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07/25/2007: Summer Megaparty: Summer, 1992!

Remembering my foolproof loophole of not needing to add new content to the blog when I post a regular X-E article, I’m here to tell you that I’m only here to tell you something.

I came across a collage I drew and colored in 1992, evidently encapsulating all that was holy about that year’s summer vacation. In this article, I break down the contents of said collage and figure out why each element meant enough to me to be worth drawing.

After spending over a month writing about whatever, the Summer Megaparty finally gets summery. Only, I guess it’s not the Summer Megaparty getting summery, since this is a “regular” article. Ah…well, something’s getting summery.

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 129 comments

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Yay for collages! Yay for the summer of ‘92! Yay for this new article, which I am now reading as a reward for coming home from work and doing….work. (I tutor tomorrow)Thanks, Matt.

Ghosted by Muppet Baby @ 07/25/2007 12:22 AM EDT

Also, yay me = I don’t think I’ve had the first post since like, 2005!

Ghosted by Muppet Baby @ 07/25/2007 12:23 AM EDT

Funny, I’m the oldest but there aren’t many me-centric snaps lying around either. I even wondering if I might have been adopted as a package deal with my little sister, who there were plenty of baby pics of.

Ghosted by squee4242 @ 07/25/2007 12:23 AM EDT

The Summer of 1992! That may have been the best summer ever. I can’t tell you exactly why it looms so large in my memory, but I do know that spent large chunks at Rye Playland, went to the movies more than my parents should have let me, and was allowed to start collecting music in earnest. How did I start? The Sister Act soundtrack, and the Spin Doctors. I was a weird kid.

On a totally different note, I’ve got a question and this seems like the right group to ask. What are the greatest action figure playsets of all time? I’m looking for ones that were just completely awesome, and hopefully large enough to be filmed without it looking like it was shot on a tabletop. (And hopefully ones that don’t run a bajillion dollars on eBay, but that’s just asking too much.)

Ghosted by Declan Dempsey @ 07/25/2007 12:24 AM EDT

I don’t remember what I did the summer of 92. I guess I would have been 9 years old, though, so I probably played a lot of video games, ran around outside with friends, etc.

I miss those days.

Ghosted by Cameron T. @ 07/25/2007 12:26 AM EDT

Nicely done, I love these little time machine type articles, keep up the excellent work!!

Ghosted by Byrd man @ 07/25/2007 12:26 AM EDT

That’s the problem with being a younger child. They take fewer pics the later the kid. You can find half a dozen headshots of your oldest brother/sister at the top of the family photo bin, but only a handful of yourself in the whole thing.

Ghosted by Hoverbored @ 07/25/2007 12:29 AM EDT

That was fascinating, Matt.

Ghosted by Annette @ 07/25/2007 12:32 AM EDT

those stick figures sure are contented with that rocket.

Ghosted by dohopoki @ 07/25/2007 12:33 AM EDT

Declan- If you’re trying for some kind of stopmotion movie,you might consider the Ewok Village. Later on it was rereleased as a Robin Hood playset. I doubt the Robin Hood version is too expensive.

Ghosted by Kid Nicky @ 07/25/2007 12:41 AM EDT

In the summer of ‘92, my mom took my brother, 2 cousins and myself to see “Wayne’s World” at the drive-in, bless her heart. While we laughed and laughed at the hilarious characters and witty dialogue, my mom HATED it.
She hated it so much that she started the engine and started to drive away when they were still doing the many endings! We were screaming “NO MOM- Its not done yet!” and she really didn’t care.

As I recall, we jumped out of the slow moving car to make her stay for until the REAL ending played…then for the funny stuff during the credits. Poor Mom.

Ghosted by Muppet Baby @ 07/25/2007 12:42 AM EDT

Another home run Matt. I stayed up an extra hour for this and it was worth it. I think these are my favorite type of articles.

All I got for Confirmation was three of the same green GI Joe boats and a lot of religious paraphernalia. Or wait….I think that was first Communion.

