X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

07/04/2008: X-E’s ‘08 Summer Megaparty: Super Soakers.

I spent my Independence Day watching and rewinding the scene where Randy Quaid yells “alien assholes” at a giant spaceship before blowing himself up, and I think that’s about as good as a Fourth of July can get.

Fireworks are illegal here, but I sure am hearing plenty of them. Actually, all I’ve really heard all day are bunches of firecrackers going off directly before a single bottle rocket. Not sure what’s up with that, but it sounds like a monkey cheering at the sight of a package of Jiffy Pop cooking on the stove. The cops around here are usually pretty lax about the fireworks laws, so I expect to see bright lights in the shape of urchins, stars and vulvas filling the sky any minute now.

I wanted to write about something distinctly summery today, and in lieu of actual fireworks, I’ll turn on the waterworks.

Many of you will look at the above photo and think, “big deal, it’s just a Super Soaker.” Oi. In fact, that’s one of the first Super Soakers from 1989, which I had and loved right in the prime of my water gunning years. It’s nothing special today, but back then, owning a Super Soaker was a ticket to instant superstardom.

I was never good at any of the things the old neighborhood kids competed against one another in. The biggest regret of my childhood is that I lived two blocks from a schoolyard with an attached grassy field, dictating that every weekend would be full of football, baseball and other words that felt like four-letter ones to me. Even when we had a good ol’ fashioned dirtbomb fight, my aim was so terrible that I had to scratch all offensive maneuvers and focus on using dirt to mound up a defensive wall.

It was the same deal with water gun fights…until I got a Super Soaker. It’d be a gross understatement to say that those who were still warring with regular water guns were unprepared to match wits with a Super Soaker, and my friends could barely wipe the “HOLY SHIT HE GOT ONE” looks off of their faces before I aqua-pummeled them into the forty-seventh layer of Hell.

Despite its cool name, loud colors and possibly exaggerated size, the Super Soaker wasn’t just popular for its glitz and glamour. It really was the most powerful water gun on the planet, or at least, the most powerful one that underage folks could legally carry. I went from being an inconsequential moving target to the absolute star of the neighborhood, and if people weren’t kissing my ass to get my Soaker-enhanced talents on their water gun team, then they were kissing it in the hopes that I’d let them try shooting the thing. It isn’t easy to purchase popularity for around twenty bucks, but this did it.

Course, my run on top was short-lived. Within a few weeks, every kid in town had a Super Soaker. It went from being a luxury item to something completely mandatory. Even with my Soaker-enhanced talents, I still had bad aim, and I still ran as if an unseen investor was paying me to run poorly. It was fine when I was the only one with a Super Soaker, but once the streets were full of them, my shine turned to shit.

Over the years, Super Soakers have only grown bigger and more intricate, making the originals seem like baby toys. Still, for a few weeks back in ‘89, I was the ruler of the universe, and my constant edict was to saturate every fucker who ever dicked me over with an unholy barrage of H2O.

As mentioned in past entries, the woman and I share our apartment with several cats. If you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go see if any of them are currently engaging in unfavorable activity. If they are, I know just the thing to do.

Happy 4th…you alien assholes.

Hell yeah I used to have that one. It rocked til they came out with those better ones with a backpack tank, then my friends just wrecked me.

Yes, I had one of those ancient Super Soakers when they first hit… we tried filling them with carbonated stuff, thinking it’d be some kind of lethal-force machine, but… no.

I was also the first kid in my neighborhood to get a super soaker, and then my best friend at the time got one of those back pack deals that Eddie Lightning Frog mentioned, we haven’t spoke since.

Happy 4th of July to Matt and all American bloggers. I just got back from damp but awesome fireworks in Newton River Park on the border of Oaklyn and Collingswood in southern New Jersey, near Philadelphia. I was there early, and instead of standing in front of CVS, like I’ve done the past two summers, I went across the street to Newton River Park and found a big, fat old stump to sit on instead. Just moments after I’d settled on my slightly wet stump in a light shower, I heard a massive BOOM and spent the next twenty minutes or so in total awe. They must get people from Philly over here. The fireworks are so cool…and so’s the pre-show. It’s almost as much fun to watch the residents of the riverside set off their own sparklers. Right now, I have an old-time radio program written for the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, “We Hold These Truths,” that seemed perfect for the Fourth.

