Well, not really. Just some general comments and reminiscence of the BTD tape, and things related to it.


A NORMAL DAY

According to Mom,a normal day between 1984 and 1986 consisted of running some errands, lunch at McDonald's (or whatever Fast Food place was close by), and them Mom would sit Sis and me in front of the "Electronic Baby-sitter" and set up a tape for us. Usually, it was the Bit the Dust tape, though sometimes it was our "Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show" tape (the whole family loves Peanuts!) That, or we'd all take naps.

DOGGONE IT

This is a little bit from Sis. Back in 1984, our family consisted of my mom, my dad, my grandmother (whom Sis and I call "Nanny"), and Sis and me. We also had a Burmese/Russian Blue mix named Fluffy, and a big, lovable, Golden Retriever named Sinahue (that's pronounced "Sin Away"). Sinahue was full grown by the time Sis and I were born, but Mom and Dad had her since she was a puppy. In fact, I've been told that she was an overgrown puppy! I don't remember either Sinahue or Fluffy very well, though. Anyway, Sis tells me she remembered a time where she was eating ham and cheese (no bread, no crackers, just straight ham and cheese), and watching the Bit the Dust Tape (though she doesn't remember what segment she was on), when Sinahue came along and ate Sis's ham (I'm not sure if she ate Sis's cheese or not). Neither Sinahue nor Fluffy are with us today. Fluffy was hit by a car in either 1985 or 1986, and Sinahue had to be put down around the same time. She had cancer.

HEART THROB'S ADVENTURE

After the tape bit the big one, Sis and I often reenacted MLP with our ponies. We even did this when we still had the tape. Although at the time, we only had three ponies from the special. Those were Medley (whom we called Melody), Twilight (whom we called Starlight), and Cotton Candy (who was missing her tail). So we had a lot of improvising to do. Bow Tie was played by Blue Belle (and at the time, we thought Bow Tie's name was Bluebell), Applejack was played by Butterscotch, Baby Ember was played by Snuzzle (whom we used to call Cuddles, and she was an adult pony, but we didn't have any baby ponies until 1987), and our "Dragon Fodder" Ponies (who were Bubbles, Moondancer, and Cotton Candy in the cartoon) were played by Lemon Drop, Sunbeam (whom we called Sunlight), and our tailless Cotton Candy. The star of the special was Firefly, but the only Firefly we had was a big plush Hasbro Softie Firefly, and she didn't fit with the other ponies, so we used Heart Throb. At one point in the early 1990's, we used Sparkle Baby Gusty as Ember.

MORE BEARS THAN YOU CAN SHAKE A STICK AT

As much as I love MLP now, I think Care Bears had the biggest impact on my childhood, and Sis's as well. We still have all our original plush bears and cousins; all sixteen of the 13" bears (including the Talking Secret Bear, and he still talks!), and all 6 of the US released cousins. When we were younger, we had a ton of poseables, including Tenderheart, Funshine, Grams, Baby Hugs, and Share Bear, to name a few, a Cloud Car, a Rainbow Roller, the Care-A-Lot Playset, storybooks, records, dishware, and our mom even made Care Bear curtains out of an extra Care Bears sheet! I still have one of my old Care Bear blankets! One of my BTD memories was in kindergarten, either fall of 1987 or spring of 1988. I don't remember the details, I either had a bad day or something else happened, but Mom popped in "Ol' Reliable" (the BTD Tape), and I watched CBBFM, which was my favorite CB cartoon, and still is. Also, years later, it came time to give away some stuff. Sis and I willingly gave away our MLP's (why we did that, I'll never know). We also gave away our Popples, Purr-Tenders, Puffalumps, Fluppy Dogs, and Pound Puppies. But we would not part with our Care Bears, Wuzzles, or Get Along Gang plush. Also, other than CBLWOF and CBBFM, we also had two of the Care Bear Movies, and 3 episodes of the DIC Care Bears series (Birthday, Camp, and Soapbox Derby). These were all in Beta Format. We also had a VHS Golden Book video, "Three Tales from the Care Bears." We might still have this one, but I don't know where it's gotten to.