Ghosted by Bill @ 07/25/2007 12:44 AM EDT

Wow. Very Cool. I think there’s something about mothers who are in their 50s and 60s and getting rid of the things their kids left beind. My mother does the same thing. Each month she mails a box to me and my two sisters and the boxes are filled with random things from our childhood. The old school papers from elementary school are cute and all, but the things I had stashed away from jr high and high school are the best.
I was between 7th and 8th grade that summer, I think I spent the majority of it at The Wave pool, which was the only public pool in our area. And we rollerbladed in our neon rollerblades everywhere listening to cassettes in our walkmans.

Ghosted by kb @ 07/25/2007 12:46 AM EDT

Awesome! These are always my favorite types of articles. As cool as it is to get Kool-Aid reviews and other retro stuff, the best part is always just hearing what was going on in your life at that time. It’s usually awkward and funny.

Ghosted by Eddie Lightning Frog @ 07/25/2007 12:47 AM EDT

Man, you were such a cool kid. I had to bust out the Google Maps on this one so I could really get a feel for your summer locales.
Are you talking about those naked afro lady paintings?
I would KILL to hear your Godfather impression. It would be so awesome if those recordings turned out not to be lost to time.
My grandparents live right by the Liberace museum. I haven’t been. None of my obsessions help me bang hot chicks, either.

Ghosted by squee4242 @ 07/25/2007 12:56 AM EDT

In every boy’s life, there’s a summer of ‘92.

Ghosted by RewolfJ @ 07/25/2007 1:05 AM EDT

Muppet Baby — Your comment totally reawakened an old movie memory from way back. I remember going to a movie near Christmas of ‘91–I think it was Hook, but it may well have been something else my parents took me to because I couldn’t convince them to see Bis Ans Ende Der Weldt–at The Greatest Theater Ever. Walking out of the movie, we had to pass by this gigantic standee of Wayne and Garth’s heads, both wagging back and forth on a mechanical piston.

The first thing I thought was that they were married, and that Garth was one weird-looking girl. Then we got Comedy Central that summer, and I became completely addicted to SNL. I insisted we go see the movie, and get the soundtrack, and let me listen to “Sicamicadico” over and over again until my parents went nuts. Of course, they didn’t realize it at the time, but they had just turned me into a rocker, comedian, and royal pain-in-the-ass.

Actually, most of my personal and professional choices could be traced back to that one giant cardboard ad, so it’s weird that I hadn’t thought about it in probably a decade.

Ghosted by Declan Dempsey @ 07/25/2007 1:06 AM EDT

Damn something is definitely wrong with me I can barely remember the summer of 2002 let alone 92. I do remember going fishing at one point but who knows if it was jersey or someplace around where I live…I should probably get my head examined…

oh and great article something about 4th of July in the neighborhood brings back memories like nothing else can.

Ghosted by Danny J @ 07/25/2007 1:11 AM EDT

Hey Matt,

Great article. Every time you write something like this I am reminded of just why I feel compelled to read this site, near daily. There were at least four or five moments during this entry where I literally shook my head in disbelief because I could not understand how someone else could have had the exact same thoughts I did when I was a kid.

I know we aren’t the only ones to think this way, but I haven’t found anyone (on the internet) that can put it into words better than you.

Honestly, thanks for reminding what it was to be a kid. All of those silly things we did then that now seem pointless… but at the same time we feel a little sad that we don’t feel the same magic any longer.

Jesus, now I am feeling like I really want to have kids of my own soon. Please lord, don’t let my girlfriend read this. She has been begging for a ring/kids for two years now.

Again, thanks, for publishing the best site on the ‘net. Sincerely.

Ahh, who am I kidding? My lady has been wanting to get hitched/have kids since 2003. I just thought writing that earlier sounded pathetic (on my part). But I guess this is a place for being honest, right?