I spent the morning at work, which was total anarchy. The meat freezers at the Shop Rite down the street broke down, and they lost half their inventory - great for our business, but not for my sanity. We weren’t prepared and didn’t have nearly enough people to handle two stores’ worth of customers.

Dad and his girlfriend took my stepsister and I to a barbecue our grown cousin and her family were holding after I got off of work. All of the older kids ran around with Super Soakers, shooting at each other and any adults who weren’t gossiping or gobbling chicken and burgers by the grill. Matt’s right that Super Soakers got more elaborate. Some of the boys were running around with these huge neon water guns like something out of a sci-fi movie.

I remember when they first came out, too. Yes, anyone who had them was instantly cool. I don’t think we had them until they were mandatory later, but the few kids who did have them that first summer were THE top, the Waldorf Salad, the most awesome people in town.

I definately had the original Super Soaker shown here. I loved that thing. I may have even had some of the later ones, but I always loved the original the best because it didn’t have the heavy 9385 pound water tank you had to wear on your back which majorly slowed you down and made you a bigger target that the later ones had. This was definately the case where bigger wasn’t always better.

Saw Hancock today and it is a good movie worth seeing, even though it had some plotholes in it.

I never had a Super Soaker but I did have the Rambo Water mechanical rocket launcher which pretty much ensured I would be the loser of all watergun fights.

Vulvas? Those are some fireworks!
Super Soakers were one of the few toys I was on the cutting edge with. We even had a massive one that you actually screwed the hose into. Couldn’t even lift the thing, we just mounted in the the jacuzzi and used it to blast across the pool and pick people off.
Party safe everybody!

I had a super soaker when they FIRST came out ! And yes, I was indeed KING of my neighborhood! =) I can’t even BEGIN to describe how much fun I had with it ! Then when all my other frineds at the time got thiers, it was all out WAR! LOL! I also remember getting this super soaker action figure robot toy. It was awesome ! I got three in total because I lost the first 2. You could fill it with water and shoot it just like the gun. Anyway I’m all out of ammunition(fireworks) and I smell like iv’e been in a firefight. Seriously , it looks like a warzone outside my window right now. Sounds like one too. Anyway , any ya’ll up for a brawl? Matt i’mm lookin at you ! =)

You never had a SuperSoaker, Bill? What kind of horrible backwards childhood did you have?!

Backwards, upside down and inside out, I tell you. I led a childhood of saturation.
I have watched so much Jaws and To Catch A Predator today, I fear both common society and the toilet.

I was just slightly too young to have a super soaker when they first came out, but they were a familiar prop in the epic watergun battles of my childhood. They were kind of like the remnants of some long past world war in that there were faded, and or rusted pieces of at least five super soaker 50’s in every backyard in my home town.

Okay Bill, thanks for letting me know I’m not the only person pulled into the TCaP marathon. I was watching Jaws earlier but sequels + hot afternoon led to naptime.

i literally JUST finished watching independence day! although i prefer to rewind the scene where the stripper gets obliterated, but to each his own.

When I moved from NJ (fireworks illegal) to NoVA (fireworks legal! woot!) a few years ago, my father thought it was the coolest thing ever and begged me to smuggled a big pack of fireworks home to him. When I finally did, it was me and some teenagers buying them at the stall in the Safeway parking lot and you’d thing I was trying to get booze underage: I was looking for the cops, had my ID handy, waiting to be carded, etc.

Making fireworks illegal is one the DUMBEST laws iv’e ever heard of. I mean that , really !

