Description: According to various legends, the Loveland Frogman was first sighted by a traveling salesman driving along an unnamed Loveland, Ohio road late at night in 1955. In one story, the driver was heading out of the Branch Hill neighborhood when he spotted three figures stood erect on their hind legs along the side of the road, each 3 to 4 feet in height, with leathery skin and frog faces. In other versions of the story, the creatures were spotted under or over a poorly lit bridge, and one held a wand over its head that fired a spray of sparks. In 1972, the Loveland Frogman legend gained renewed attention when a Loveland police officer reported to a colleague that he had seen an animal consistent with descriptions of the frogman.
Description: Vortex was a steel roller coaster located at the KI amusement park in Mason, Ohio. Designed and manufactured by Arrow Dynamics at a cost of $4 million, the ride officially opened to the public on April 11, 1987. Vortex debuted as the tallest, full-circuit roller coaster in the world, with a height of 148 feet. It was also the first coaster to feature six inversions. Vortex occupied the same location in the park once held by The Bat, the world's first suspended roller coaster. Tied to the coaster's debut, attendance at KI exceeded 3 million in 1987 for the first time. It accommodated more than 46 million guests throughout its lifespan, making Vortex one of the most frequently-ridden attractions in park history before closing in 2019.
Description: 1988's Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (also known as The Imp) is an American comedy horror film loosely based on the classic short story, The Monkey's Paw. Notable for starring three of the '80s biggest scream queens, the film had a limited release in January 1988 and was later released to home video. Over the years, the film gained recognition as a "so-bad-it's-good" cult film. The story centers around a sorority ritual as pledges and their male companions steal a trophy from a bowling alley. Unbeknownst to them, the bowling trophy contains a devilish imp, a sadistic little ghoul with a diabolical sense of humor that makes their lives a living Hell.
Description: Watermelon is the largest vegetable crop grown in South Carolina by acreage, so it would make sense that folks would celebrate these massive veggies. Yes, watermelon are vegetables (part of the cucumber family), though botanically the argument can be made that they are a fruit. Nonetheless, the Hampton County Watermelon Festival is a week-long event that has been held yearly during the watermelon harvest time in the towns of Varnville and Hampton in South Carolina. It features activities for all ages, including watermelon related contests, races, parades, and a tasting event. Visitors can enjoy delicious foods of all kinds and, of course, plenty of free farm fresh watermelon!
Description: Founded in 1971 as the Vancouver Nats of the WCHL, the team moved to Kamloops, British Columbia, to become the Kamloops Chiefs in 1973. In 1977 the team moved to Seattle and was renamed the Seattle Breakers. The Breakers played in the Seattle Center Ice Arena, which had a seating capacity of 4,141 for ice hockey. Through eight seasons, the Breakers finished with a regular season record of 225 wins, 319 losses, 32 ties; and a playoff record of 11 wins and 21 losses, although they twice played in the West Division Finals. After the 1984–85 season, the Breakers were sold and renamed the Thunderbirds.
Description: KLOL FM was a rock station in Houston, Texas that was on the air from 1970 until 2004. The last song broadcast by the legendary station was also the first it ever played, "I'm Free." Like many early rock stations, KLOL began as a free form/progressive outlet, then morphed over the years to AOR and then classic rock. KLOL now airs a Spanish Pop format as Mega 101.
Description: In 1960, the White Motor Company entered the agriculture market with the purchase of the Oliver Farm Equipment Company. In 1962, White acquired the Cockshutt Farm Equipment Company of Canada. White increased its agricultural interests in 1963 with the acquisition of Minneapolis-Moline. In 1969, Oliver, Minneapolis-Moline and Cockshutt were merged to form White Farm Equipment with headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois; White Motor Corporation's headquarters remained in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1975, Oliver, Minneapolis-Moline and Cockshutt were folded into the White brand. The green of Oliver, red of Cockshutt and yellow of Minneapolis-Moline tractors was replaced by the silver tractors of White's Field Boss line.
