andunpredictable and all that with the

(00:45):
election.
I'm glad the election's over.
Let's get going and everybodycan now focus on getting back to
business.
Yeah, a lot of things havebeen a bit of a dumpster fire for
the last, I don't know, four years.
You know, it's just been kindof wild and woolly.
Well, part of it, I think isthis election cycle.
So long.
Oh yeah.

(01:05):
It was the longest, longestelection cycle in our, in modern
history.
And so it just, it just one ofthose deals.
It's like, glad it's over withand let's move on and get after it.
Yeah.
And I think we're, we're kindof at a point where everybody's just
ready to see what the nextchapter is going to hold.
Yeah, we're poised for it, butit seems like people are still, still

(01:26):
nervous.
I don't understand.
I really thought once theelection was over that things.
I thought, everybody take adeep breath.
No matter who won.
Just, just.
Okay, election's over now.
And it didn't seem that way.
It seems like I was way wrongon, on the.
I thought, well, lecture willbe over and people just get back
to normal.
And that hadn't seemed likeit's happened.

(01:46):
Not yet.
We'll, we'll see.
We'll see what the next 30, 60days holds anyway, for sure.
Well, welcome again to the show.
We appreciate it.
Be sure to visit our website,get it right texoma.com and our Facebook
page and be sure to like andshare our Facebook page and be sure
to subscribe to us on YouTubeif you're watching.
Obviously you're seeing thison YouTube, especially this one.
If you are listening, flipover and find the YouTube version

(02:11):
because you'll, I think you'llenjoy it by Watching.
We're going to talk a littlebit about some of our favorite toys
growing up as children.
The stuff we have.
Politics, crap out of the dining.
Yeah, there you go.
Have some fun.
We got.
The Fantasy of Lights is stillgoing on through the 26th, 6pm to
10pm nightly through the 26th.

(02:32):
And again, I want to stress,because I was out collecting money
a few nights ago for Fantasyof Lights, by the way, had three
limos come through the linethat night.
Three limos.
They tipped well.
Two did.
The other one just kind ofwent, hey.
And went on.
But anyway, what are you goingto do?

(02:52):
But again, this thing is 100%funded by private donations.
And I had this conversationwith a couple of different people
who still didn't know, didn't understand.
Now, in their defense, both ofthese people were new to the area.
They're not from here, andthis is not something that they've
seen and experienced before.
So I educated them a littlebit about what it's all about and

(03:14):
how it's operating.
This thing is 100% funded byprivate donations.
So these are.
These are your displays, Texoma.
These belong to you.
You gotta.
You gotta help us support this.
So please, if you cancontribute when you go by, you know,
you can drop some money in the.
In the boot or scan the QRcode on any one of the signs that
you'll see scattered allthroughout the displays.

(03:35):
Or there's also boxes whereyou can drop some cash in if you
want to do that too.
Any way you want to do it.
But please, by the way, if the box.
If you walk by and you see abox, it looks like an official box,
that's fine.
If you see an old cardboardcutout box that says Xmas on it,
probably don't drop the moneyin that one.
It could be some grifter and some.
No, don't do that.
They're hacking it, man.

(03:56):
You never know.
And, and we do have securityout there, you know, watching things,
keeping an eye on things.
And MSU police do a good jobof keeping an eye on things.
And, and I gotta say, we, youknow, the public, 99.8% of the public
is very respectful of the displays.
Most people are good people.

(04:17):
Just in general.
Most people are good people.
It is a very small populationof the people that are complete in
our.
In our society, and they, theycause a lot of chaos.
Most people are good most ofthe time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Most of the time.
So anyhow, Fantasy of Lightson the.
The 26th, the campus ofMidwestern State University Right

(04:40):
there along.
Easy to find.
You cannot miss it.
Let's talk a little bit aboutour local restaurant Focus this week.
Each episode we try to focuson a locally owned restaurant in
our area.
And this week we're going totalk about one that.
I'm not sure how long they'vebeen around.
Their original location has been.

(05:04):
It was a different brand ofMexican restaurant before it was
there.
They've been out on theexpressway on I44 at Missile Road
for several years now.
I'm gonna say 20 years.
Probably 20 years.
El Mexicano.
The Cantu family owns this andCantu Catering.
At one time.

(05:24):
I know they had the, they hadthe food service contract at Fort
Sill and a couple of othermilitary bases, but they opened El
Meakan.
I remember El Meicano beingaround probably when we were in high
school.
Oh, well, I know that we hadsome people, a guy we went to high
school with, his parents werethe mariachis Bear.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I think, I thinkthey were.
I think they've been aroundsince the early 80s or the late 70s.

(05:47):
Yeah, probably so.
Probably so.
But really good.
It's.
It's a buffet style restaurantis what it is.
And you know, it's one of those.
You go in, you pay one priceand then you eat until you can't
eat anymore, I guess, youknow, if that's what you want to
do.
And it's a Mexican, obviously,El Mexicano.
It is a Mexican restaurant.
It is, it is.
But they have a wide varietyof different kinds of foods and dishes

(06:10):
and enchiladas and tacos andfajitas and all kinds of stuff.
They're burritos.
I mean, make your own and allthat sort of thing.
Yeah, I'm all about the makeyour own taco thing because I love
me some tacos.
Oh, I'm a taco fiend.
Yeah, I can eat tacos.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Yep.
Three, four times a week.
I don't care.
It's.
It's good.
Well, kind of hard to beatwhen I was active duty.

