Every morning I wake up with a song in my head. About half the time I can remember some parts of my dreams. This morning both the song and the dream were about Hot Wheels. The basic definition of a sad childhood in America is if you grew up without having ever owned a Barbie or Hot Wheels. It's a psychological burden that obviously some of the monkeys at the office have never surmounted. You know who they are. Say what you will, but I count myself among the blessed because my father bought me this, The Ontario Trio.
This was THE toy for Christmas of 1971. I still find it hard to believe that I got exactly what I wanted that year. Well, now that I stop to think about it, I had several perfect Christmases in that regard. We never got the Big Wheel Christmas, but we did get the Bike Christmas, the BB Gun Christmas and the Skateboard Christmas.
So I'm going to be Googling and eBaying all morning until I find the real object of my dreams, that El Camino - like car with the two removable surfboards. The Deora. Oh my god. I had no idea that there was an actual design story behind it. It could have made production. The world is full of surprises, neh?
But on my way guess what I found? Sizzlers. Fat Track. Juice Machine. I had a gold Angelino, a Sizzlers Race Case and so much hot wheels track around the house that my mother used to spank me with it. When I think about kids today obsessing over video games, that's nothing compared to how we used to freak out over the latest Hot Wheels. And don't forget the Saturday morning cartoon with the Jackrabbit Special.
I'm a child of the Space Age, there can be no doubt about it. Just the other day I found and purchased one of my all time favorite flicks, Colossus: The Forbin Project. How deeply we dreamed of finding a way out of the Cold War. Those were the days when scientists and engineers were still highly respected professions rather than some brain-commodity function to be outsourced to Asia. Well, I'm here to say we gearheads are still around, we still like to drive fast and we still dream of beauty in design.
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