Ghosted by Magic Toy @ 07/25/2007 1:20 AM EDT

Ahh, video editing without the editing, one of childhood’s greatest delights. I would buy Matt a Squishee if he could find one of the lost Ron Tracy tapes and post a video.

Ghosted by Mad Cow @ 07/25/2007 1:24 AM EDT

The summer of ‘92 was the first summer I spent almost completely without parental supervision. My mother was pregnant with my little brother and spent the summer working as a hostess at a local restaurant or off her feet when she was at home; my stepfather, a commercial fisherman, spent it at sea, earning money to feed the new member of the family and the three already existing. This left my two sisters and I on our own for practically two months.

The most memorable incident that summer was when my sister got a hankering for barbecue. Stepdad was out on the ocean again and he’s the main grill person in our family, so she decided to do it herself. How hard could it be? In the end, she almost set the house on fire, thanks to forgetting to pull the damn barbecue away from the side near the porch. I don’t remember if our folks ever found out about that one; I’m hoping for her sake they didn’t.

That was also the summer our diets went to hell. With Mom and Dad gone every day, we were free to eat whatever we pleased, which means whatever pleased 13, 12, and almost 8-year-olds. We got really intimate with the Domino’s Pizza across the street from the house we lived in then, and we declared by the end of the summer we never wanted to see another hot dog as long as we lived.

Then there was the day my parents went “up the road” (in South Jersey speak) to Point Pleasant and took our littlest sister with them, leaving my other sister, our pals, and me to eat pizza, watch “R” rated movies, and mess around with the furniture.

Ghosted by starwenn @ 07/25/2007 1:25 AM EDT

Aww, Matt, you sound like you were such a sweet kid!

Ghosted by Talia @ 07/25/2007 1:33 AM EDT

Haven’t read the article yet, but I do congratulate you on going over a month without missing an update… Unless the software ate the 24th’s entry.

Ghosted by DocDragon @ 07/25/2007 1:38 AM EDT

On the humorous side,I’ll say I appreciate your choice in arcade video games.
On the serious side,you have become one hell of an author. As much as I enjoy your f-bomb littered reviews of Masters of the Universe episodes,this summer 92 article deserves to be published in a book,and I do think you should write one someday.

Ghosted by Kid Nicky @ 07/25/2007 1:47 AM EDT

Yeah, the fine art of filming high quality movies with a VHS camcorder in the early ’90s. What can I say? I’ve been there.

At first I dabbled in stop motion animation. I was first inspired by an episode of Muppet Babies where the, ummm, muppet babies decide to film their own cartoons. I recall the fastened their camera to the extended ladder of a firetruck toy, and used that to snap their images.

My first movie was a battle between He-Man figures Skeletor and Zodac. It was filmed to be somewhat of a “showdown at high noon”, even though I wasn’t crazy about westerns growing up. (Thanks Dad!) They each took three paces towards each other and then drew the weapons and fired. Of course the weapons were forged from Play-doh since the actual accessories had been lost long before. The first figure fired, complete with a red play-doh muzzle-blast, but missed. The second figured returned fire and scored a direct hit. The face of the second figure was wrapped in a burst of red play-doh, which I can only assume was meant to represent blood and brain matter. They fell lifeless to the coffee table battlefield. How insulting to lay dead next to a copy of COUNTRY LIVING magazine. Take that you evil bastard.

Another “movie” I can remember filming was a horror offering. I can recall being disappointed early in the production due to our limited budget. In the opening scene the main character, played by my friend Chris, walked towards an oven to cook a frozen pizza. In the first shot he unwraps the pizza from its wrapper and places it on the cookie sheet. Quickly I realized I didn’t like the shot because he had looked at the camera. Damn. How can I be expected to work like this? Soon after I realized he had already unwrapped our only frozen pizza and there was no way to repeat the shot. The pizza was now thawing rapidly and no longer in its factory “seal”. I’ll be damned if I had another three dollars to buy another or the motivation to bike a half mile to the store to get a replacement pie.