Ahhh supersoakers. The one thing I don’t like about them is they only dribble out a little unless you give it at least 15 or 20 good cranks. My cousins when I was about 16 or so got one so there was 3 of them among the 4 of us when they spent the night about 3 times that summer. My cousin Nikki would stand there spraying me with water while I would be pumping mine up and she would stand there pumping while I was spraying and so that is the problem but they are a lot of fun though on a hot summer day. When we were done we were DRENCHED to the core so that was a great way to run around outdoors and to cool off.

One thing that happened that made my day more special was a little girl Lauryn drew with markers on a piece of notebook paper fireworks and gave it to my best friend Harry and I it is really cute I took a picture for you guys. Kids are fused to me, I am nice to them ONCE and then they can’t get enough of me :) A little over a month ago her and her brother rounded up 4 pieces of candy to give to me. A little over a week after that Lauryn asked if I liked the candy and I told a white lie and said yes. The candy was stale people, and I couldn’t crush her heart that easily. Yeah I ate it, I don’t give a shit. It was sealed. Anyway I am thinking of drawing her a little something I bet she would really get a kick out of that.

I think I am the last one on the planet to find out there was a follow up to The Real Ghostbusters. Extreme? Only cost me twenty bucks from a bet.
What else? A cartoon version of Tales From The Crypt? Wait….

MY but it’s been a while… Anyway, happy Patriotic Explosion day to everyone in the U-d S-s of A-ica, and have something I found on YouTube.

went to IHOP for Husband’s birthday, around 1 am last night…NY Cheesecake pancakes RAWk!!!!!!!!!!!!

My brother and me had the little 25 feet super soaker, and for a few months they were banned in my town…some idiot decided to put BLEACH or something in their super soaker and spray people in the face!

Happy 4th everybody (even though it is technically 5th now).
Had a good day of gardening and watching neighborhood fireworks (used to be illegal in GA) .
I got (and still have) the SUPERSOAKER 50 and, yes, for those of you who were not there, Matt’s assessment is 100% accurate. The 1st Supersoaker’s were HUGE. Now, they are crappy but for one shining moment…

I never upgraded from the 50 back in the day when they started making them suped-up. A combination of being poor and never needing to. I always packed the 50, one of those little drugstore rigs as a sidearm, and one thing that made me feel like a fucking genius. An umbrella. A small one with the push-button opening.
Made me feel like a genius until all the other unoriginal asshole kids ran home and got umbrellas.

What I really love about your writing, Matt, as I’ve been meaning to say for a bit of a time now, are the odd little throwaway lines you pepper your work with, that give it that extra touch of a very candid and human wit. “…I still ran as if an unseen investor was paying me to run poorly.” I love that.

Just read a story about the inventor of the Super Soaker, that has to be one of the best lessons in persistance I’ve ever read.

Worked out deals with several companies to produce it, but one after the other they’d either be bought out or scrap the project.

Oh FUCK YES, the Super Soaker 50. Forever changed the way water gun fights were had. I believe I was in 3rd or 4th grade, and we had a big water gun fight at school (part of the school fun day, actually). And some kid, that one guy who always had the coolest stuff first, had one and was basically kicking the shit out of the rest of us…’cause we only had cheap dimestore pistols that leaked.

Of course, the first thing I said to my mom that day was “MOM I GOT TO HAVE A SUPER SOAKER!!!”

It took a lot of pleading but I did get one eventually, I think I had two Super Soaker 50s in the course of my elementary years. I know one of them met its doom when the car door smashed the nozzle.

I had a couple of other super Soakers over the years, including one that I got in College for Water wars. Did anyone else pretend they were awesome alien blasters and run around the house with them empty, firing away at the alien assholes that were running amok?

Also, fun fact: the Super Soaker was invented by NASA. Well, a NASA engineer, anyway. It’s true, look it up…

I spent the evening out with a friend and these two girls that I didn’t know and are 3-4 years younger than me. The girls took forever getting ready. We made it out to the fireworks in time for the last 10 minutes or so.

I guess I had fun but I almost wish I had gone by myself. I would have made it on time and seen the whole thing then. Damn girls…

Now I’m watching 1776 on TMC and waiting to see if I can make it until 3AM when Yankee Doodle Dandy is over…I love that movie….

