I remember having GI Joe fights with my brother.  We used to pretend that our action figures were waging war with each other.  They would sneak into the enemy's base (each bedroom being a base) and attempt to take out the enemy.  It was funny because it was kind of arbitrary how we would determine whether or not one of the GI Joes successfully shot the other GI Joe.  I think it was based on whether or not we were willing to give up one of our action figures.  If it was one of our cherished Joes we would say "no way, you missed" or "he dodged it".

We would sometimes get in fights because one of us would claim that we had a straight shot at the opposing Joe.  It was a good time, nonetheless.

I remember playing this catapult game at my cousin Dan (dan10878) and Dave (TheMemoryCrawler) Renne's House. We would arrange some of our action figures on these chalkboard trays on the floor and we would take turns firing balls from catapults at each others action figures. The team that knocked over the other team's action figures first won. I would always use these madball action figures heads with the Madball catapult. That was a sweet game.

I remember countless charming hours playing Turbografx. Bonk's Adventure, Keith's Courage, DJ Jazz Jeff, Splatterhouse and those pinball games, Air Zonk. Man, there still has not been a game system invented that left the same impression on me. The games were these tiny cartridges and the system was called "Turbo" because each controller had a turbo button. I never owned one. My brother received it as a Christmas gift. When we really started getting into comic books, he traded it to our friends John and Derek for some comic books. Now our comic books just sit in their cardboard boxes collecting no value but collecting plenty of dust.

I remember playing "Zombie Tag" with my brother, my cousins Dan (dan10878) and Dave ( TheMemoryCrawler) and my childhood friends John and Derek Conrad. It was kind of a mix between"tag" and "hide-and-go-seek". Zombie Tag could only be played at night. One person was "it" at first. Everyone else hid. The person who was it was only allowed to walk because Zombies can't run. (But really they only had to walk when no one was looking). Being "it" really sucked in Zombie Tag since it was dark and everyone else was hiding in a large forest and you could only walk. The people who were hiding were allowed to move around too. They could yell out to the others to notify them that the Zombie was coming.

However, if a Zombie was able to sneak up and "tag" someone, then there were two Zombies. We would play this way until there was only one person left and he/she was the winner. It was a lot easier to catch people when there was more than one Zombie.

I loved those nights, hiding behind a tree . . . Read More..

I remember it was one of the first Rifle River trips for me.  There were some older kids there (probably teenagers at the time) and one of them in particular was a troublemaker.  I remember that he said that he was part of a gang from Chicago and that they were a national gang, terrible and powerful.  This had a fearful effect on me.  I remember it being one of the first times I had heard about such a gang.  I am not certain, but now I know that teenagers say a lot of silly things like that to make them feel important and validate themselves.  I know the guy's father and the kid is probably just a spoiled suburbanite.  But still, as a kid I remember feeling pretty inimidated.