Kirk's Knook ©
Episode 16: Flashback Reminiscing.

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Welcome back DIN readers, it's tuesday and I'm still digging out from the blizzard of '03 and I can hear TJ snickering in the background singing his "I'm in Miami, it's 80 degrees, Yea, Yea Yea" theme song. Anyway in contrast to last weeks "Reality Rant" this week will be a tame childhood flashback of sorts.

Last Thursday, before the nasty winter weather buried those of us living in the DC Metropolitan Area and forcing the Government to Close down for a week (OK maybe just 2 or 3 days), I went to KFC (one of those KFC/Taco Bells which was originally just a KFC and was a Ginos back in the day) to get a scrumptous tender roasted chicken sandwich and a delish Grand Supreme Chicken Bourito with a large Dr. Pepper. Normally I pull up to the drive-thru but this night there was too long a line so I walked in and only had to wait a few minutes behind a couple that was paying for their meal with A credit card! So I place my order and while I'm waiting for them to cook it and stuff it into the bag, I notice their current kids meal is called something like "Kids Lap Top adventure meal" which is served in flat rectanglular boxes with a top that flips up front to back, thus the "lap top" title. I then had an immediate flashback to my own childhood.

BACK in the early to mid 1970's there was a fast food burger franchise called "Burger Chef" in the DC area. I recall that they had good burgers, I think a fish sandwich, maybe chicken and some real good milk shakes. Anyway they used to have some "Fun Meals" way before I recall McDonalds ever having a "Happy Meal". These happy/fun meals during one particular season were served in flat boxes that opened on the top just like the KFC's "LapTop" meals of today. I seem to think that they always were flat boxes as oppossed to Micky D's square Happy Meal boxes, but to get back to my story, one partiuclar summer (1975) the boxes doubled as a baseball game. There was a punchout slit where you could put your straw to play the game. I don't remember the exact details of how you played but the big selling point of the game was that it came with round baseball discs you could punch out, (similar to the popular "Crane" Discs but smaller, ask a Baseball card collector or dealer for details about the "Crane" discs) one side of the disc had the headshot photo of baseball players and the other side had pictures of the "Burger Chef" Characters playing baseball including "Burger Chef and Jeff" they may have been the original "Comic Ball".
I believe that each box had a total of 9 discs and each box seemed to be just players from one team. You could place the discs in the field positions on the box while playing the game I've managed to keep the discs I had collected (I wish I had saved one of the boxes as well as the discs), I don't recall how many were in the series. I'm not sure if these have made it to the famous "Beckett's Price Guide" for baseball cards but I think they have. I have thought of selling them from time to time but then I take another sentimental childhood journey and think hey these things are pretty cool and have a story to tell.

By the way, this weekend my A:drive (floppy disk drive) seems to have died, it is still recognized in the windows explorer but when I try to read disks I get an error "A:/ is not accessible. The device is not ready". In DOS I get that awful "Abort, Retry, Fail" message that only allows aborting or failing. WHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!. If any computer people know of some proceedure that might help, please email me. I hope I don't have to buy a new one but might have to. BTW my computer with the problem is a laptop.

Well I think that's about it for now.
Thank You and See Ya! Next Week,

Kirk

"Yeah, they're freezin' up in Buffalo,
Stuck in their cars, and I'm lyin' here 'neath the sun and the stars"
- Jimmy Buffett MAÑANA

Comments on, suggestions about and raspberries of disappointment to Kirk's Knook should be emailed directly to me here at AOL and not to Editor TJ. Please be sure to mention the DIN or "Kirk's Knook" in your subject line. If you'd like to know a little more about me and see some other writtings of mine check out my site Nesredna's Knook over at Yahoo/Geocities.

UPDATED NOTES: 27 April, 2007: This Episode of Kirk's Knook appears mostly in it's original form. It appeared in TJ Maher's blog/newsletter/email Your Daily Irish News (Now called Daily Irish News The DIN for short). The original version had all the font faces in bold and Blue. The title was "two-toned" Black letters with Red Cap letters.

KAsym.gif and Nesredna's Knook Logo created by Kirk L. Andersen.
Original Kirk's Knook logo by Kirk L. Andersen Circa 2003.

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Added to Nesredna's Knook on 21 March, 2003
Updated on 29 June, 2007

Kirk's Knook © Episode 16: Flashback Reminiscing.

Kirk's Knook ©
Episode 16: Flashback Reminiscing.