Movies, M&M's, and Mom's TV Shows

Even to this day when I eat M&M's it brings back memories of everyone gatrhered around the TV and Mom giving each of us our own little pile of M&M's. I also rememer all of the popcorn that we would eat, either freshly popped corn in the big silver bowl or the giant popcorn bags from K-Mart. I remember that Jay especially loved popcorn and would buy one of the giant K-Mart bags for himself and keep it in his room.

I remember that mom would love to watch Cagney and Lacey and Murder She Wrote.

Stories from FB

So I decided to copy all our little memories from Johns facebook page to the blog now you guys need to post more stories.

I was a little sad when I was telling my kids stories of my childhood and they did not know what a pallet was. (At out house growing up my dad would buy hundreds, no exaggeration, of pallets for firewood). We would create forts, mazes, towers, ramps, slides, and just about anything a teenager could imagine with them.
Wall-to-Wall - Write on Andy's Wall
Jan 29

Andy Hale wrote at 10:57pm
How about the "hot tub" we created with insulation panels and black plastic in the back of the old pickup bed trailer.
Wall-to-Wall - Write on Andy's Wall

Jan 20
Edit

Chuck Hale wrote at 11:52am
How about tying a hundred ft by 30 ft piece of plastic to that oak tree and then sailing up like 20 ft in the air? ahh the good old days.
Wall-to-Wall
Jan 19

Justen Hale wrote at 11:05pm
I think matt has the most scars. there was a while there when the emergancie room knew matt like on cheers the tv show. i think the even kept is file handy seeing that he was there twice amonth. what was the saying when we fought "Go take it out side, stop when one of is bleeding."
Wall-to-Wall - Write on Justen's Wall
Jan 16

Edward Hale wrote at 4:33pm
Envision the centries old oak tree by the barn, we had a bit of tree house in it for a while, Such a old rotting stump as this will be a fantastic sponsor for wild mushroom, shiitake, lions main, oyster. i am still searching for the right oak logs here in AZ. Give thanks and praises , for each morsel is wrought from successions of miracles

Jan 15
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Chuck Hale wrote at 8:47pm
I've still got scars from the zip line, although the fork scar pretty much went away.....
Wall-to-Wall

Justen Hale wrote at 7:52am
what about the lumber cart windsale? that was allways fun.
Wall-to-Wall - Write on Justen's Wall

Stunt Man Air Bags Hale Ranch Style

Do remember when Dad brought home these oversized Plastic bags? I think they were used to test Arcade games in extreme heat. Anyways I remember using duct tape to close them up and then a shop vac in reverse to fill them with air, Then piling them under the Old Willow Tree and jumping from like 15' high onto our "pillows" as they would slowly deflate. You gotta thank the "Fall Guy" for inspiration like that! It's no wonder We loved good TV like Fall Guy, A-Team, MacGuyver, etc.

Hippo Hamper

I asked my kids tonight what story I should post and they told me the "Hippo Hamper". They were really excited and I think would have told it much funnier than I remember telling it to them.

It was really fun growing up with a Dad who would create fun wood projects for us. One of these was the brown wooden hippo hamper. I remember that the mouth was a lid that would open to put the dirty laundry in. You would then turn the tail in the back to open the "rear" of the hippo to pull out all of the "dirty" clothes (or as I my kids were telling me the poopy clothes.) I can also remember riding on the back of the "wild hippo", even though we weren't supposed to.

So I just spoke to Andy this evening and he told me he created this Blog so we could post some memories here about growing up on "The Ranch" back in San Martin. Way to go Andy!
One thing I was thinking about tonight, while watching The Super Bowl, was how Matt always liked to root for the opposite team as the rest of the Family. Being the first Sunday of the month Angie and I hosted a family Dinner here at our house, our own lil' Super Bowl party. Mom and I were downstairs watching the game when Matt got here, he walked in asked "Who are you cheering for? I responded "Cards!" So Matt yells "Lets Go Steelers!" And that is how I remember watching football games at home. Matt was always cheering for the opposite team as everyone else. I gotta say it does make the game more fun when there is a little rivalry going on. By the way I thought the 4th quarter was awesome, edge of the couch, Matt and I yelling back and forth at each other. Ahhh! Brought back some good memories.