(06:30):
I mean, it was the place to go for.
Because it was close to the base.
Fairly close at the time.
Not, not necessarily when itmoved out on the freeway, but right
there at Maureen, it wasn'ttoo far to go.
But you know, it's 10th and Beverly.
Beverly.
I'm sorry.
Right there near Seymour Highway.

(06:51):
And anyway, we'd go there alot for squadron functions.
You know, somebody's goingaway or whatever.
So it, it was, it's a pretty,it's a.
And it was a big building.
It is now, too, but it was a.
It's a large building.
So you.
You had.
You could go in and put 15people at a table or 20 people at
a table or whatever.
And I think.
Don't they own that building?
That.
That.
I believe they do own thatwhole complex, yes.

(07:11):
Okay.
They own all that where theyare now.
So it's on I44, the corner of I44.
Missile Road.
Yeah.
And El Mihondo.
So go check them out.
There's locally owned and operated.
And.
And it's a.
It's a wide variety.
The nice thing about buffets,I mean, you got to be careful that
you don't just cram yourselfand feel horrible.
But the nice thing about abuffet is you can have a taco and

(07:32):
a burrito and, you know, youcould go through and you could have
a little bit of everything andget you a complete full meal.
Meal and.
But just not load up on one thing.
Yeah.
So, yeah, it's good stuff.
So anyway, we.
We applaud them, and I got tofigure out how long they've been
around.
I think you're right.
I think it probably has beenlate 70s, early 80s, long time somewhere

(07:53):
in there.
So anyway, Hospice of WichitaFalls just had their Tree of Lights
campaign.
They just wrapped it up.
They raised well over $300,000.
I think the goal was 300,000this year.
I think they overshot that goal.
But the really cool littletidbit in all this is Ben Franklin
elementary raised over $11,000.

(08:14):
Yeah.
Pretty interesting.
Over $11,000 from anelementary school.
And every year, the schools,the Wichita Falls schools, will all
take some part in fundraisingfor hospice.
And every year, somebodyreally, really stands out.
I don't know if this is thefirst year in elementary school,
has gone that big, but this isprobably one of the biggest in the

(08:35):
history of this.
Seems like a lot.
Yeah.
I don't know for sure, but.
But, you know, the nice thing about.
Or the interesting about ahospice is it touches everybody just
about at some point.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, whether you're goingto need hospice care, somebody in
your immediate family is goingto need hospice care.
Your friend, a relative, adistant relative, somebody.
There's a lot of.
There's a lot of need in ourcommunity for hospice care.

(08:56):
And it's not just the patientitself, it's the extended family.
That's right.
So they do so much for everybody.
So it's great to support them.
And it's great that theChristmas tree, Tree of Lights campaign
was going on, of course, Mikewas very involved for many, many
years in the radio day.
Many years.
Yeah, they still do that.
And it was a very successfulthing once again.
Yeah.
Well, so probably not quite assuccessful because you weren't there,

(09:18):
but it's.
It was successful.
They could have done a littlebetter if I'd have been around.
Yeah.
Wasn't my choice.
Well, as long as they don'thire you.
What, as an employee.
Yeah, I don't want to do that.
Yeah.
I just want to point that out.
He volunteer.
He.
Man, he's awesome.
But you know, for some reason, Merry.
Christmas star going to starveto death over here.

(09:41):
Anyway, next year willactually mark their 40th anniversary.
25 will be 40 years of hospice.
Wichita Falls.
So that's good.
Yeah.
Move on here.
Before we get into ourChristmas toy list, let's clear a
couple of.
Well, it's this.
This one thing.
Daniel, Penny, if you've beenfollowing this case at all, this
guy was found not guilty.

(10:04):
And a lot of people areapplauding this decision and a lot
of people are screaming at thetop of their lives.
I don't think a lot of peopleare screaming.
I think there's a few peoplethat are allowed.
I agree.
There's people that are.
Yeah.
But I think most people areapplauding this decision because
most people that are rational people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When you.
When you look at Daniel Penneyand some of this evidence that has
come out and watch hisinterviews with the police, to think

(10:27):
that this guy thought, I'mgonna go kill somebody today.
Yeah.
You'd be ridiculous to think that.
To think that this guy had anymalice in his heart or the way he
did things.
Exactly.
No, this was a stand up guy.
And by the way, this is thekind of person that we would all
like to be and make sure wehope we are.
You never know till you're.
You're in that position.
Yeah.
And.
Or if you had a loved one onthat train, you would hope that somebody

(10:48):
there would be willing to do this.
Right.
And he was drugged to the mud.
And then you have your.
You have the like the BlackLives Matter guy standing out there
screaming, we're going toprotest and all that.
And nobody's protesting.
You know why?
Because everybody realizes.
Not everybody.
Most people realize that thiswas a justifiable thing.

(11:09):
Is it sad and tragic that theguy died?
Yes, it is.
But quite frankly, you go inthere and you start a fight, you
kind of get what you get.
Y.
That's my theory about everything.
And that's Been my theory for years.
If you don't start.
No, there won't be no.
But if you decide to pick itright 100%, you pick it, you get

(11:29):
what you get.
And.
And there's no evidence.
There was obviously no evidence.
And I don't think anybodywho's reasonable thinks that Daniel
Penny wanted to kill that person.
He wanted to sub.
Subdue that guy.
Yeah.
And quite frankly, it wasn'tDaniel Penny doing it on his own.
If you look around, there wasa whole bunch of people around and
it wasn't a whole bunch ofwhite men with MAGA hats on.

