Skip to main content

Good Bye View-Master

The best toy ever, the View-Master, is being put to sleep after 70 years of making kids happy. It seems the new kids aren't amused by the View-Master. It doesn't have enough moving parts, doesn't make interesting noises and doesn't do all the work for you. You actually have to use your imagination to play with it.

I treasured my View-Master when I was a kid. Maybe that's because I didn't have a closet full of toys, or maybe that's because I was the type who liked being drawn into another world that seemed to be on another plane.

I had Quick Draw McGraw

and Deputy Dawg.

I had the Flintstones and famous places and wild animals. I had Jungle Book and Disney Land and Snoopy and space images. You could hold the red viewer up to your eyes so close you couldn't see anything of the real world but could focus just on the 3-D images in front of your eyes. And you could live in that world as long as you could hold your arms up to your face.

Yep. I loved my View-Master. My kids had them, too, and their old reels are still somewhere in the house with an updated projector kind of View-Master. I'll have to break those out and disappear into the world of 3-D for awhile and remember the days of leisurely sitting on the floor with all those reels spread out on the floor waiting to take me to another world. Stupid new kids and their demanding ways.

Comments

Sassy Sundry said…
Stupid new kids! How dare they? The View Master was the coolest toy ever.

Twerps.
1:09 PM
Neponset River Bridge Dig said…
I loved these toys when I was a kid. I do remember an adult version I had once seen somewhere as well. Use your imagination, Robyn. :)
1:51 PM
savannah said…
sigh
those were the days, for us and for our children...it seems that we somehow have lost our way. xoxo
4:35 PM
Cheltenhamdailyphoto said…
Friends had this but I didn't. I don't remember looking at it, just seeing it laying around redundant in their homes!
5:02 PM
Shazza said…
I remember the View Master - my Mom saved ours and used to bring it out for my kids. Somehow they enjoyed playing with it more at her house than at home.
7:14 PM
dive said…
Ooooh, I loved View Master when I was a kid, Robyn. Thanks for reminding me how wonderful it was. I wish I still had it.
7:26 AM
Miz Minka said…
My parents brought one home (to Germany) after a trip to Canada. We had the National Parks disks, and Bambi, my favorite.

I felt so nostalgic after reading your post, I bought a View-Master and Bambi disks on Amazon.com. :)

Stupid new kids indeed. :(
7:42 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Am I Stupid, or What?

In two weeks, I will climb up into a charter bus, take my assigned seat, and ride 22 hours straight to Orlando, Florida. I will be a chaperon with the high school marching band, which will perform at Disney's Magic Kingdom--me and 180 people on four big buses for seven days. We will travel together, eat together, play together, fall down exhausted together--and after 22 hours, I suspect stink to high heaven together. Because of the crazy schedule, we will leave Ohio at 6 pm, travel all night and most of the next day, and spend several hours at MGM Studios before ending up at the hotel sometime after 7 pm. After I check in with the eight girls I am to supervise, I intend to shower and shower and shower. I intend to wear clean clothes and socks and brush my teeth until my toothbrush wears out. Of all the things I could be concerned about on this trip, being dirty seems to weigh heaviest on my mind. One of my eight charges could run off and do bad things with her boyfriend, but I'...
21 comments
Read more

No More Mr. Nice Guy

It's good to be a nice person--to say nice things, to do nice things, to write nice things--but I declare an end to the use of the word nice. Nice is what you say when you can't think of any other adjective. Someone shows you a picture of their back yard--that's nice. Someone tells you about their afternoon adventure--that's nice. Or someone describes their childhood in great detail and sometimes with painstaking effort--that's nice. It's a lazy word, and it's non-descriptive. Nice is like mashed potatoes with noodles and chicken gravy all in a big pile on one plate with some canned corn for garnish. Everything is the same color and texture and base substance--starch (this is a favorite Amish dish). Nice is like a partly cloudy day in April when outside feels like inside, and you can't tell a difference between the lighting and the temperature of your living room and the lighting and temperature of your front yard. Nice is a glass of lukewarm water. ...
20 comments
Read more

An Offending Pile

So, I'm standing in my living room letting my mind wander for a minute or two as I stare out the window and watch the day go by, and I see my neighbors walking their dogs down the street. They are nice neighbors who are always friendly and responsible with their property. That is to say they aren't like the other neighbors who heap rubbish behind their house like Ma and Pa Kettle and let their dogs bark for thirty minutes at a time . Anyway, I see the nice people walking their dogs, a big golden retriever who is as sweet as can be and as dumb as a post—he once ate a sock and nearly died before it was surgically removed—and a new golden retriever puppy. Then I see Neighbor Wife suddenly run down the street with the big dog. Then I see Neighbor Husband stopped in front of my house with the puppy on its leash. And then I see the puppy taking a huge dump in my grass. Let me tell you, that is not done in this town unless the dog owner has a plastic bag handy and is ready to pick up ...
16 comments
Read more