Fad In - Fad Out

The homestead has been infected by the Silly Bandz Bracelet Craze.

I should know better, when Jordan comes to me with that sweet, injured puppy dog, loving attitude, instead of the " I know I'm 8 years old, but I will be 16 soon, stop talking to me you big goober, approach", and she asked me for $5, how could I resist. I even spent part of my day driving around looking for these expensive rubber bands, all because of that look she gives me.
I spent $4.99 for 24 rubber bands, multiplied by 2, because the boy is also into them.
At Staples®, you can get 460 Economy Rubber Bands for $1.99. That's a 1/4 pound of rubber bands. Or go for the 1-lb bag and you have, 2,360 bands. I know if I tried to explain that to the kids, I would receive that, "your a goober" look.

I know when I was a student in the 60s, at Vernon Elementary School, we collected baseball cards, And I did not even like baseball. We would walk across Rt30 to The Charrest Esso Station and buy a pack for a nickle. On the play ground we would gamble with others to try and win their cards away from them. We had games like, pitching/flipping, which could be compared to pitching pennies against a wall. The big games were colors, or teams. This was were you would turn over cards onto a pile, and who ever matched colors or the teams, depending on what you were playing, would win the pile.
I always did good on the play ground, but at home I would lose them to my older brother. He convinced me I was unable to see true colors and I had a form of colorblindness, I now know Magenta and Green are not the same. I lost thousands, if not millions of cards to him. I heard he may trade them for a beach house when he retires.

I can't forget my all time favorite, The Rat Fink. These little tokens came in many colors and we got them from gum ball machines. To this day I am hooked on the Little Rat Finks. Occasionally I regress back to my childhood and go onto ebay and look at the Rat Finks. I once saw a nice collection of 9 different color finks, sell for $400.( no honey, I did not bid)

The kids understand our rules about the Silly Bandz, You can wear a few at a time to school, "but" if they become a issue at school, they become a issue at home.

And if I should ever win the Powerball, I will commission two, twenty foot, solid plastic purple Rat Finks, one for my field, and one for the lot I will buy next to my brothers house.