(11:51):
It was different races,different ethnicity and all that.
And it was all about, we're onthis together.
And there's a guy who's a.
Who is a.
What we all consider to be a threat.
And we're going to work to tryto neutralize that threat.
I think society in general hashad enough of this crap.
A complete asshole.
They've just.
People have just had enough.

(12:11):
They've just had enough.
And when someone steps up andespecially in defense of someone
else or other individual orgroup of people trying to save a
group of people from themalice of some jackass over here,
people have just had enough.
They really have fed up.

(12:31):
And that's one of the reasonswhy I think you're right.
You've got this small little.
The usual little cabal ofpeople that are making noise about
it, that are screaming about it.
They want to try to stirsomething up.
But that group is shrinking innumber, I think.
Well, absolutely.
And way shrinking in influence.
Oh, yeah.
Here's the thing though.
Daniel Penny probably wouldhave been no build in almost any

(12:52):
city in America.
Yeah.
Seriously, even.
Even maybe Chicago, I don't know.
But I would hope he would beno build any city in Texas.
And you know, New York.
He probably wasn't.
He was probably going to gothrough this la, he might have gone
through this.
San Francisco, he might havegone through this.
I don't know.
But most places he would havebeen, they would have investigated

(13:14):
in a thorough investigation,talked to everybody.
And no build the guy.
The grand jury would have.
Right, but in New York.
Yeah, you have thisoverzealous prosecutor.
Well, but the prosecutorshouldn't theoretically have any
influence over that directlybecause that's why you have the grand
jury.
Yeah, but.
Well, the prosecutor wouldhave never should have never could
have never taken prosecution.

(13:35):
Probably would have never evengone to.
Well, that may be.
But if it did go to the grandjury, though, now it's supposed to
be an independent.
Look at it.
But it is a liberal city andit's what you get at that brings.
Up an interesting point.
Look at how.
Look at the overall influenceof a district attorney in a place
like, say, Wichita Falls,where we are, or even a place like

(13:56):
Dallas versus a Chicago or aNew York.
They seem to.
And maybe it's just because ofthe scope and the press that they
get.
Maybe it just.
Maybe there's a perceptionthat they have more influence, But
I think they do.
I think they exert a lot morepolitical influence in those larger

(14:16):
cities.
And maybe part of it isbecause of the press they get.
Maybe that's why they're ableto do that.
Could be.
But I think they do exert alot more political influence unjustly.
So they just shouldn't do it.
But they do.
Well, that's that.
Yeah.
The politics should not factorinto the justice system.
No.

(14:36):
Ever on either side.
And everybody's wrong who does it.
No.
Well, we see it all the time.
I mean.
Well.
Well, you know, we've seen ahuge amount of.
We've all seen the statue oflady justice blindfolded with the
scales of justice.
It's like that doesn't.
Yeah.
It's like it doesn't matter anymore.
But part of the problem, too,is there are a lot of politics.
A lot of the districtattorneys and stuff like this are

(14:58):
elected officials.
So therefore we're almost.
Our system is almostencouraging them to have to be.
Have some sort of politicsinvolved, so.
Because.
I don't know.
In a political way.
Right, exactly.
But the downside to that isit's like in Texas we have judges
that are voted in, not appointed.

(15:19):
Almost every state does.
Yeah, lots of states.
Lots of them do, but I think many.
But at whatever level.
I'm just saying.
I don't.
I don't know.
Obviously state.
But.
But at least at variouslevels, though, at the federal level.
Right.
They're appointed.
Yes.
And at the state level.
Yeah.
I mean.
And I think those judges.
I think that should beapolitical once again.
I think the.

(15:39):
I think that everything belowstate level should be apolitical.
County, city, school districtshould know.
Should have no political affiliation.
In other words, not Democrat,Republican or anything like that.
Right.
Okay.
I don't think they should be primary.
I think everybody who wants togo, go for that election goes for
that election.
It's on election day.
Yeah.

(15:59):
It's like our.
Like the mayor here in Wichita Falls.
They do not declare.
Right.
Well, yeah, Right now it's.
Yes.
Right now it's city and schoolBoard does not, but county does.
I think county should bestripped away from political parties.
And then I also think outsideof legislation, I think at the state
level, they should be.
There should be no political affiliation.

(16:21):
The AG Commissioner, the, youknow, like governor, lieutenant governor
and legislators, I'm okay withthem having political affiliations.
But like, like I said, the AGCommissioner, the railroad commissioner,
the state judges, those peopleshould not.
It should not be Democrat,Republican next to their name.
Well, but let me throw this out.

(16:41):
Just.
But you're going to hide it then.
I mean, at least they're beingfull disclosure.
No, but I also think you openit up, though, because they're getting
money, they're getting thebacking of a political campaign.
They're running a.
They're running a primary,getting back.
So there's an official channelby which you get supported by.
Whereas, Whereas, whereas ifyou had no political affiliation,

(17:04):
the three of us could say,hey, I want to run for a state judge
or whatever it is.
Because those jobs are not inherently.
They're not political.
Right there.
They should not be.
So if you remove the, if youremove the party affiliation, you
do, at least in theory, removea lot of the political influence
that the money would inject.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Fundraising.
Well, it's just, it's justlike the mayor, say, the city of

(17:26):
Wichita Falls.
Yeah.
You know, you could have threeor four people run for a city council
seat.
Well, I'll tell you, fourpeople you don't have to have because
there's no primary to do.
It's.
This is the part.
I mean, this is the seat.
We're recording this show onDecember 18th.
As of today, as far as I know, we.
Sweet.
We still.
Because you brought this up.
This is a great, great seguein here, Mayor.

