h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Remember "Slinky"(before it became plastic)?.Pick up sticks,barrel of monkeys? Does anyone remember the white and black dogs that were magnets that you could place one on and one under a table and move them around? Do you remember the little dog that had a string with a small weight attached....you hung the weight over the edge of the table and it made the dog walk as the weight went down? How about edible creepy crawlers? YUM!!!....those were the days *sigh*

Yea, the metal Slinky made a great noise which the plastic one can't compete with... Pick up sticks you can still get. We used to play it on a round table, so you could prowl around the game and examine the lie of the sticks from every angle, but it's all good on the floor and less likely to be surreptitiously knocked by other (cheating) players. And I noticed the B&W dogs lying on a window sill in my mother's house at the weekend. I think they made a mistake with the magnets in them, because they used to repel nose to tail, whereas anyone who's watched dogs knows that that's the first thing they do...

LOL Spiney...yeah I guess they should have had you design the dog magnets! Do they still make the wooden pick up sticks? All I see are plastic ones these days.

Yes to all of the above. I had the little fox terriers (or were they snausers? ) too... Somewhere they still exist, although I think one of them has been removed from it's magnet.

We bought a set of Pick up Sticks not so long ago which were wood. They come in a lovely old-fashioned looking cardboard tube - maybe one of the older toy shops like Hamley's in London would have them? Of course you could always try making your own with wooden cooking skewers dipped in paint. Of course, you'd need to whittle out the hooked ones.

Scotties! They were Scottie dogs. Mine were floating around somewhere too...but cant remember when I last saw them.

Yep, Scotties, or should that be "West Highland Terriers?" The pair I had were black and white, which leads me to wonder if they weren't promotional toys for the well-known Scotch whisky, Black and White, which had a monochromatic pair of dogs on the label. If not, someone missed a great marketing opportunity...

And just to digress a second, hey Freezergal, I see that "LOL" all over forums - what's that stand for then?

Laughing Out Loud

I don't know where they came from ... originally. Dad brough ours home from work, and they used to sit in the kitchen window.

Aha! *dons Deerstalker hat and inserts pipe in mouth* So all we need to to know is your father's occupation and we have a valuable clue to the Black and White Dog Mystery! *realises he's not much of a detective if he couldn't work out LOL, removes props*

Heehee... I doubt that would help you anyway. At the time, Dad was a truck-driver and brought a -lot- of weird things home from the 'office' ....

Ah yes, the "office" in the back of the cab! Lots of interesting stuff in there, I'll bet.

Erm.. Sorry.. No doghouse on the company trucks. Layovers meant hotels.

You're not from round here, are you? Why do I get the feeling you might be from the US? Actually by "back of the cab" I meant the trailer. Far be it from me to suggest your dad had interesting goings-on in the "doghouse"!

*blush* ... And I was doing so well hiding out, too.