Some Grown-Ups Go Silly for Buying Putty in Bulk

Wall Street Journal ^ | 9/10/02 | Susan Warren

[Xenalyte]

Among the usual paperclips and pencils cluttering the desk of textile-plant engineer Jeff Kivert is a new necessity: 50 pounds of Silly Putty.

The allure of such a wad is difficult for Mr. Kivert, of Whitehall, Pa., to explain. "To hold a pound of it in your hand, it's unbelievable," he says. A pound is about the size of a softball. Ten pounds is bigger than your head.

[Xenalyte]

And if you must get yer putty on, here's the site:

http://www.sillyputty.com/

[MotleyGirl70]

For heavy users, big quantities are essential.

"People would come by my cubicle, hand me $20, and I would bring them over to the cabinet and measure out their dose," he says. "It felt very much like I was pushing something illegal."

Can you make a moose out of silly putty? I can!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I recall using this stuff to roll over comic book pictures. You could make a perfect (altho reversed) copy of the printed page.

[MotleyGirl70]

This is a seriesly silly story.

[MotleyGirl70]

Yep, I remember doing that with pictures.

Do you remember Shrinky Dinks?

[Xenalyte]

Shrinky Dinks and Colorforms, yep!

[Xenalyte]

Silly Putty ping!

[boris]

"Can you make a moose out of silly putty? I can!"

I make cheese. Or is that Play-Doh?

[MotleyGirl70]

Etch-A-Sketch and Weebles are where it's at. :)

[general_re]

"People would come by my cubicle, hand me $20, and I would bring them over to the cabinet and measure out their dose," he says. "It felt very much like I was pushing something illegal."

"Whaddaya mean you're out? Dude, I gotta have my fix. I'll take anything you've got - shavings, anything. Come on, man - I'm jonesing bad here. I can't get through the morning without lifting 'Beetle Bailey'..."

[general_re]

Weebles are where it's at. :)

I got mine to fall down once. I hit it with my dad's hammer - I should sue the Weebles people for false advertising ;)

[Xenalyte]

And don't forget the Fisher-Price people!

[MotleyGirl70]

I got mine to fall down once. I hit it with my dad's hammer - I should sue the Weebles people for false advertising ;)

Maybe you should just ask for a government ban on all Weebles claiming distess as child because yours wouldn't "fall down" and your feelings were hurt. :)

[Revelation 911]

our toolgrinder at work wraps the tool to be ground (near the chuck) to minimize chatter -

great stuff - I still search it out of my kids rooms - especially for copying Dick Tracey cartoons

[jlogajan]

I hit it [Weeble] with my dad's hammer

Never ever hit silly putty with a hammer near a carpeted area.

[paulklenk]

I think these people are

Just being,

(Silly)

[general_re]

Maybe you should just ask for a government ban on all Weebles claiming distess as child because yours wouldn't "fall down" and your feelings were hurt.

I foresee a massive class-action suit here - those Weebles surely traumatized everyone who owned one ;)

[MotleyGirl70]

And don't forget the Fisher-Price people!

I loved the Fisher-Price people. They fit so snug in those little cars.

My favorite was the first one; the girl with the ruffled white collar.

[general_re]

Never ever hit silly putty with a hammer near a carpeted area.

Do I detect the voice of experience here?

[Texaggie79]

Just goes to show, that after all these years, guys still like to play with their putty.........

[steve in DC]

Bump for later!

[Revelation 911]

Etch-A-Sketch and Weebles are where it's at. :)

no way - corgi batmobile model #267 (1966 version) - now THAT was a toy ! -lets not forget lincoln logs, erector sets and Evil Knievel stunt motorcycle with action figure, Stretch Armstrong, and Duncan yo yo's

[Xenalyte]

Okay, if you're gonna go down THAT road, I see your Stretch Armstrong, and I raise you . . .

A Shogun Warrior!

[Focault's Pendulum]

My self portrait.

[MotleyGirl70]

no way - corgi batmobile model #267 (1966 version) - now THAT was a toy ! -lets not forget lincoln logs, erector sets and Evil Knievel stunt motorcycle with action figure, Stretch Armstrong, and Duncan yo yo's

I remember my older brother had Lincoln Logs. He also had some pretty cool Tonka Toys (trucks, cranes, etc...).

We had Tetherball too. Fun stuff!

[FatherTorque]

Wanna get nostalgic sometime? Head on over to Ebay and start searching for all the toys you had when you were a kid.

