Random memories

Do you ever randomly recall something from your childhood and wonder why the hell you are hanging on to that thought? I do it all the time. In fact, my husband says I remember way too much about growing up and that if I'd clear my head of all that unnecessary stuff, I might regain some of my short term memory. No matter what I do though, I always just randomly think of something and then it starts triggering all kinds of crazy memories.

Today, my nephew was watching a show on Nickelodeon called Brain Surge. He was explaining it to me and got really excited when the first two eliminated kids had to take a ride down the "Brain Drain" which, it turns out, is a slide filled with some sort of whipped cream/shaving cream looking substance. The foam also shoots down from the top of the slide, so that the kids are completely covered in it by the time they reach the end. My nephew was, of course, cheering the entire time, which I'm sure any 6 year old would do. *Side note-I just had one of those random childhood thoughts. Correct me if I'm wrong, but was there an episode of Clarissa Explains It All in which Clarissa and her annoying brother Ferguson were on a game show together, and upon losing, had to take a ride down the "Brain Drain"? The idea seems eerily familiar, but since that show was also on Nickelodeon, I guess it's not so far fetched that an idea from our generation would be recycled into an idea for the current generation. Anyway...where was I?

Oh yeah, so I was watching this show and the kids getting all gunked up and it made me remember a show that was the absolute most awesome game show that I ever had the pleasure of turning my mind to mush with. Double Dare. Or better yet, Family Double Dare. Or how about the one with D.J. Tanner? I always thought the wacky dares they had to do were so wild and crazy, and I wished with every fiber of my being that I could somehow wake up in Orlando and be on a team for Double Dare. Of course, I wasn't taking into account my knack for absolutely sucking in anything remotely close to sports or sport like activity. Obviously, many of the dares involved such activities, as it was highly likely that the matronly mother on FDD would go slipping and sliding through the green slime and end up in a position she most likely would not have found very flattering for national television. This made for excellent ratings among children, I am sure. So for this reason, there was one challenge I wanted to do so very badly: The final double dare challenge with the giant gumball machine. You remember...didn't it look so fun??? This seemed a good fit for me, as it clearly took very little skill and a whole lot of luck to find the flag in that ball pit.

My entire childhood I think I truly believed that some day, I would get my chance to jump into the giant pit of plastic colored balls, grab the orange flag, and slide down through the dispenser, winning the grand prize for my team. It's only now at 26 (almost 27...eek!) that I realized that I'll never get the chance. Of course, with my luck, they would resurrect this show, my family would somehow be chosen to participate, and the only challenge I would get to do is to pick the giant nose.