New Bedford Toy Store Evokes Memories of Toys Past [PHIL-OSOPHY]

I was giving out good luck wishes to Cojo's Toy World, a new vintage toy store that just opened for business on Purchase Street in New Bedford, and it stirred up some bygone memories of some of the toys we bought when our posse was young.

Our kids were born between 1979 and 1985, and they don't know how good they had it, being one of the last generations to have had a truly analog childhood.

I had to ask Andrea, Athena and Alex to help refresh my memory. By the way, notice how each of their names begins with the same letter? Their middle names are Noel, Nicole and Nicolas, our ANP gang.

They reminisced about the Gremlins' Gizmo, the karaoke machine, Michael Jackson's action figure, Barbie, Jem, American Girl and Cabbage Patch dolls. And then there was Alex's infamous My Pet Monster, complete with fiendish horns, blue fur, a fanged smile and manacled in breakaway orange plastic handcuffs. I describe it as wicked and ungodly only because their grandmother, YiaYia, hated it so much she thought it was cursed. One time she reamed me and begged me to return that thing to the hellfire it came from!

The problem was every time she'd come over for a few days, she'd secretly try to throw it away, so we had to hide it from sight until she returned home. You have no idea how many times she repeated that the church forbids things like that to be in the house.

Times were a little different when I was a youngster in 1957, and Silly Putty was all the rage. Mostly, we played ball in the street and rode our bikes all over the blessed place, staying outside until the streetlights turned on.

I'll have to ask my wife whatever happened to that stuffed Luciferian. I just looked on eBay, and a vintage My Pet Monster was selling for $799.

Phil Paleologos is the host of The Phil Paleologos Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Contact him at phil@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @PhilPaleologos. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.