We spent about 4 hours last Christmas eve doing that and found all kinds of stuff that we had forgotten about.

[Revelation 911]

YOU are a product of the eighties (snort) - go back to your roots young luke skywalker - try the Fantastic Four

or the "Thunderbirds"

[FreedomFarmer]

I'm gonna be rich!

www.CowPutty.moo

[Cagey]

"High Five!" .....David "Putty".

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I had a foot locker full of comic books in the late 50's--some were really early issues, including Capt. Marvel and some others no longer in print. I could roll a picture of the good Captain and transfer it onto a sheet of white paper with Silly Putty, making my own letterhead, which I thought was pretty cool.
Sadly, when we packed up to return to the states in 1961, my mom tossed all the comics to make room for samuri swords or occupied Japan pottery or something else I though was equally worthless. I could have retired on what those comics would be worth today.

[July 4th]

Some say ricocheting it off their office walls helps them think

Let's hope, for safety's sake and for the sake of the walls in the office, that the users aren't bouncing 2-pound chunks of the stuff off the wall.

[MotleyGirl70]

YOU are a product of the eighties (snort)

Child from '80's

You know what "Sike" means.

You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, Wax off."

You know that another name for a keyboard is a "Synthesizer."

You can sing the McDonald's Big Mack, Filet-o-fish, quarterpounder, and French fry song.

You know who Mr. T is.

You know who Fat Albert is. And who was old boy with the pink mask?

You ever wore fluorescent, neon clothing.

You could breakdance, or wish you could.

You wanted to be The Hulk for Halloween.

You Believed that "By the power of Greyskull, you HAD the power!"

Partying "like it's 1999" seemed SO far away.

You thought that Transformers were more than meets the eye.

You knew that knowing is half the battle.

You wanted to be on Star Search.

You can remember Michael Jackson when he was black.

You wore a banana clip at some point during your youth.

You remember the garbage pail kids, and owned some.

You knew what Willis was "talkin' 'bout." Rut row raggy and Zoinks

You HAD to have your MTV.

You actually thought "Dirty Dancing" was a REALLY good movie.

You remember when ATARI was a state of the art video game system.

You owned any cassettes.

You were led to believe that in the year 2000 we'd all be living on the moon. Instead we're sending people to live on deserted islands with nothing but the clothes on their backs for 39 days vying for a million dollars

You remember and/or owned any of the Care Bear Glass collection from Pizza Hut or the Muppets glasses from McDonalds and drank out of the with a crazy straw :)

Poltergeist freaked you out.

You knew who Ben Stein was before you could win his money,"Bueller?"

You carried your lunch to school in a Gremlins, ET, Dukes of Hazard,Knight Rider, Strawberry Shortcake or A-Team lunch box.

You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the ONLY female smurf.

You know what leg warmers are and probably had a pair.

You wore biker shorts underneath a short skirt and felt stylish.

You wore your Izod shirt with the collar up. Or you wore two different color IZOD shirts at the same time with both collars up

You had a Swatch Watch with the Swatch Guard.

Your Legos collection started with the free sets in a Happy Meal.

You remember when Happy Meals came in a box, not a paper bag.

You remember when Saturday Night Live was funny.

You had Wonder Woman or Superman underoos.

You know what a "Push Up" ice cream is.

You had to come in the house when the street lights came on.

You had to change into *play* clothes after school.

You owned, or knew somebody with a Commodore 64.

You hated Scrappy Doo.

You recorded songs off the radio with your boom box.

You wish you had a light saber. Somehow you still know all the words to songs played on VH1's "Big 80's"

Your arm was full of rubber bracelets. Tied together of course

You have ever said, "Gag me with a spoon."

You have ever wondered what happened to Saturday morning cartoons.

You had to get up to change the channel. "you were the remote control"

You can still sing 1 to 12 from the Pinball machine on Sesame Street.

The 80's. What a great decade to be a kid.

[cuz_it_aint_their_money]

Unfortunately, the phrase "Flame-On!" carries an entirely different meaning now-a-days.

[jenny65]

Etch-A-Sketch rocked, but TINKERTOYS were the best. My grandma would buy a new can every summer (this was in the 70's), so we had a HUGE box of them in the attic to build some monsterous stuff. My brother was the best at it. He'd build whole amusment parks in the flower garden.

A lot of them got lost in the back yard. Every time my grandpa would mow the lawn, he'd invariably hit a piece - THWUMP!

The "modern" Tinkertoys suck. All plastic, and nothing like the kind we used.

