Summer, 1977. I’m 3. My dad asks me if it was my birthday.

“No.”

Is it Christmas? Hannukah?

“No.”

Is it ANY holiday? Arbor Day, maybe?

“I don’t think so.”

Well, he tells me, since it is no holiday at all and most definitely NOT my birthday, then it must be my UNbirthday, and Happy Unbirthday!

And he hands me this. A REMCO Batman Utility Belt. Remco is big into the utility-belt business; they make Wonder Wonder Woman ones, Star Trek ones… they even make utility belts for people who don’t use them, across all manner of continuities: Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse. But today, he hands me this Batman utility belt, out of nowhere. Before I am allowed to open it, he makes me place my right hand on it and raise my left one and give a solemn oath that I will always fight crime and evil and uphold goodness. I take it all very seriously at the time. It would be years later that I read Lewis Carrol and realized he didn’t invent the Unbirthday. In a similar turn of events, I would also later find out that the silly voice he would do around the house when he’d buy ice cream (Hey-a, Josh! Getta you TUTSI-FRUTSI ice-cream!) was a Chico Marx impression.

I came across this page  because I had memory-bubble come up, relating to that big ninja-fight story I wrote down recently.  Reaching back and opening up those memories to try to get them down into words kind of stirred the sediment in the tank, so to speak. I had a clear image of playing with a toy rifle that had  a secret compartment and shot hollow ping-pong-like balls that were meant to hold secret messages, some of which would then deploy parachutes. The name “Secret Seven” was in my head, but that wasn’t quite it. I had no idea how to begin even Googling for this; searching for rifles and guns and vintage toys will get you five million results to sift through. And who knew if this random thing was even on the internet?

Then I remembered the awesome site PlaidStallions.com existed. It is run by a guy who makes me look like a know-nothing when it comes to nostalgia, which is a feat. I sent him an email and he responded super-quickly that it sounded like the REMCO System 7 rifle, and wouldn’t you know, he had a scanned 1978 REMCO catalog on his site. I leafed through it, virtually, in any case, and saw that utility belt, and it summoned up that scene with such stark clarity. I could draw you the layout of furniture in our living room, there in our old apartment, way back when.

A really nice gift from both the universe in general, and PlaidStallions in specific.  Check them out, they’ve got a real treasure-trove of information up there. Those are the kind of “all-for-love” sites that make me heart the internet so much.