(17:49):
The city council, city councilat large position is still undecided.
Right.
How many status.
Well, waiting on absenteeballots and stuff like that.
What I read yesterday wasthere were 12,000 mail in ballots
that they were waiting on.
12,000.

(18:09):
I think that's the number Isaw was 12,000.
Wait a minute.
There's only 16.
The official, unofficial, whatever.
Maybe it was 12.
Maybe it's 1200.
Yeah, maybe it's 12 even.
That's a lot.
I thought it was 12,000, butit could have been.
I'd be surprised it was 12.
No, but a 1600-16.
Maybe.
Maybe 1645.
They were 45 votes.
Maybe it's.
Maybe it's 1200 even.

(18:30):
That sounds a lot.
But they're still waiting onthis number of mail in ballots.
Now here's what I want.
The damn election now waswhat, five days ago?
Why are we still.
If the ballots weren't there on.
I'm sorry.
If they were not there onelection day, we're done.
We've said that a million times.
We're done.
But, but anyway.
But that's a really good example.
You've got two candidates there.

(18:51):
One who fundraised, as mostpoliticians do, raised quite a bit
of cash, bought signs, boughtpolitical ads, set up a website,
did all this.
And another candidate whospent almost nothing, spent less
than $1,000 in totalthroughout his entire campaign.

(19:12):
And as of election night, 45votes separated him.
Yeah, yeah, 45 votes.
Difference between.
Incredibly close.
So it is 1200 mail in ballotsthat they're waiting on.
I said 12,000.
I don't know.
Okay.
I'm so used to the big Federal numbers.
It's 1200 mail in ballots thatthey're waiting on, and they've got

(19:33):
until the 19th.
So by the time you see this,this is probably already decided.
But you've got these twocandidates that, you know, one spent
lots of money, one spentalmost no money, and they don't declare
a party affiliation at this level.
There's no Republican, Democrat.
Right.
You know, competition thereand there.

(19:53):
45 votes separate them.
It's crazy.
It's wild, guys.
It really is.
So anyway, but we'll.
We'll see how this plays out.
Let's move on to our.
We.
We did this on radio togetherfor years and years and years and
several years.
Anyway, our favorite Christmas toys.
What did we enjoy when we weregrowing up?
What was on our wish list?
Yep, some of these.

(20:14):
We've probably had some of.
Some of these we might not have.
Might have wanted.
I got.
I got a big one in here that Ialways want, I didn't get.
And I'm so tempted now as anadult to buy one just to say, I've
got one.
Anyway, hey, hit the numberfour over there, the slider.
Because.
Just for a little background,because we got some sound on some
of these, you know.
Okay.
So I don't know how, you know,adjust this.

(20:35):
The sound as necessary.
Okay.
You're the engineer here.
All right, so what are westarting with here?
What's our first?
Not driving a train.
Oh, hey, you know, hey, my dadwas, you know.
But anyway, so Mattel had atoy that I really enjoyed that kind
of got me all excited aboutlearning how to fly.

(20:56):
Although I didn't become a pilot.
But, you know, hey.
But I ended up in the AirForce and I Stayed at a motel.
Yeah.
Best Western.
Holiday Inn.
Holiday Inn.
Holiday Inn last night.
There we go.
Anyway, but Mattel had what'scalled the Vertibird.
Okay, I do remember the Vertibird.
There were various.
There were several versions of it.

(21:16):
But the initial version wasthis little controller, a little
mechanical cable link thatwent to this.
This, this hub and it spunaround and went in circles and you,
you tilted it basically at allthe controls.
And here's the commercial.
I had a.
I had a verti bird.
Yeah, so.
So here we go.
This is the Vertie birdie.
The verti bird.
The ver.

(21:37):
And hopefully it stays on this time.
So.
Yeah, batter's not included.
Remember, on everything.
Yeah.
Your piloting skills.
I love this.
Then they had a ship versionof it, too.

(22:02):
Unbelievable.
I don't think mine had the astronaut.
I don't remember what mine had.
Mine had like a pack.
I thought it had a package or something.
Well, it had a ship version of.
It was like the Styrofoamship, so.
All right, next one.
All right.
All right, so we're back.
Okay, so this is Hot Wheel Sizzlers.
These are the battery operated versions.
Gas tank.

(22:22):
And they went in the HotWheels tracks.
You didn't have to have thelittle spinning machine in the middle
that had the right.
You know, so.
But.
Yeah, so it just.
Right inside and right on.
Yeah, they, they plugged in,had like a audio jack kind of thing.
It was the first electric car.

(22:43):
Yeah.
I wonder if Elon Musk had oneof these.
All right.
Motor built right inside.
All right, so there and then.
Okay, now this is on the samenote on, on the Hot Wheels sizzlers,
but this is the fat track.

(23:06):
Well, someday.
Oh, hang on.
Yeah, I was gonna say it.
Here we go there.
Here we go.
This isn't a commercial, but,but the.
Yeah, this is.
It had the, the gas, the juicemachine in the middle there.
And that would go.
And that's a fat track.
Man, that was cool.

(23:27):
Yep.
And they go and go.
By the way, if you've everbeen to Daytona Speedway.
I've never been to Daytona.
It's unbelievable, the banking.
Yeah.
When you're down on thespeedway and you look up, it's.
It's almost.
It's not vertical, but it, italmost looks like it's vertical.
Yeah, yeah.
But I'd say if you try to walkup the.
The embankment and it turns,you can't.
You're crawling by the timeyou get up there, because it's just

(23:48):
the ground comes up, it's so Steep.
Those guys are driving 200miles an hour on that.
Like that.
Well, I would sit down as akid, we would be laying put.
I mean, our face would beright there.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
You know, just look at it.
So anyway.
All right, let's move on tothe next one here.
Did you.
Did you notice what song, whatmusic that was?
Oh, that was Hawaii.