Didn’t watch Independence Day this year. It’s still awesome, though. The speech Bill Pullman gives is still one of the best couple of lines in movies. And saving the world with a Powerbook? Awesome. Just Awesome.

I’m still kind of surprised they’ve never made a sequel, though there have been several books (some of them prequels).

Thanks Matt! These blog entires are great, they seem more like full posts than blogs. Thanks for all these years of free entertainment! The Super Soaker stuff brings back fond memories. I remember being the first on the block to own the gigantic Soaker that had the two tanks which you strapped to your back and filled with water. Fun times.

And let me add a “Hell Yeah!” to the Super Soaker 50. Had that, and the later Super Soakers made that one seem like crap. I know that I’m not really at that “age” to use one, but I’d really love the one where you can freeze part of it and shoot always-cold water at people. That’s awesome.

And yes, I too was always jealous at the backpack model and the one you attach the hose to. It was a matter of time before someone replaced those water bottles with just a nozzle and a huge water compartment.

I’ve been hunting around for good Super Soakers for a month or so now. In a couple weeks, some friends and I are playing Capture the Flag all night long using water guns…and I’ve been searching far and wide for the good stuff. Sad thing? Like many other things in our world, they just don’t make ‘em like they used to. The variety is very limited, only half a dozen or so different varieties on the website even, and of what is out there…it’s mostly unimpressive.
Having given up most hope of finding anything good in the store, I turned to our beloved friend eBay. To my surprise, those huge water guns of death and destruction (scraped knees and destroyed egos?) from the early and mid-’90s can go for around $100. So…my hunt continues. If anyone has any suggestions, they’re more than welcome.

A 100 bucks for a water gun ? As much as I LOVE super soakers, there’s NO WAY I would pay that much for one!

To Bill:
I totally remember Extreme Ghostbusters, I watched it when it was new, because at least it was a new GB show. It wasn’t as good as the original, but it was entertaining.

And if you all think the Super Soaker 50 went obsolete fast, I had a Super Soaker 30!

Actually, I loved it. The smaller gun gave me more mobility so I relied on skill and strategy to win my water-gun battles.

What things are worth never surprises me. I paid $450 for a cereal box once. I felt obligated to frame it for that price.

I know I did. My boyfriend gave me a ring and asked the Big Question.

Only after I had to sit through ID4. “In the words of my generation, ‘Up yours!’” I hate that movie.

About super soakers…Whenever someone came around with one, I would get mad and turn the hose on them. I was jealous because my mom would only buy me water pistols. I finally got a miniature super soaker, but that’s just not the same.

My favorite Super Soaker this year allows you to screw on a bottle of water for your tank. It can handle anything from 20 oz to 2 liters. And the temptation to stick a 2 liter of root beer or grape soda on that sucker and go after my Dad or bugs or some shit is great. It’s the perfect arsenal for Warped Tour. I may pick one up for my stint.

Like many others, I had a couple of these at the house, but they could not beat the Tube of Death: Basically you would put it into any body of water and pull the handle back, which would fill it with water. Then you could push it to -literally- rain terror. One shot from that thing and your were drenched; it was awesome. And my dad’s hose is on a lake, so there was always ammo/water around.

Never thought I’d be a “cat guy” but it’s been exactly a year and a day and I realize I f’n love the little guy. So much I let his rowdy nephew move in as well.

My dad’s house was on a lake; he had a hose there to, but it was next to the house

I once had a female ferret that was a little on the mean side. She still loved me though. Anyway I shot her a few times with a cheap drug store type water gun once, and she got REALLY MAD ! lol! She would twist and turn in frustration and then make a ticked off face and do a ferret style hiss at me. I stoped once she started to get especially mad at me. I didn’t want to torment my precious little furry friend, just have a little harmless fun with her. =) At first she didn’t know who was doing it to her because I hid behind a chair. lol. She was SOAKING wet too. Ahh precious memories. You know I LOVE em ! =)

Matt I keep trying to join a match with you and for some reason I keep getting an unable to join message. Strange. I’ll try some more , but if I cant join then i’m just gonna sign off and try again when I wake up.

