Remco Earthquake Tower

My parents sent me some old pictures.  I forgot about the Remco Earthquake Tower Andrew and I used to play with.  It had these knobs you could turn at each of the white levels to make the sections shake and turn so the poor folks would fall off the tower to their deaths.  And they complain about video games.  Probably not so PC anymore post 9/11.  It made the Cracked.com list of 10 old toys that made sense in their era and nowhere else: "it's important to remind children that you can't save everyone, and people die all the time, because life is arbitrary and ultimately meaningless."

And there was a record that came with it so you could pretend in style (that's a link to a YouTube recording of the noise! Imagine being the lucky parent who gets to listen to that over and over).  These things are upwards of $150-$200 now and very hard to find (surprise, cardboard deteriorates - you'd be better off finding the plastic and reprinting your own).  But below you'll see what they used to cost, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal in 1976, which is probably about when we got ours.

I loved the earthquake tower.  Basically a five foot tall dollhouse for boys where I could pretend to either help or hinder Ernest Borgnine.



Milwaukee Journal, advertising it for all of $12.97.

Casa Bonita - Denver

I'm not sure I liked Casa Bonita.  It seemed a bit cheesy, which is never my favorite motif.  But Eryn loved it and had a great time, and that's what counts.  I can handle a bit of cheesy if it keeps the kid happy.  Casa Bonita is this restaurant in a somewhat rundown part of Denver that has a big tower out front, serves food reminiscent of Don Pablo's, and features entertainment, the highlight of which is local divers from the college who dive off faux cliffs into a deep pool.  There are also western gun fights, a game room, a haunted tunnel (which Eryn refused to traverse after noticing there was a strobe light.  She hates strobe lights), and dancing monkeys, which were actually a dancing ape if you want to be precise in your nomenclature.

Grandma and great grandma walking up to the restaurant.  What you're not seeing is the run down strip mall with almost no one in the cracked parking lot or the couple fighting about lost keys before going to work. But they do a good job of maintaining the tower and fountain area - they looked nice.


The entry area fountain.  Eryn getting a happy picture taken.


Me doing what I do at fountains.  Can't go to lunch half full.


Inside the restaurant watching the divers.  Obviously enjoying herself.


We didn't notice this until later, but there was a very nice area behind the falls in the restaurant (at the back side of the pool) where there were fake rock walls and some booths.  It looked like a good place to have dinner, except I can't imagine Casa Bonita being the place for a romantic evening (lots of kids, and Don Pablo's food factored in).


They had a gift shop, although you could also buy toys on the floor and a waitress was wandering around with toys from table to table. Eryn wanted a "flasher" (her words and Casa Bonita's words, not mine), and got my usual "are you sure?" when confronted with cheap toys. But Grandma was easier to convince and got her this nice laser gun. I include a video so you can appreciate exactly how annoying it was whenever she got it in her head to shoot it for 5 or 10 minutes in the van during the drive.


We took this picture for Eryn's cousin who loves My Little Pony.  I don't think LissyJo would like Casa Bonita, so I'm doing my part to ensure she ends up there.


If there's already a driver, why are you also driving?  Who wins?  The painted guy who's been practicing forever or the kid in the sunroof?  The hole in the wall is fake derelict so you can imagine you're driving through a slum.


A fun time, despite my snarky comments.