New Law
 

There should be a law that every American child MUST make a crystal radio before they are 14.:neutral:

I had a friend who built a Heathkit TV. That think lasted forever!

Zoom is an underrated cultural icon for GenXers. The notion of a show made specifically by us for us, represents the DIY builder spark of entrepreneurship that remains in the American soul. Would there be a YouTube if there was not a Zoom?

The Brits and Aussies eyes are glazing over at this point. Maybe we could have a Blue Peter thread?

My parents gave the ZOOM companion book to us kids. They probably got it for making a PBS donation. The book was great. It included a summary of all the projects on the show and basic instructions too. There was the guy who made floating "shoes" out of foam blocks and venetian blinds so he could walk across a pond. Another guy made a raft out of sticks and a tarp. He basically made a birds nest of sticks and wrapped it with a tarp. There was the radio guy. That's all I can remember right now, but I know there was a lot more.

And they got to wear those cool striped shirts.:rolleyes:

My sister was of the ZOOM! generation. I am four years older and was out of the demographic. She is fluent in Ubby-Dubby to this day. I, despite my facility with Pig Latin, never was able to get it, despite having filched the ZOOM! book from her one night and reading through the instructions carefully.

I was exposed to it enough, however, to this day I know the address to send letters to, and have to sing/speak it in cadence.

Attachment 9784

Wow, I remember their faces!

I used to get freaked out when they played the National Anthem at "the end of the broadcast day" and would turn it off before the flag waving in the breeze at the end, because I couldn't face that indian in the test pattern. He just sat there, and that tone, then the static. Then I *knew* I was alone. :shivers:

TV TEST PATTERN
 

You take me back, BigV.

Being up late enough to get to that "end of the broadcast day" part made me feel cool; yeah, a bit scared, but cool. That was the entry into a realm unknown to most kids. Hard to get there if you had parents in the house.:neutral:

Oh. Regarding Zoom. I was lucky to grow up in the Boston area, home of WGBH. The station kept those kids' last names under wraps, lest they get hassled by strangers when they were just trying to be regular kids. One would see a Zoom kid now and again; I recall the dude with the big Jewfro. He was cool.

I haven't seen that in years. That was a not so subtle message that it was way past time for me to get my ass in bed.

More Zoom Crap
 

http://dannymiller.typepad.com/./pho...zoomcards1.jpg

Once I thought of that Zoom kid with the big hair, I had to find him. It was joe, the kid on the right.

The blog I found him on noted this about Joe:

"I once met a guy who went to high school with Joe in Boston and he said that the other kids used to taunt him with the nickname “Zoom-fag!”


He's got a good blog:
http://dannymiller.typepad.com/blog/...onna_teac.html

For a short period of time in ... 4th grade? ... those shirts were THE SHIT. If you didn't have one, you were a loser. I begged my mom to get me one, but by the time she did, it was no longer chic (this was like 2 weeks later). Quite traumatizing.

Nothing worse than last year's "the shit", you big loser! :p

I was a kid when JFK was killed. I still remember being ticked off because the funeral was on Saturday morning and it preempted the cartoons.

In St. Louis, The Flintstones was a prime-time show on Friday nights. wooo.