(24:08):
Hopefully YouTube doesn't.
Well, but it's already shut.
It's already played on thisone, so hopefully not.
But anyway, so Mattel also hadthis cool thing called the spin welder.
I loved this.
I don't remember that.
Oh, yeah, it was a friction.
You welded.
Welded with plastic.
Yeah, yeah.

(24:34):
A riveting gun.
Oh, I mean.
I mean, think about mechanically.
Oh, yeah.
It's like a rector set, but ina different way.
A race car factory comes with.
Wow.
Yeah.
So that's pretty cool.
That is neat.
No, I didn't have that.
Okay.
And of course, you know, the classic.
Slinky, I didn't have a staircase.
Well, we.
Yeah, well, we can play with it.

(24:56):
We did at some of ourapartments I lived in with my mom.
Slinky.
Slinky would get.
Got old to me in about two seconds.
And then I'd end up trying tosnap it around.
You don't need a stair and get.
It to where it's twisted and.
And.
Oh, yeah.
Well, yeah, once they get youthrowing in a tool.
Look at that.
Look at that wallpaper there.
Wow.
Okay, so that's that.

(25:16):
All right, next light bright.
Oh, yeah.
There we go.
Which is, you think about.
It was pretty ingenious.
It's very basic, but it turnedout to be almost high tech because
it was just a light bulb withsome clear or some colored pieces

(25:39):
of plastic.
But Bugs Bunny right there.
And Warner Brothers, but yeah,now they.
I think they have an LEDversion of it now.
They do.
They do, yeah.
Yeah.
All right, now this is.
You talk about this, Mike,because this is yours.
This was a dream toy for methat I never got.
I had the jet, but I did nothave the aircraft carrier.

(26:02):
That aircraft carry looks large.
It was huge.
Look at, look.
Yeah, look at the size of the kids.
I mean, battery is not included.
And I don't know what this toycost back in the day.
I'm sure it was a very, veryexpensive toy for its time.
And adjusted for inflationtoday, the USS Flag, that GI Joe

(26:23):
aircraft carries probablythousand dollars or so, adjusted
for inflation.
But that was kind of a dream toy.
I never got that one.
And I've often thought as anadult I could pull this off now.
Yeah, that's right, man.
We gotta find it.
Well, where would you put it?
Exactly.
That'd be my thing.
Right here.
Come bring it here.
We can play with it.

(26:44):
Yeah, we have a huge table here.
We could play with it.
All right.
I don't know.
I'm afraid Richie will try toride on it.
Well, yeah, so.
All right, next one.
I think all three have this one.
I did have the motorcycle.
I didn't have the truck, but Ihad the motorcycle with the ramp.
I had the motorcycle with the thing.
You pull it off and.
Yeah, I had the van.

(27:05):
This.
Oh, you did have this.
I have the van.
You're rich.
Oh, whatever.
Yeah.
Now, was it the one where you.
Where you stuck the thing in the.
The.
No, no, this is not.
Now, I don't remember that.
I don't either.
That's a whole nother thing.
No, the.
No, you're talking about the sst.
This is how.
Oh, one of those.
This cranked, and it had agyroscopic kind of thing in it, similar

(27:29):
to that.
But the SSTs, I think it was.
Had the single wheel in themiddle, and you pulled the zip line
thing.
Yeah.
Oh, this is.
That was overseas.
Oh, okay.
So there's the next one.
All right.
Oh, yeah, this is another onethat I had.
This was.
I.
I was.
I had a fascination withelectric trains growing up, and I

(27:51):
had three or four, and thiswas one of my favorites.
Tyco.
The Pipeline Express.
From Tyco.
I'm gonna crank that volume up.
Hard.
Working long.
Ha.
Loaded.
Gotta get it going.
Gotta get those pipes there.
And go back for more with thePipeline, See if they made this commercial
now.
They talk about how the feeling.
How it makes you feel and stuff.

(28:14):
Well, it made me feel great.
I had my two favorite trainsto play with.
I had.
I had this one, and then I hadanother one that was.
It was the Silver Streak.
Yes.
If you remember, there was a movie.
A movie with Gene Wilder and.
Oh, what.
What's black comedian?
Not Eddie Murphy.

(28:35):
Oh, I know.
You said.
You said Eddie Murphy, and nowI got Eddie Murphy in the head.
I know.
Richard Pryor.
Richard Pryor.
Thank you.
And they.
They made this movie calledthe Silver Straight, and they came
out with this train set thatwas modeled after the train in the.
In the film.
And I had that one.
And I.
Man, I tell you what.
I would give anything to have.
I just didn't.

(28:56):
When I.
When we were growing up, noone ever said to us, hey, hang on
to those toys, because they'reGoing to be vintage one day.
No, no, it was a.
Worth a fortune.
It was a toy.
You played with it.
Yeah.
You played with it, moved on.
And if it broke, itmalfunctioned, you threw it away
or you gave it away orwhatever, you know, And.
And I don't know whateverhappened to mine, but they're gone
now.
And I really wish I'd heldonto them.

