a special magical childhood memory

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On my way to work this morning, I began thinking back on my childhood to something that was truly magical for me---my old View Master projector. I loved to take View Master reels of Disneyland/Walt Disney World, etc. and make my own soundtracks for them (by using sound effects records and appropriate music). I not only had the standard View Master viewers, but I had this View Master projector that used a small lightbulb. I loved to turn that on and turn out the lights in my room (especially in the late evening) and show them on the wall. Those illuminated images were so magical to me. I can still remember the smell of the hot lightbulb and the warm projector that added to the aroma of this fantasyland.

As I got older (high school age), I still held to this fascination. I used to subject what very few friends I had to my View Master shows---when they came to my house. Looking back on it, I don't think they found my shows that magical.

I still have the two projectors I had from my childhood, but I think they are lost in the basement now---I haven't seen them in years. But from time to time I still enjoy getting my View Master reels out and viewing them with an old plastic viewer.

Anyone else love these old View Masters?

I remember those old viewmasters! I would pretend that I was actually there with the disney characters and talk to them, I would say things like "Lets go to the castle goofy!" and then change the slide to the castle.

Good times.

Yeah, I remember them also. It IS funny! You wrote about that, and I remebered the old thing. Gif viewmaster viewer, lancelot secret chimp, show and tell, etc.... The man from U.N.C.L.E, avengers, etc....

I also had a viewmaster. I enjoyed looking at Disney characters through the lenses. I liked how everything was 3-D. I've been thinking about buying one at an antique shop, just to relive old memories.

The 1938 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows (borough of Queens in NYC). It was nighttime and it was dazzling. I never quite forgot it.

ruveyn

What a wonderful memory to have ruveyn. That must have been something spectacular to see. I love historic amusement parks and fairs---you are lucky to have seen that. Nighttime and dazzling makes me think of another childhood memory I had that I wouldn't trade for a million dollars---getting to see Comet Bennett in the early morning hours of April 1970.

Just how old were you when you were at the 1938 Worlds Fair? Could that have been the 1939 World's Fair in New York?

My dad was working on the restoration of a primary school, and he took me (I was four at the time) up to the roof. I found it pretty amazing to be up there because it had never occured to me that roofs could be walked on. We could see all around Perthshire, the fields and the hills and the Tay.

I was also fascinated by how small everybody on the pavement seemed, because I didn't understand well how it was that distant things became smaller at that age.

very vague memory of walking the dog, w my grandpa (both are gone)

we walked through a forest, thats cut down now, but what i remember about it was the utter serenity and peace of that moment
the forest wasnt light and green, but what we refer to as a "troll forest", it was ancient and dark, the huge canope shutting the sunlight out, it had a true "mythical" feeling to it, long before i knew anything about epic stories, "middle earth" or any of that

still, its my own image, of a kind of unspoiled ancient dream-forest.

Right. It was 1939 and I was about 3 years old. It is one of my earlier clear memories but not my earliest. My earliest memory was about when I was a year and half and I climbed out of my crib.

ruveyn

Somewhere around 1978 and a few years more, there was
this tradition that when the potatoes on a field close to the
house were ready to harvest, alot of the family came and
chaos errupted that day it was really nice, 15-25 people
doing some harvesting inbetween all the fun stuff. Kind of
an annual gathering with a really warm feel, and when night
came people started to get slightly drunk and even more
chaos errupted. A big fire on the the field that people danced
around, sang and played accordian and stuff I kept a little
to myself but still it was really nice. The tradition started long
before 1978 but i was born in 1976 and it stopped in the early
1980`s so i just participated in a few of them. I especially
remember one of them, when one of my uncles had bought
a huge terrain car that he came spinning across the field in,
then he took me for a ride in the woods, that was a goldent
moment, i had no idea something like that existed, something
you could just go anywhere with

Last edited by ImTheGuyThatDidThat on 09 Mar 2009, 6:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.

When I was about 8, we lived adjacent to the remnants of a eucalyptus forest planted in the 1800's for ship masts or something. I understood that they were not native and that they came from Australia. I used to feel that we were sort of transported to another continent when we walked there. I expected to see a kangaroo come hopping out of the trees...Once in a great while I drive around that area. It breaks my heart that those woods are gone now.