Life In the 80’s – with a Little Bit of the 70’s
Neil’s Blog Entry
This weekend we drove nine hours to Pennsylvania to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday. That’s right… eight – zero. He’s old. What’s scarier than that is that I am almost half way there myself. Seriously though, he’s in great shape and doesn’t look a day over 60.
My mom organized this huge party with numerous friends and relatives – most of whom I haven’t seen in over 25 years and inevitably came up to me and said, “You don’t know who I am do you?”
Is this a trick question?
Anyway, for Dad’s birthday present, we made for him what Mari referred to as an “artistic timeline.” Basically, it’s 81 colored paper rectangles mounted on black paper and framed up all nice and pretty-like. Printed on each small rectangle, there is a year and a small fact and/or tidbit about that year… starting with 1927 and ending, of course, in 2007. One of our inspirations for this was a birthday invitation from our friend Andrew. On the invitation he had a fact for each of his 40 years.
Some facts I used were personal to my Dad and our family, while others were merely interesting bits of info. For example: Mickey Mouse and Velveeta Cheese were both introduced in 1928. Who knew? So the final piece looked great if I may say so, and everyone in the family thought it was pretty cool.
Here are some photos of when I was putting it together:
The finished product:
Another blast from the past was my dad’s PPV – which Mari, her cousins and I got to ride in.
What is a PPV? It stands for People Powered Vehicle. My dad bought it in the 70’s – go figure, huh? – and it is basically a big streamlined tricycle for two (although we have had up to five people crammed in it.). I have some fond and not so fond memories of being dropped off for school in this thing. We also rode it in my hometown’s bicentennial parade in 1976. I don’t know how many more of these are still out there… my dad’s needs a little bit of work, but obviously is still running.
So, it was a really fun trip, but it’s good to be back. Laura will be writing more about it tomorrow, so stay tuned.
Still with no pithy catchprase,
Neil
The Smiths' Occasional Blog 
Love the picture gift, it looks really good. It took me days to come up with 40 things so I can imagine how many hours went into 80! That car looks fun too.
All I can say is, “Thank God for wikipedia!”
Being dropped off at school in a PPV? Hope you aren’t scarred for life. 🙂 Seriously, it’s very cool, very “green”!
I am looking to buy a PPV for my grandkids. My family owned one in the 1980’s and we had a blast. I would prefer if I bought one in Iowa. Thanks
Best of luck tracking one down. I imagine they are tough to come by these days. You never know though, you might find one on Craigslist in you area! And there’s always E-Bay!