(29:16):
I really do.
I.
Not just for the value of it,but the sentiment.
Sentimental value.
Not just the monetary value,but the sentimental value, you know,
I mean, it was.
They were.
And things were just builtdifferent back then, man.
Oh, sure.
Every.
Every toy, now that we buy ourgrandkids, everything feels so cheap
and.
Well, it is.
It's throwaway.
It's.
It's.
It's all disposable stuff, youknow, and it just feels so cheap.

(29:38):
Right.
And I feel like there was somereal quality in this stuff back in
the day.
Well, now I had a thought andI just did.
Flew the.
Oh, I know what it was.
Silver Streak.
Huh?
Silver Streak was a ratedhorror movie.
And.
Interesting.
They made a toy.
Yes.
And I'm not at least rated R.
Because it was pretty.
I'm not sure if my family hadunderstood that, that I would have
got that train for Christmas.

(29:59):
I'm just saying.
All right, next.
What do we got here?
Let's see.
This is.
Okay.
The Millennium Falcon.
Oh, you have to keep that one up.
Okay, so.
All right, here it is.
Yeah, that was.
That was one of my toys that I had.
That was.
That was probably one of the biggest.
Biggest toys I had.

(30:19):
I had a lot of little Starwars characters, action figures.
Yeah.
And they were sold, and it had.
To open up right at the top toget them in there.
Of course, they're.
Some of them, the size of thecharacters are so much larger than
in scale.
I had.
I had this exact one myself.
Yeah.
All right.
You know, and then.
Yeah.
And then we got to beteenagers, and all of a sudden we're

(30:41):
too cool.
Oh, yeah.
That was kid stuff.
That was a child's toy.
Now we're getting over herewith Trey's picks, and.
Okay, this was Merlin.
Where's Merlin?
Where did it go?

(31:01):
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Merlin was neat.
It was.
It was a good memory game.
Yeah, I had.
I had one of these.
And you remember it's apattern or what?
Yeah, it was a pattern thing.
Okay, so that's cool.
Yeah, I had.
I don't know if I actually.
I try.
Remember if I actually had one?
You know, my friends.
I'll tell you what I think wasa cooler memory.
You remember Simon?

(31:21):
Yeah, Simon.
Yes.
You had the four.
Incredibly frustrating.
Yes.
Oh yes.
Merlin was the same thing.
But I thought Merlin was more,was harder than Simon because it
had a lot more.
Simon just had four thingies.
This had a lot more.
Oh yeah.
With Simon it was more about speed.
Right.
Because it would getprogressively faster.
Yeah.
As the pattern.
As you would go through thepatterns, it progressively faster.
So it's a little morechallenging in terms of that.

(31:42):
But Merlin made you think.
Absolutely.
It was a thinking toy.
You had to.
You had to actually put some real.
It was thought it was aneducational type.
It was very educational.
All right, so here's.
Rather than compare personalcomputers ourselves, this is like
when I got a little older.

(32:03):
But this is actually preferredto Commodore 64.
Then we asked the IBM and it.
Picked the Commodore 64.
Then the Radio Shack chose theCommodore 64.
That's what we like about our competition.
They're so honest.
The Commodore 64, what nobodyelse can give you at twice the price.
Yep.
I had a Commodore 64 that was.

(32:24):
A 64k of memory.
Yep.
And then.
And then at one point I got a.
Upgraded to a one.
A Commodore 128.
Yeah.
But if you had.
The nice thing about it was ifyou had a tv, you could just hook
it up to your tv.
So you really just need the keyboard.
And the disk drive had.
Had the.
Was it five and a quarterfloppy, the black floppy disk.
Well, cassette tape evenbefore that.

(32:46):
Yeah, I remember those wentstraight to the floppies.
I went to the floppies.
Yeah.
You know, the cassette tapeswere a little earlier.
To me, the computer side ofthis, that's the most mind blowing
thing.
When you think about what ourcomputers were capable of 30 years
ago, 40.
Years ago, this is even more powerful.
Oh my goodness.

(33:06):
Yeah, we went to the moon withthe equivalent of a TI Calcul.
You've got more computingpower in your iPhone today.
The calculator app is morecomplicated than the spaceshot was.
It's just amazing the technology.
Now you can buy like Terry,this is a MacBook Pro you're using

(33:27):
here.
You can buy a MacBook Pro, putall the bells and whistles on it.
You're going to spend probably what?
Oh, well, you can spend.
If you're needing a good videoediting workstation, you're going
to look at 4,000, butsomewhere between 2,500 and spend
$4,000 depending on what youdo, how much storage and all that.
And I remember computerscosting $4,000.

(33:51):
25.
30 years ago, a Windows 95computer knockoff.
Not an IBM, but a knockoffclone Windows 95 computer was 25
to 3,000.
Well, right, but in thosedays, that number.
And with inflation, thatnumber is even more value.
And then we're getting.
The computer's still about thesame price range.

(34:12):
I mean, that we've actuallykind of dropped.
But you've gotten a lot more.
Oh, yeah.
A lot more for your money.
Oh, yeah, you're.
Well, everything's gottensmaller and lighter and faster and
more powerful and.
And now what you've got in, like.
Like I said, what you got inthe iPhone is.
Is light years ahead ofanything you had in a.
In the most expensive computeryou could buy 30 years ago.

(34:32):
Well, that was kind of likelittle towards my later Christmas
stuff.
That was.
I was probably in junior highwhen I got them.
Number 64.
Okay, now this.
This isn't we.
This was a generic thing, butI found a video that's kind of interesting.
It's a.
It's actually a little girlboxing this, I guess, apparently
from the 1970s.
So this is a little girlthat's out of Dallas.
Women's liberation is fine.