I had a lot of different super soakers but never the 50. I remember the XP150 being my favorite.

Many of you will look at the above photo and think, “big deal, it’s just a Super Soaker.”

“It’d be a gross understatement to say that those who were still warring with regular water guns were unprepared to match wits with a Super Soaker, and my friends could barely wipe the ‘HOLY SHIT HE GOT ONE’ looks off of their faces before I aqua-pummeled them into the forty-seventh layer of Hell.”

This may well be the single best sentence in X-E history. Which would place it high in the running for best sentence ever written. I’m not into ink, but if anyone out there wants to get this tattooed on their person, I will gladly pay for it. And the word ‘aqua-pummeled’ is fucking marvelous. Just awesome. Nice work, Matt.

Jack: $450 for a cereal box? You got to tell us that story. What was so special about it?

my 4th of july was pretty rough, all things considered, but my spirits are still high as i begin the recovery.. - after i got off work yesterday i went to a friend’s house for a couple hours.. - came home around 9PM and shortly after the power went off.. - my new kitten Tomo was freaked out.. - it was pitch dark and i couldn’t see and had no idea if we owned a single candle.. - didn’t help our cat that hundreds of smuggled fireworks were going off outside.. - then a wild animal got into one of our vents and started scratching, making noises, etc. - so here i am in the dark with a kitty and we’re both freaked out! - at one point i thought the animal got loose and i bolted for my balcony.. somehow during this melee i injured my knee and i’m still limping around today unable to put any weight on it.. - to abbreviate the story, it ended up being a bat, the landlord came but by then it already escaped back to the night, my wife left work early at the hospital because my voicemail made it sound like i was being attacked by a monster, etc.

the power never did come back on, either, so we went to the east side of town, and played Rock Band at my brother’s house.. - and whenever i’m back in my old childhood neighborhood, even at 2AM my bro and i have to walk over to Circle K, make some Bill and Ted references, and get beef jerky, soda, etc.

Matt, seriously, this question has been bugging me since yesterday’s (or 2 days ago’s) Kool Aid post… Where the hell do you store all this stuff?

you guys should read up on Super Soaker history and it’s brush with danger. I can’t remember which one, and I’m too lazy to look up, but one of the XP’s got recalled for being able to actually injure someone with it’s riot gear like oppresive water stream of pain.

A couple weeks ago I got married, and all weekend I was telling people that I was going to buy a Super Soaker and unload on all the neices/nephews that would be at the rehearsal dinner.

I never got around to it, but secretly my family went out and bought a shit ton of those tiny little water guns and totally ambushed me. If I had only bought my Super Soaker (which I never had as a kid) I would have been able to defend myself.

I thought about reading all the way through the comments before I posted, but being that I haven’t posted in weeks and so many blogs back, I might as crack to it.

Hello everyone, I’m actually in Chicago for this 4th of July weekend. I came in yesterday after signing out a Mileage Pass for the weekend. Went to the White Sox game yesterday. Hey, free fireworks show after the game so you can’t go wrong with that! I’m not really a White Sox fan but my brother and mom are “die-hard” fans! I support that other baseball team on the northside of Chicago. Anyway, so the fact that the Sox lost 7-1 to the Oakland Athletics didn’t bother me a bit. The fireworks were nice, but it was a fast show and they started them so quickly after the game it was like, “Okay, here they are. See them? Now GET OUT!” What was cool was that we were sitting at the next to top row of the upper deck behind home plate and we were able to see fireworks going off in other areas of the city, I think as far as Whiting, IN out on the lakefront. That became a better site to watch during the last couple innings of the game. Oh yeah, I should also mention that the highlight for me at the game was some girl behind me accidentally spilling her beer all over my back. She was sorry but I said don’t worry about it. I wasn’t mad and actually laughing about it! Hey, I gotta have some interesting story to tell my buddies back at my unit, right? My only concern was that I going to leave the game smelling like a walking brewery, especially since I rarely drink and NEVER drink at a sporting event. Thankfully, two innings later my shirt dried and I no longer had the Miller Lite scent on it. Oh yeah, I called that my Al Smith moment, sorry but I have to show off my baseball history knowledge here and in this case specifically, White Sox history. In Game 2 of the 1959 World Series in old Comiskey Park in Chicago against the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers (this was the second year the Dodgers were in Los Angeles after moving out west from Brooklyn), White Sox left fielder Al Smith runs after an eventual home run over the left field wall. An excited fan sitting in the first row jumps up and knocks his beer off the ledge of the wall which showers Al Smith and drenches his uniform with beer. Okay, so my experience wasn’t as dramatic as Al Smith’s but hey, how often do I have the opportunity to have beer spilled on me? Gotta savor that one!

