Nerd Therapy Session: Towel Redemption

tio

This one takes place in 1977 and involves vacationing, towels, a slightly embarrassing confession and I guess an overall  reluctance to grow up. Go figure on the last one....


More after the jump:




On Christmas morning 1977, my parents woke me up at 4am and threw me (and my newly acquired Oscar Goldman doll plus several volumes of peanuts books) into the car and made the 24 hour drive to Florida.


That particular trip has not only given me a lifelong love for the state but a penchant for hopping the border. The states was like visiting Valhalla for seven year old me. American's had different candy, their toy stores were bigger and all that stuff I`d seen on channel 29? They had it!


I vividly remember sitting in a dumpy motel room in Miami eating "cookie crisp" and watching a rerun of "HR Pufnstuf" thinking I'd died and gone to heaven.

Orlando especially seemed like some sort of Technicolor wonderland what with Disney world, the mold-a-rama machines at rest areas and the various touristy bric-a-brac shops, it just captivated me. That's where this story takes place.


You see, mom forgot to pack our towels and that meant we had to drive to one of those "beach junk" shops to pick some up. I remember the store had a towel with this image in the window.

Oh yeah, that's the towel for me, the "New Adventures of Batman" was my favourite show at the time and it looked exactly like the Mego doll box. Only one problem:

"I'm sorry we're all out of Batman" said the clerk, which my mother then turned to me and said "They're all out of Batman" like I didn't hear it the first time. I immediately said "Superman" because well, he's just as good and I could see that one hanging in the window.

The clerk countered "uhhh, we're out of Superman, all i have is Wonder Woman" and my mother again, repeated exactly that. In a knee jerk reaction, I said "Ok" but immediately regretted that decision.

The best picture i could find of it.

I spent that entire vacation laying on that towel making sure to cover every inch of that image, lest someone saw my shame. At the time, I couldn't begin to figure out why I felt this way, I was thousands of miles away from anyone I knew.

What I realize now, is that it wasn't that I didn't like Wonder Woman, far from it, it was because I had a crush on her. I wanted that towel.

Oh and don't assume it's because of Linda Carter, that's a safe bet but not the case. This was the apple of my eye in 1977:

Yup, you're looking at one of my first loves, Superfriends Wonder Woman. Who can blame me. She's probably the reason I've always been a fan of the brunette. (image borrowed from http://www.hannabarberaworld.blogspot.com//)


The towel lasted me decades and eventually just disappeared around college (I still have a terrible, raggedy Star Wars one I can't bear to throw away). So it brought me great joy last year to find this on Ebay, my number two choice finally in my possession. Eventually I'll track down all three, how I'll display them I do not know......

Thanks for reading, if you have a bit of nerd shame you'd like to face please send it on down.