(34:53):
Little girl boxing.
One of my favorite toys was.
I had a.
I got boxing gloves forChristmas one year, a boxing glove
set with a headgear and boxingglove set.
I wasn't a little girl.
Right, But.
Well, yeah, but.
But anyhow.
But to me, that was one of myfavorite because, I mean, that put
me in that mindset of combatsports and boxing and I love boxing

(35:16):
and combat sports and stufflike that.
Sorry.
Okay, so here's another onethat you really were big.
Now look at the person that'sbehind this.
Shoots away is so much fun.
Yeah.
This one can die.
Look through this viewfinder,Pilot the plane over a target and
drop an air rescue parachute.

(35:37):
Shoots away.
Shoots away.
Okay, Dick, we got it.
Shoots away, Shoots away.
The air rescue target game.
Shoots away.
Shoots away.
He keeps playing.
Dick, can we go home now?
That was.
Why, Gabriel, that was hightech stuff.
I mean, the mechanic hadlevers, you had a viewfinder.

(35:59):
It was high tech stuff.
All right, now this one.
Now this one we just happenedto notice, but big wheel, man.
Did we all have big wheels.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, speed to burn.
My half brother Tracy had agreen machine based on similar idea.

(36:21):
Except for the wheel in the back.
Turn the front, you pedalhandy saddlebag breaking, winning,
spinning.
Yeah, that was it.
You see how many times you canspin out big wheel by marks.
It can take it.
I didn't I didn't realize.
I don't remember that company.
Mark's toy company was hugefor many, many years.

(36:44):
And I know some of theirstuff, some of their more vintage
toys.
Mark's toys are worth a lot ofmoney now.
I don't imagine the big wheelwould fall into that category, but
I'm talking about some oftheir smaller, older toys.
I think they go back to likethe 20s, 30s.
I think you're right.
Yeah.
And so you get some of theirmore vintage stuff and it apparently
it's got a.
Worth quite a bit.

(37:04):
Pretty good price tag on it.
All right, well so then thelast one.
And this is a classic.
Oh yeah.
And you know, let's play here.
Let's.
It's.
I don't know.
Rector set, new Erector is here.
The incredible construction toy.
Your kids have been waiting.
I had one of those.
Of course this.
This existed even tired us.

(37:26):
Oh yeah.
I don't know how far back it goes.
This is a more high tech.
But this is one of my favoritetoys that I had because you can build
all kinds of stuff.
Oh yeah.
And your kids command their toys.
Yeah.
This is.
Yeah.
This is advanced director from Gabriel.
Incredible.
So.
But 1980s erector.

(37:46):
But now.
Okay, so let's just do a quickrundown like Lincoln Logs along kind
of the same that you build stuff.
Yeah.
Remember the green.
The.
The slats for the roof and.
And each of the Lincoln Logsand the.
All of that.
What other things?
Just.
Well, I had a Tron.
I had a little Tron game thatwas my first.
My first.
Oh yes.
Video game.
And when Tron came outprobably in the early 80s or late

(38:08):
70s when that I had that.
And then of course we areabout shoots away and all that sort.
The one thing I really wantedthat I never got was a battle rock.
I had a neighbor down the street.
So the little green army men,everybody had their own arm.
Little army men.
And what we would do is we' welay it out and you would set up a
thing and then you'd throwrocks and try to.

(38:30):
That was your competition.
You'd set up all your army menand then you would throw rocks at
the other people's army manand try to kill their army men.
Wow.
And so whoever killed all theother army men won as long as you
had some left.
So bring and switch it over.
This is basically.
It was just a big.
It was just a big plasticpiece here.

(38:51):
You put army men all over it.
Okay.
And then you can look at them.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm see you and, well, like, so.
That was the biggest thing.
We would set it out.
It's like, okay, you wouldhave 50, I'd have 50.
We'd set them all out.
And then you get your rock andyou throw rocks and you try to kill
the other guy's army men.
So the snipers were thehardest because you had to hit the
sniper.
Flip them over.
Yeah, well, you know, ofcourse, we all had Hot Wheels cars

(39:14):
and stuff like that and allthe GI Joe action figures and the
Star wars action figures andall that.
One of my favorite toys,though, growing up is it was.
It was a toy rifle and it wasmodeled after an M16 rifle.
It had this, this slide thatyou pull back.
Yeah.
And you pull the trigger andit just do the rat.
A tat.
Tat thing, you know, until itran out and you pull it back again

(39:37):
like you're reloading.
And that was just the coolesttoy gun.
Did not have the orange tip on it.
No, it did not have the orangetip on it.
Yeah.
So.
But it was the coolest toy gunI ever had.
It was just.
That was that.
I.
I liked that more than myfirst BB gun.
Yeah, shoot.
Yeah, well, yeah, the BB gunwas kind of clock fire.

(40:01):
We all had red riders.
Yeah.
This was Rat attack.
I don't know if I had a redRider, but I saw.
Oh, yeah, I had BB guns.
And we, we had the handactually had a pellet gun, a pump
pellet gun.
We had a handheld BB gun thatwe would shoot each other with and
sting.
Oh, I'll tell you, the onethat got me in trouble was my first

(40:21):
CO2 pistol.
Oh, damn.
Things hurt.
Oh, yeah, they hurt if theydon't penetrate.
Yeah, I took out a window withone and quite by accident, I wasn't
deliberately trying to breakthe window.
I was trying to shoot somebody.
But trying to shoot a dude.
I got a window instead.
Well, we were playing cowboysand Indians, I understand, with our

(40:43):
BB guns.
And I had one that was COpistol, that was CO2 powered.
Damn.
So you had.
I'm sure you had goggles on glasses.
Yeah.
When you red.
I didn't own a bike helmet asa child.
And, and, and remember the pump.
When you had to pump anything, you.
You just see, you try to pumpthat thing as.