Picture me freaking out as a twelve year old, ala Billy Walsh from Entourage, in my parent’s kitchen on a random afternoon in mid-July.

The film was shut down soon thereafter. I wasn’t willing to work under those CONDITIONS!

My film career was rekindled a few years later, as a freshman in high school, when I played the lead in our CEREAL KILLER movie. I was a psycho who slept in a dog cage, ate cereal (obviously), and picked random victims out of the phone book. Strangely enough I always turned the page to the actual name of another kid we knew.

Those were the days.

Ghosted by Magic Toy @ 07/25/2007 1:49 AM EDT

Okay, now that I’ve read the article, I’m fully willing to tell about MY summer of ‘92. I’m pretty certain I spent most of it playing SNES games and betting with my dad on the World Series… If I won, I would’ve gotten a Megazord(the original one). If I lost, my allowance got cut in half. I won

I also remember heading up north to visit some relatives or other… I think it was my half-brother and his kids. I DO remember that it was the last time I saw them… ah well.

Ghosted by DocDragon @ 07/25/2007 1:52 AM EDT

Matt!
Have I told you lately that I love you? This article was wonderful- easily top ten for me. Articles/blogs about things you did as a kid are always my favorites because I can really relate to them. (This one was really hilarious, too- always a plus.) I echo (most of) Magic Toy’s sentiments above. (Now I’ve got the warm fuzzies.) You must have been an awesome kid. Great idea to draw a collage, too, past Matt- I wish that thought entered my mind at some time. All the summer collages probably would have looked the same for me- I did the same stuff every year.

Ghosted by Rainbowfeet @ 07/25/2007 1:53 AM EDT

I also echo everyone elses sentiments about their favorite articles being the ones that peer into your life. Whether it’s about vacations, Wildwood,or something like this article.

I also agree with Kid Nicky that you should REALLY publish a book.

Ghosted by JLAJRC @ 07/25/2007 1:57 AM EDT

Great article Matt! I remember I took my first trip to Las Vegas in 1992. Maybe I saw you there! I was 13 and it was also my first plane trip. We stayed at the Excalibur also. That trip was pretty memorable, for the above mentioned items, and because I had the whole hotel on lock down when my mom thought I was missing. My mom and grandma were gambling in the casino and I got bored sitting on the steps waiting for them, so I went down to the arcade. I didn’t think I was gone for very long, but when I came up the stairs the was security and police all over the place and they’re talking to my mom. When she saw me, she starts freaking out and hugging me for what seemed like an eternity. Then I had to go up to the room for a talking to. The next morning people were asking my grandma if they found her grandson. No wonder they had a hard time finding me, they were looking for a boy! I didn’t hear the pages over the PA system, who can hear those things with all the noise? Sorry, for the long post.

Ghosted by Donata05 @ 07/25/2007 2:04 AM EDT

I told Matt to publish a book awhile ago, and not only that, I offered to compile and edit it for him, and pointed him to websites that publish for free. He told me an X-E book is one of his plans for the future, but also of the distant future. In short, we may get it yet, but not tomorrow.

Okay, now that I’ve read the article, I’m fully willing to tell about MY summer of ‘92. I’m pretty certain I spent most of it playing SNES games and betting with my dad on the World Seriesâ€¦ If I won, I would’ve gotten a Megazord(the original one). If I lost, my allowance got cut in half. I won.

DocDragon: you really couldn’t get a Megazord in 1992. Not even in the summer of 1993, unless you count late August, as they rushed the MMPR toys out before the show began.

During my summer of ‘92, I remember doing a lot of camping, and there’s probably more too, which is why I need my own 1992 crudely-drawn art mural.

Ghosted by Mars @ 07/25/2007 2:11 AM EDT

Hmm…Summer of ‘92/.

I was 5 then. so I don’t really remember any specific details. Good chance I went to Ustate NY that year.

And I agree with Matt publishing a book.

I also think that he should take a note from the Fark book and add our comments to each section he writes.