FIVE ORDERS OF SHORTCAKE

Mom is not too crazy about Strawberry Shortcake. I wouldn't say she hates her, though. Mom likes the Get Along Gang and Care Bears (and that alone I'm surprised at!), I don't know how she feels about My Little Pony, and she doesn't remember Charmkins all too well. So why doesn't Mom like SSC you ask? No clue. She hates this one song from SSCHWS. I really don't know why. Mom also wasn't too big on Mr. Rogers, but that's beside the point. I was thinking Mom didn't like SSC much because it was too saccharine for her taste. My mom is not a huge fan of anything too sickingly sweet (don't even get her started on Barney! She was just glad by the time it debuted, we were too old for it!) In fact, her favorite Disney character is Maleficent, the witch from "Sleeping Beauty." But that's the way she is. In anycase, a recent talk with Mom left me a little confused. She said she didn't mind SSC, it was just that one song she hated. And, as a surprise to end all surprises, my cousin's wife and their two kids visited in March of 2006 (the kids are Lauren, who was three at the time of the visit, and Rachel who wasn't even a year old yet). We showed Lauren SSCHWS, just to tease my mom. Well Mom, came down during "The Song," and she said it wasn't as bad as she remembered. Well, it HAD been 20 years since she saw it last, and I vowed never to watch SSC when my mom was around anyway.

TOYLAND

Other than Care bears and MLP's, we had Get Along Gang stuff, too. All six plush members, the Clubhouse Caboose, all 12 GAG miniatures, Hoofnagel's Ice Cream Emporium (at least according to Sis. I don't remember ever having it), two books, and a night shirt. The only thing we have left are the plush. We also apparently had SSC dolls but they weren't the Kenner ones that you can find on Ebay. I'm not sure what these were since I don't remember them. I only knew we had them, because they are in the background of an old picture. �We never had SSC dolls because Mom said we never asked for them. I'm not too crazy about the Kenner dolls, anyway, and I like the new ones even less! Though I would be interested in making a custom Lime Chiffon (she's my favorite SSC character) in the design of the SSC dolls Sis and I had when we were younger, if I could remember what they looked like, and if I had the know-how, which I don't. We never had Charmkins toys either. The main reason was that they debuted in 1983, and I was only a year old, and Sis was two. The Charmkins toys were about an inch or so tall. Needless to say, we were too young for them, and probably by the time we were old enough for them, they were discontinued (not sure on that, though).

JUST A SPOONFUL OF SEBASTIAN

I'm an oldies fan. My favorite groups are the Monkees, the Four Seasons, and the Lovin' Spoonful. I think it's safe to say the Bit the Dust tape us responsible for launching me into the Lovin' Spoonful. This is because the Spoonful's lead singer, John Sebastian, performed songs in the GAGPilot, and SSCHWS, as well as the first Care Bears movie, but that was on a different tape entirely. I didn't realize this until around 1996 when we found the GAGPilot at a used video store.

THEM'S THE BREAKS

Between 1984 and 1993-1994 or so, our family had two VCR's. One was a Beta, but I don't remember the brand, and the other was a VHS, which was a Hitachi. By today's standards, this Hitachi would be considered ancient! You pushed the eject button on the VCR, and a door in the top of the machine popped up. Then you'd put the tape in the slot, and pushed it down. Depending on the tape, it would either start automatically (store bought tapes), or you would have to push the play button on either the machine or the remote (recordable tapes). And this machine only had a Play/Pause button, a Rewind button, a Fast Forward button, a Stop button, a Record button, and a Record Timer button. You could also program about 10-12 channels on it. Anyway, one day in the early 1990's, the Hitachi finally died. Really, I don't have the slightest idea how long we had it. For the longest time, I thought it was my fault because Sis and I had decided to watch the Bit the Dust Tape that one day, and Mom told us we'd break the machine (at least I think that's what she said). I later found out that the machine just died because it was old.