Anyway, fireworks here in Illinois are supposedly illegal but of course, the crooked cops of the Chicago Police Force look the other way while everyone smuggles illegal fireworks in from nearby Indiana. We live so close to the Indiana border that our neighborhood naturally turns into a warzone on the 4th so of course, we come back from the game and there’s rockets shooting everywhere and firecrackers booming off all over the place. I had a phase of being fireworks obsessed in my youth, but now I’ve gotten to the point where I naturally just “leave it to the professionals.”

Anyway, it’s great being back in the Windy City even if it’s only for four days. Tonight, I get to go to another favorite city of mine to the north, Milwaukee where me, my brother, and a buddy of my brother’s where we will go see, guess what, yeah, another ball game! This time we go to see the Brewers. Tomorrow I go to another White Sox game with a buddy of mine who has the weekend Season Ticket package to the Sox games. Imagine that, three baseball games in three games. Am I little obsessed in the sport or what? I only wish the Cubs were in town because I would definetly would have gone to see them as well, and more than likely, it would have been tomorrow. So, three games, three teams in three different ballparks. Sounds like a good weekend to me!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a nice 4th. Has anyone seen Hancock yet? I read some reviews and everyone’s saying this is not Will Smith’s best work, or even one of his decent ones. I think there’s more scoop on Jason Bateman playing his usual “straight” man characters which he seems to be doing in every movie of the last year! I was thinking of going to see it tomorrow night after the game. Make it my last hoorah before I head back to Central Texas and the Army Way of Life.

Oh yeah, one final note, being that it was the 4th of July, there was all this patriotism and they had some Army unit and a Naval unit attending the game since we have the popular Great Mistakes…I mean Great Lakes Naval Base north of the city. My mom was asking me why I didn’t want to be recognized for my duty and I said, quite simply, that I was an undercover civilian this weekend!

Okay, I’m done for now! I’ll be back to see if anyone noticed my presence. Happy 4th WEEKEND everybody!!!!

Happy 4th everyone! At school I was always a middle pick for teams but in my neighborhood I was a superstar athlete. We didn’t really have water-gun wars — summer was all about basketball. I’m still decent from behind the arc but I still kinda suck at lay-ups.

The CPS one was pretty cool. CPS stood for “Constant Pressure System”. It used an internal bladder to store air pressure, rather than the water reservoir itself. The upshot of this meant that there was no degration in your water stream–it was a constant, steady flow until you ran out of air. And that was pretty awesome.

I don’t have any of these any more. The XP95 is lost to time, and the CPS 1200 I gave to a fraternity brother, since I don’t play Water wars anymore.

No, I graduated college and there just aren’t that many opportunities to play anymore. Plus, I have to take my hearing aids off so it was never all that fun for me, anyway, stumbling around deaf in the dark waving a water gun…

I was watching Independence Day last night as I check the blog, but I’d had too many cape cods to properly thing of anything to add to the comments. I’m not too drunk now, but I still have nothing to say.
Way off topic: I just joined Hoff Space.

I had the Super Soaker in the screencap, the SuperSoaker 100. Blue, Long, and Badass. I owned all the neighborhood kids. Never did buy any other ones, mainly because all my allowance went to NES games. I probably should have gone outside more.