It's fascinating that we could get so much pleasure as kids out of the simplest of toys. To make something using your own imagination was so satisfying. Today, kids have it all done for them. Video games require no imagination whatsoever. Even the toys are boring to them after a while. I went to a toy store a while back to get a box of Legos for my nephew, and all I could find were the "kits" that built into a plane or a spaceship or whatever. No "generic" Legos at all. No wonder there's such an edidemic of kids being diagnosed with ADHD and other behavioral problems. I think it's the instant gratification that's the problem.

I suppose though, that toys like Tinkertoys and Legos aren't a big money-maker for the manufacturers. After all, who would need to buy anything else when a kid can make it all himself?

[Taliesan]

The 80's. What a great decade to be a kid.

I'm sure that's true. Because, in America, every decade is great to be kid in.

In many parts of the globe that isn't true.

[petuniasevan]

"People would come by my cubicle, hand me $20, and I would bring them over to the cabinet and measure out their dose," he says. "It felt very much like I was pushing something illegal."

Gimme a dime bag.

[Constitution Day]

My favorite when I was a kid:

It also had the COOLEST intro:

Six Million Dollar Man Intro

Tracking: It looks good at NASA One.

Control: Uh, Roger.

Steve: DCS arm switch is on.

Control: OK, Victor.

Steve: Landing rocket arm switch is on. Here comes the throttle. Circuit breaker's in.

Tracking: We have separation.

Steve: Roger. Inboard and outboards are on. We're comin' forward with the sidestick.

Tracking: All looks good.

Control: Uh, Roger.

Steve: I've got a blowout. Damper three.

Control: Get your pitch to zero.

Steve: Engine's out. I can't hold altitude.

Control: Correction. Alpha hold is off. Trip select is emergency.

Steve: Flightcom, I can't hold it. She's breaking up. She's break……..

Kaboooooooooooooom.

Steve Austin. Astronaut. A man barely alive.

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.
We have the technology.
We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man.

Steve Austin will be that man.
We can make him better than he was before.

Better. Stronger. Faster.

[MotleyGirl70]

Bionic Woman (Lindsey Wagner) and Wonder Woman (Linda Carter).

I use to watch Little House on the Prairie with my mom after school. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Do you remember Fury (the black horse) series?

[Constitution Day]

I used to watch Bionic Woman & Wonder Woman, also Little House, but I don't remember "Fury".
Is the "70" in your screen name your birth year?

[MotleyGirl70]

Is the "70" in your screen name your birth year?

Yes

[NeoCaveman]

All your silly putty are belong to us!

[Constitution Day]

I was born in '70 too! Check your FRmail.

[Revelation 911]

The 80's. What a great decade to be a kid.

I beg to differ my friend - the prime years were 1967 to 1971 - we saw the Monkees, Batman (& batgirl yum), the Green Hornet,Deputy Dawg, Gunsmoke, Ponderosa, Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom with Marlon Perkins, Wonderful World of Disney,Bannana splits, Lancelot Link, Josie and the Pussycats, Scooby, ....and any looney tune, little rascals or Laurel and Hardy short - yes - Wonder Woman was in there somewhere (time & date unimportant)

[longshadow]

"Whaddaya mean you're out? Dude, I gotta have my fix. I'll take anything you've got - shavings, anything. Come on, man - I'm jonesing bad here. I can't get through the morning without lifting 'Beetle Bailey'..."

Soon, there will be Congressional hearings, with obligatory testimony from recovering "Putty" addicts about the evils of Silly Putty. Laws will be passed. Federal agencies created. And the PEA (Putty Enforcement Agency) will soon have undercover agents roaming the country rounding up Putty users, as prices sky-rocket and gangs and organized crime fight each other over inner-city "Putty turf" ......

sound familiar?

[general_re]

There'll be a lot of money to be made in the WOSP, though, on both sides ;)

[Hap]

I personally preferred Spyrograph and Lite Brite. :)

[Dementon]

You owned any cassettes.

LOL

I still have about 200 that I mean to convert to mp3's (or download from the internet).

And you forgot the Rubix Cube. I still have mine.

[longshadow]

There'll be a lot of money to be made in the WOSP, though, on both sides ;)

That has a familiar ring to it...... I can't imagine why....

[MotleyGirl70]

You owned any cassettes.

Foreigner (Foreigner Four Records) LOL!

Michael Jackson (Thriller)

Edie Brickelle and The New Bohemian's

Amongst many others. I have no idea where these CD's are anymore. I hope they found a good home.