Ghosted by Invader Norbert @ 07/25/2007 2:13 AM EDT

Reminds me of a big notebook full of drawings I have in my sock drawer. Probably since 92. I was five, and the best thing in there is a sword I drew after playing The Legend of Zelda for too much. Funny thing is, I kept updating it for years and years to come. There’s all sorts of crap drawn in there, like Sonic with a red circle where his feet should be.

That was probably also when I first learned how to swim. The neighborhood pool’s “parking lot” was made out of razor sharp rocks. I never wore water socks because they’re uncomfortable (my feet are really wide) and I thought they looked goofy and it wasn’t until about a year ago that I started to wear sandals because of how bad they made my feet smell. Good times.

Ghosted by Ben @ 07/25/2007 2:24 AM EDT

Summer of ‘92 was a great summer -at the time- for reasons too many to list. Plus, it most likely wouldn’t be as big of a deal to anyone but me.

Matt I rarely say this…but this is one of, if not the, favorite post of the summer so far. Thanks for sharing yourself to help us all connect through sharing ourselves….

Ghosted by Shuanfu @ 07/25/2007 2:51 AM EDT

Oh, and in case no one noticed it previously, we just saw the legendary genesis of the Tah-Mahat here.

Ghosted by Magic Toy @ 07/25/2007 3:03 AM EDT

Damn. I meant “Taj-mahat.”

Stupid me for being distracted by watching Jaws II, soon to be followed by Jaws III.

God I love this place.

Ghosted by Magic Toy @ 07/25/2007 3:06 AM EDT

I had a dream about the Taj-mahat the other night.

Ghosted by Rainbowfeet @ 07/25/2007 3:42 AM EDT

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm catfish…..

*drools*

I love it

YAY for summer!!!

I just wish Wales wasn’t covered in rain…

Ghosted by Steffano @ 07/25/2007 3:51 AM EDT

I hate to post too many messages in one comment section, but I had to post this for those of you who may not have seen it yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TYzRanykbQ

Imagine the the G1 Transformer Soundwave trying to deal with a regular life after the success he would have had during the 1980s, the brief flirtation of what could be with the news that a new TF film was being made, and the inevitable disappointment he must have felt when the producer’s decided to cast different… err… robots.

I was laughing out loud at this video. I hope some of you will get a kick out of it.

Ghosted by Magic Toy @ 07/25/2007 3:54 AM EDT

I was at the Taj Mahal this weekend first time since I was like 12. it still looked the same for the most part except the whole second floor is now looking like a fancy mall food court.

Dinosaur Beach from Wildwood back in the day is now part of the Steel Pier. They got the dino’s and the bumper cars that still say Dinosaur Beach all over them. It’s like the ghosts of summer past and summer present had a bastard child…yes i am aware I mentioned this previously but hell old ass dinosaur statues migrating up NJ is worth repeating.

Ghosted by Danny J @ 07/25/2007 3:56 AM EDT

Let’s see. In ‘92 I was 10. I remember going to a fleamarket with the Colonel, one that we went to for several years running. That’s it for now.

Ghosted by Knegative @ 07/25/2007 6:03 AM EDT

No, that’s not right. We didn’t meet til we were 12. What’s wrong with my brain today?

Ghosted by Knegative @ 07/25/2007 6:04 AM EDT

Matt, I totally dig what you’re saying about Jaws in the pool. I had the same phobia. Jesus, I wouldn’t take a shit without an escort in 1980, because I thought he pull some Jaws II action and bite my ass off. That, and the episode of Manimal (or was it a commercial), where he turns into a shark in a pool f’d me up. Look, I’m a unitard!

Ghosted by Richard @ 07/25/2007 7:44 AM EDT

AWESOME Article Matt…Would love to be 13 again!

Ghosted by Gregor! @ 07/25/2007 8:25 AM EDT

RAVAGE!!!! Get off the couch!!!!!