I had the one with the backpack too. It slowed me down a little, but not much. I loved it because it made me feel like a ghostbuster. That and it could hold alot of water.

I didn’t purchase a Super Soaker until they introduced their “XP” series and I owned the XP 150. The XP was supposed to stand for “x-tra power/pressure” or something along those lines. If I recall correctly the big selling point was a bigger resevoir and longer shooting distances. These waterguns always had wacky color schemes because the production of realistc looking waterguns was being phased out at the time. I remember in about 1985 or so my neighbor had this set of realistic lookin water weapons which included an Uzi (with battery-powered rapid fire action!) and handgrenade shaped balloons to fill with water! I can’t recall what the other weapons in the set were but I remember seeing commercials for them several times while watching Transformers.

The ones I always got pissed me off. Uninflated, they looked like shrivled grenades in both color and texture but then you fill them up a little and they’d be a pea soup green with lines that looked drawn on with a marker.

No need to be formal, you can call me doho. The in the summer part was added and the poki was removed as my way of saying, “I wasn’t wearing pants when I typed this and I want you to know that.”

Alrighty then. Just Dohopoki or doho it is. I knew I couldn’t be the only one not wearing any pants at the moment .

This all just makes me want to track down some old super soakers and go buck-wild at the kids in my neighborhood. Then again, I might get funny looks becuase I’m a 20 something chasing kids with a super soaker from the late 80-s

Side Note: Phunqsauce, I’ve been streaming your Music via Myspace, and I fucking love it.

hmmm….waiting for my brother to come home from Maine after visiting my dad and his family. He supposedly brought home a shit-ton of Red Hot Dogs which I think are a Maine thing only or perhaps all of new england… I dunno…can someone tell me? They have a red skin on them and are awesome! I have to go over to my mom and grandmas to pick up the whoopie pies he he got for me, and some hot dogs.

I totally remember when it was a numbering system! They kept it all the way up into the 90s (man, do I feel old). Super Soakers were great, provided there was someone else (armed or unarmed).

Alternatively, my Super Soaker was ALWAYS filled with water, not anything else (paint, urine, acid, bodily fluids). Does anyone have any stories along that line…?

NintendoMan - I appreciate the compliment! While it technically isn’t my music as it comprised of all sampled material, I just really enjoy making the mash-ups. I try to bring a sense of humor and a clashing of genres to the scene. I’m glad you enjoyed listening to it!

We stuck to only water too but sometimes it would be REALLY hot or REALLY cold.
In retrospect, the former was probably not a good idea.

i did wonder what happened to you, bj! sure wish i was going to the game tonight.

there is a chipmunk behind my kitchen cabinets. it won’t come out. i named it carol anne. it needs to come toward the fucking light.

nervousxians- it’s like a myspace or facebook, but it is all about and put on by david hasselhoff. of course

The Super Soaker 50 was indeed the best model. Anything bigger than that and it was more effort to pump and more cumbersome. When in a water fight, maneuverability is key.

Anybody up for some Brawlin tonight ? Come on lets Brawl till the sun comes up! =D

Love me some Super Soakers. It was always a pain, in the midst of a water battle, when you had to re-fill since it took forever.

Sorry if this has been mentioned before (I merely skimmed the comments. I’m lazy) but around the time (or maybe right before) Super Soakers, I was obsessed with those guns that actually squirted disappearing ink. Every time my mom took me to Bradlees, I would run to the end cap and beg for more of the dye for my gun. I don’t remember those suckers being cheap, either.

I might be up for some brawlin’ later tonight, say in about two hours or so….

Over at my cousins house and a “friend” of his come over. He was playing Mario Kart Wii with his 6 year old son and making fun of him for loosing. After the kid got upset after a race and threw a controller - wouldn’t you if someone was in your face making fun of you? - the guy beat the kid for getting angry….

I came here to post as to keep myself from kicking the guys ass on the kid’s behalf…

He also made my cousin’s son cry because he mad fun of him too; now my cousin and his wife are getting made because he won’t listen; and the guy treats his wife like shit.