(41:04):
You'd pump it like eight times.
My dad would.
And then it.
And then, you know, he snap itin and get that one.
Boom, man.
Anyhow.
Oh, but that's that CO2 pistolthat got me in trouble.
That was fun, though.
It was fun, though.
You know.
Did you actually have lawn darts?
I don't, I didn't.

(41:25):
I had a cousin who had a setof lawn darts.
Yeah, I don't think, I don'tthink we had lawn dart.
He's.
He's older than me.
And of course, lawn darts, Iguess we're kind of a thing in the
late 60s, early 70s.
And then they got bannedeventually, but then, you know, but
they were, they were.
They stopped selling them alot of the places.
But they, they had thewarnings on them at first and then
that apparently.
But I do remember watching them.

(41:45):
Watching them play with them.
I didn't, but I rememberwatching them play with them.
Yeah.
And even then I, I think Iprobably thought, that looks kind
of dangerous.
I'll throw this 14 poundprojectile in the air that could
stab me to death.
Yeah.
The fun thing about it wasyou'd throw stuff up like that and
you'd stand, see how long.
Who would chicken out first toget out from under.

(42:06):
All right, well, let me tellyou this.
I may have told you all thisstory before, but I have told necessarily
the audience, but a friend ofmine and I.
It's probably in the, like inOctober, November, time frame is
at the afternoon after schoola little bit.
It wasn't all that windybecause if we had done this, we would
have known where the arrows went.
But.
But we were shooting thearrows straight up and, you know,

(42:28):
it was towards the end of theday and we'd watch them and.
And oh, wow.
And then shoot another one up and.
And we're doing this for alittle while and then totally lost
the last one.
And so we stood there and wekind of did this and I was like right
behind him.
And we're standing there andwithin a few seconds we hear.

(42:51):
And it landed that far, forthose on the radio, is 4 inches or
so from his foot.
Oh, wow.
So needless to say, that wasthe end of that play time.
There's a scene, there's afilm, Adam Sandler movie called Grownups
where they're playing that game.
These, these guys, they allget together for the.

(43:11):
Their.
One of their basketball coachdied and they all get together for
his funeral at this, thislike, you know, cabin or whatever,
and they're out there playingthat game with the arrows, you know,
and I think it's Rob Schneidertakes an arrow in the foot because
he, he, you know, everybodyelse ran except him.
And he stood there and it wentright through his foot.
It's happened.
That was close.
Oh, yeah.

(43:32):
Oh, yeah.
He almost happened to Terry.
So apparently so but yeah butlon darts I had that accomplishment.
I was looking out for me andmy friend.
But you know and that maybe weshould maybe we should do maybe next
year also do one on the on themost dangerous toys ever created.
That's funny stuff.
Well guys, thank you for beingwith us.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all of youand Happy New Year.

(43:54):
We don't see you before thenew year starts.
We'll probably be back with Iknow we've got one more episode to
put in the can for this year.
Yeah.
And Arnold will be with ustomorrow is we're going to record
it.
I don't know when it'll post.
She'll be our guest episode.
You'll probably see that afterthe Christmas holiday and then we'll
see you again in the new year.
But Merry Christmas and HappyNew year to you.
This podcast get it rightTextilema brought to you in part

(44:16):
by Eddie hills Fun Cycles, 401North Scott, downtown Wichita Falls
since 1966.
Eddie hillsfuncycles.com andMacTech Solutions, 4020 Ray Road,
Suite 3B here in Wichita Fallsand Finishing Touch Plaza mactech-solutions.com
if you're looking for, ifyou're still looking for a Christmas
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(44:37):
see this, it probably won't be.
If you need something lastminute but something really cool,
either one of these guys canhook you up with the coolest stuff.
Apple TV is a great lastminute gift.
And I bet you guys have a fewlast minute gifts.
We do.
We have, we have some, we havea few Go Karts that are on sale.
We've got a very few fourwheeler kids four wheelers that are

(44:57):
left.
But then also there's peoplethat are buying not only Christmas
gifts or buying stuff for theend of the year equipment to get
on their taxes.
That's right.
It's a great idea to come geta then be for Christmas.
Like say it could be for your taxes.
Yeah.
So if you, if you need a tagand we'll say if you did a new computer
for your business, you knowyou want that tax deduction for the

(45:18):
end of the year.
You just got to get itpurchased before or by December and
I can.
Order it and you.
As long as you paid for it.
As long as you pay for it.
Right, right.
As long you pay for it withinthis calendar year you can use it
as a tax deduction.
See.
Yeah.
Very good.
Here we are.
We're trying to help you guysthat's right.
But we're not, but we're nottax attorneys.
We need, we're not tax, we'renot providing tax advice.

(45:41):
We cannot give tax advice.
No, but, but still, you know,we've all done it, right?
That tax deduction, you know,we've all done it.
And it's also brought to youby Lollipop Sweet Shop, your online
bakery featuring terrificpecan pies, cookies and more.
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(46:03):
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Guys, again, thank you forjoining us.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
We will see you down road.
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 96: 🎄 Episode 96: Big Wheels to Big Meals—Our Favorite Childhood Toys & Texoma Christmas Joys!