Ghosted by Kid Nicky @ 07/25/2007 8:32 AM EDT

This post is an example of what makes this site so great. Just awesome. Makes one long to be young again to even have the time to make such a collage.

Ghosted by strugglingwriter @ 07/25/2007 8:59 AM EDT

Let’s see…1992. That was about four years before my cousin and I made the transition from children to farm equipment. That was a pretty good summer. Since I grew up on a farm, there was an awesome junkyard of rusting farm equipment just out back of my house, and we were getting old enough to vanish out there all day without anyone getting worried about us. I believe this was the era after our first clubhouse (fashioned of fifty gallon barrels, cinder blocks, and sheet metal) was blown to pieces over the winter, but before we made our third clubhouse inside a junked combine harvester. The combine fortress was named Salamandastron, and since that book came out in hardcover in 1992, we probably didn’t get our hands on it until the following school year.

So we were probably based in one of the old pig shelters, which was basically a twenty-foot steel fertilizer tank cut in half and laid on its side. Not a bad clubhouse when you’re less than four feet tall, but it did retain a rather distressing odor.

Ghosted by Jedoc @ 07/25/2007 10:02 AM EDT

Matt, I would buy an X-E book too, and force all my friends to get one as well! One caveat: it’s addictive! I’m starting my second one now, and will probably do more…

I remember making tv shows when I was a kid! My friends and I filmed a 30 minute sketch comedy show for public access, although we only made 10 episodes, and they only played one of them, it was still pretty cool at the time! Man, I hadn’t thought of that in years!!! Thanks Matt!!!

Ghosted by DrSketch @ 07/25/2007 10:25 AM EDT

Summer of 92, I was going on 10. It was the summer my family and I took a month long vacation doing a million random things like camping in Missouri, visiting family I’ve never met in northern Indiana, spending time in Chicago, and even more camping.

I also experienced the wonder that is a VHS camcorder. My brothers and our friends would set it up on the tripod, turn off the lights in the room, and using only the light from the camera, we would all play COPS. We thought the dark enviroment that surrounded us, lit up only by a small patch of camera spot light, made it look like headlights of a cop car. After all the perps where cuffed (using tube socks, NES controller cords, belts, etc…) the cops would all stand in a circle and talk about the arrest just like they did on the TV show. We thought we were something.

Fireworks were legal in my city, and my with dad becoming an overgrown kid around the 4th, we always had hundreds of dollars of fireworks, it was heaven for a young boy.

Summers were all just about to same for me back then. 3 months of bike riding with friends, neighborhood baseball games, hunting for turtles, snakes, horny toads, and fighting wild bugs. My friends and I would eat have 30 minutes or an hour or something to go collect a bug we thought would dominate anything the other could’ve put up against it. I always picked these giant yellow and black caterpillars because on my block, they could only be found in one of the trees in my back yard. Though they looked extremely intimidating, nothing EVER happened. We would try to fight all sorts of bugs and they would never go at it, even after we closed the lid on the fighting ring (shoebox) and shook it side to side.

Ghosted by fistpittingnork @ 07/25/2007 10:51 AM EDT

Matt, I agree with you and Richard…the Jaws in the pool thing used to creep me out like crazy. Especially if I was swimming and no one was home.

Ghosted by Jay @ 07/25/2007 11:44 AM EDT

In ‘92 I was only eleven so my summer was spent obsessing over soccer. For those of you that don’t know, soccer is my favorite sport, and although my days of playing competitively are long over, I still ref from time to time for extra cash.

Now that I think about it, I think ‘92 was the year my best friend called me every morning at like 7am to come over to play basketball. It was really hot, even for NY’s steamy summers, so it was like already 80 when we woke up. We’d play all day. Since I’m (relatively) tall and athletic, I’d school all the neighborhood kids.

RewolfJ: In every boy’s life, there’s a summer of ‘92.

Truer words were never spoken.

Ghosted by Jeff Mack @ 07/25/2007 11:46 AM EDT

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