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Goodbye to my biggest fan
Normally I wouldn't trouble folks with my personal life but if there was anyone that is a foundation for this site, it was my grandmother who passed away this week at 91 years of age. She (and of course, my parents) is largely responsible for why I look backward with fondness.
I was fortunate enough to read her eulogy and was glad to share with people how much she meant to me and my family but I had to leave a lot out.
Today would have been her 92nd birthday and I'm going to spend it celebrating many of the things she did that made me want to create this site in the first place:
- My grandparents owned a store in a mall, almost every Saturday I was babysat there. I spent the majority of the day going from the Woolco, to the hobby shop and then to the drug store to ogle the rack toys. My grandmother was usually good for $2, which was completely ****ed away on what she would call “Junk”.
- She kept old catalogs in her house and if she traveled to another country, she would bring me back their toy catalogs. It was kind of a weird torture looking at Big Jims and GI Joes that I would never own. It did however spark my interest in foreign toys, is anyone seeing a connection here?
- In college, when I was forced to sell my toy collection, she arranged the purchase of my two favourite MIB Mego figures (Spider-Man and Captain America) and gave them back to me years later. I still have them, I will never sell them.
- On my sixth birthday, she left me in the Eaton’s toy department and told me to pick out one thing for my birthday. I spent what felt like an eternity pouring over the GI joe and Big Jim offerings. More than the toy itself (i forget what I chose), I appreciated just being given that luxury of time.
- When I was 13 she knitted me a Tom Baker scarf, she also sewed me a Jon Pertwee cape that I wore to my first convention a year later. I still have both, I never wear them.
- She bought me my first issue of Starlog and more comics than I care to calculate.
- My first Ramones record? You guessed it, it was Road to Ruin.
- Christmas was incredible event at her house, some of my fondest childhood memories stem from those evenings.
- When I got the Brick Mantooth figures in from China, she was the first person I showed. She approved but thought it was bad investment and well, the lady wasn't dumb.
- I filmed the Brick Mantooth commercial in her impossibly funky basement.
- She owned one of these and now, I do I guess....
- Rack Toys is still proudly on her coffee table.
- She always told me the truth, even I wasn't going to like it and could present it in a manner that I couldn't get mad at her.
She was my enabler and I can’t look at the majority of the things I blog about and not think of her. That will always make me smile and one of the reasons I’ll keep going and will be just fine. I love what I do because she loved me.
Thank you for indulging me.
For more Fashion Mockery and 70's toy love visit us at Plaid Stallions.com
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