The Slice: Some toys never really go away

Millwood’s Pam Hansen shared this.

“Back in the 1960s, one of my favorite possessions was a Spirograph, the drawing toy used to make geometric designs. I left it in my parents’ house when I moved out on my own around 1980; that house has long since sold.

“In April, a friend’s daughter bought a Spirograph in a thrift store and found my maiden name (first, middle and last) written in three different colored markers on the bottom of the box.”

Shattered: “As a newlywed, I couldn’t wait to show off my new dishware to our good friends,” wrote Alana Kaplan. “I invited Bev and Bob over for dinner and shortly after their arrival I picked up a new dinner plate and showed it to Bob.”

Alana told him the plates were virtually indestructible and dared him to drop one on the kitchen floor.

So he did.

“The plate exploded like a light bulb and all that was left of my indestructible plate was a puff of fine white mist and a gritty sand-like substance all over the kitchen floor.

“Forty-two years later we are still laughing about it.”

A couple more couples stories: “He went to LC and I went to Ferris,” wrote Pam Galloway. “We met at a slab dance, dated in high school, went to the prom, got married after a year of college, lucked out and will celebrate 49 years in September.”

Bob Auvil shared this. “This August we will be celebrating our 59th wedding anniversary. We were both boarding students, me at Gonzaga High School (back when it was located on the Gonzaga University campus), and she at Holy Names Academy. We met at one of the ‘boarders dances’ which were held between the two schools every few months.”

Looking ahead to those summer vacation driving trips: Ron Hardin sent this email.

“Years ago, our kids often asked the question as we traveled by car, ‘Are we there yet?’

“Our response sometimes was ‘We’re on the outskirts of (one town or another).’

“Then, our son Chris would say, ‘Tell me when we get to the inskirts.’

“Ever since then, ‘inskirts’ has been part of our vocabulary.”

Warm-up question: Is worrying about tire pressure all the time the same as living a full, rich life?

Today’s Slice question: What are the chances your kid’s wedding announcement will appear in the New York Times?

Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Sometimes you don’t remember why you intended to get rid of a garment until you wear it to work.