I need a Super Soaker to shoot him and say “see, ass hat, that’s how your kid feels”

Anne Medina is actually trying to tie some historical significance to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The re-make! Oh how I love the history channel.

I never had a Super Soaker. My parents wouldn’t shell out that kind of money for a water gun.

BJ the wife and I saw Hancock today and enjoyed it thoroughly. It may not be big Willy’s best movie, but it was still pretty good…Wanted is also very good.

I remember, during Easter, I asked for a super soaker. That morning, in my Easter basket, was indeed a super soaker: a mini super soaker. The thing was about 5″-7″ long. But I guess it is the thought that counts.

Tried to see the big fireworks show in Houston. We actually parked on the side of the highway (with half the city it seemed like). We thought we had a great view until the show started. You see, Houston’s highways build one of top of the highway. So, of course, right in view of the fireworks was a highway. It wasn’t too bad, we could see the tops and the bottoms of the fireworks.

Shuanfu That’s sounds awful ! What’s wrong with that guy ? How old is he 7? Because that’s how old he was acting from your description. Seriously what is wrong with that guy for treating that kid like that ? I kinda wish I hadn’t read your post now becasue I HATE to hear about stuff like that ! >=( I can DEFINATELY understand your frusteration!

(not where the actual fireworks were, but it gives a good idea of what Houston’s hishways are like)

looking at that highway, the first thing that came to my mind was “I want to chew on that.”

Man, I haven’t been around for a SNT in a long time. Hope everyone had a good 4th. Cheers.

My siblings and I each had our own 50. In highschool I cut the tanks off and painted them black for an “action movie” my friends and I never filmed. I carried them around school in a camo dufflebag while wearing my full length duster, with nary a thought of evil deeds crossing anyone’s mind. Sometimes I would set them down next to my friend Nick, who spent his lunch hours sketching out a map of the school for a DOOM level he was making. Man, I was so lucky to do highschool pre-Columbine.

I received the SuperSoaker 300 for my 12th birthday in ‘93. My god was that thing a beast–the water was stored in a backpack style tank that must have held at least a gallon of water. The gun itself had a large handle at the top in lieu of a trigger. “As cool and deadly a piece of weaponry my eyes had ever gazed upon” as little Ralphy might say.

I also had a SS 100, SS 50, a SS 30, and the surprisingly powerful SS 25 which came with a holster (that’s right a HOLSTER!) and an extra tank.

They never shot as far as advertised but they were still the best water guns ever made.

I was so flipping happy when I found a Super Soaker 50 at the Value Village near my place. I had one as a kid an adored the thing.

New ones (I own an XPS 150) will never be the same as the original 50 and 100. Good times

I had the same Super Soaker back in ‘89. Same story too, I was king of the block… for a week. Then came the 75 model, then the 100. Soon not only did everybody have one, but the numbers we’re insane! I’m not sure if Super Soaker 10,000XXX was real, but thats what it felt like.

Once I had shoved the nozzle of my SS50 up the nose of a kid and a booger lodged in the tip. Then I shot the booger AND water at him. True story.

Oh yeah, I had a Super Soaker!…though I don’t know why I did because I didn’t have any friends or neighborhood kids or random passersby to shoot with it. Eventually the water tank started leaking and after that I lost interest in shooting the shower walls with it.

Great article…brought back good memories of my own Super Soaker 50. Just to let you know though, you mentioned this was ONE of the original Super Soakers. Actually, it is THE original Super Soaker. This was the first one they came out with. Great stuff!!

Oh yeah- Super Soaker. My brother and I shared the 50. We would take turns between the 50 and a regular water gun. It rocked our faces off.

I TOTALLY had those water guns, in fact, I remember they were on sale @ Toysrus for $10 so me and my brother got one each, and then when the neighbour kids got word all their parents went out and got them we had some awesome fights…and got kicked out of the house for trying to play inside a couple times. ahhh memories.

Yes, the super soaker certainly does bring back memories. However I was never allowed to have a super soaker, out of fear that the water pressure could be damaging to the eyes!

Add A New Comment!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 9:51 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.