Description: The wolf howling at the home has long been a symbolic image, and while wolves do indeed howl, it's a myth that they howl at the moon. Howling may be heard at night, but it's not a directed at the moon. Instead, it's used as a social rally call, a hail to hunt, or as a territorial expression. A howl can even help a lost wolf find its way home. A wolf separated from its pack uses a “lonesome howl” — a shortened call that rises in pitch. If answered, the wolf then responds with deep, even howls to inform the pack of its location. Additionally, individual wolves have different howls that can be heard and identified by other wolves up to seven miles away.
Description: La Monja Poseida (The Nun Possessed) is the title of the Spanish release of To the Devil a Daughter, a 1976 British-West German horror film directed by Peter Sykes, starring Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Nastassja Kinski and Denholm Elliott. It is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley. The story follows an American occult novelist as he battles to save the soul of a young girl from a group of Satanists, led by an excommunicated priest, who plan on using her as the representative of the Devil on Earth.
Description: CompUSA was a retailer and reseller of personal computers, consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. Starting with one brick-and-mortar store in 1984 under the name Soft Warehouse, by the '90s CompUSA had grown into a nationwide big box chain with at least 229 locations at it's peak. Crushed by competition from other brick-and-mortar retailers, corporate oversight which was out of touch with evolving market realities, and a failure to make a strong transition to online sales, CompUSA began closing what they classified as low performing locations in 2006. By 2008, only 16 locations were left, and by 2012, the remaining stores had all been sold off.
Description: Con-way Freight was founded as a non-union spinoff by Consolidated Freightways (CF) in 1983 in Ann Arbor Charter Township, Michigan. CF’s business focus was long-haul transportation, with many of its routes averaging 1,300 miles. Research revealed that the most profitable segment of over-the-road transportation at the time was freight that traveled less than 500 miles, so a decision was made to pursue regional LTL operations. While deregulation through the 1980 Motor Carrier Act had left many carriers floundering and desperate for a buyout, CF elected to build Con-way from the ground up. The gamble paid off, and for the next three decades, Con-way Freight flourished, taking them through 2015 until they themselves were bought out.
Description: The Kalashnikov Model 1947, more commonly known as the AK-47, is quite possibly the most widely used shoulder weapon in the world. The initials AK represent Avtomat Kalashnikova, Russian for “automatic Kalashnikov,” for its designer, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, who designed the accepted version of the weapon in 1947. The AK-47 was recognized as being simple to operate, rugged, reliable under trying conditions, and amenable to mass production. Built around a 7.62-mm round with a muzzle velocity of some 700 meters per second, it had a cyclic firing rate of 600 rounds per minute and was capable of both semiautomatic and automatic fire. It has been estimated that some 100 million AKs have been produced—fully half of them outside Russia.
Description: Founded in 1970 in Streator, Illinois, Luckey Trucking was a provider of dry bulk, liquid bulk, dry van transportation, warehousing, and logistics services to the chemical industry. Luckey’s operations included a trucking terminal, tank wash and more than 250 railcar locations. The company also operated warehouses that provided logistics services, and a network of six terminals located in Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
Description: Electra Woman and Dyna Girl is a live action superhero children's television series from 1976. The series aired 16 episodes in a single season, and when released on home video, the 16 segments, which were each about 12 minutes long, were combined into eight episodes. The program followed the crime-fighting exploits of caped superhero Electra Woman and her teen sidekick Dyna Girl, who worked in their normal lives as reporters for Newsmaker Magazine. In each episode, the duo dons brightly-colored spandex costumes, in a bright flash of light called an "Electra-Change;" get into the "ElectraCar;" and use an array of technically-advanced gadgets to thwart an eclectic collection of super villains.
Description: Night Trap is a 1992 video game presented primarily through full-motion video (FMV). Night Trap tasks the player to observe teen girls visiting a house which, unbeknownst to them, is infested with vampires. The player watches live surveillance footage and triggers traps to stop the girls from being harmed. The player can switch between different cameras to keep watch over them and eavesdrop on conversations to follow the story and listen for clues. The game received mixed reviews, with critics praising the B movie quality, humor, and animation, but criticized the gameplay as shallow and limited. The game was one of the principal subjects of a 1993 Senate hearing on violent video games, prompting many retailers to pull the game from shelves.
Description: Good Times is an American television sitcom that aired for six seasons from February 8, 1974, to August 1, 1979. Good Times was a spin-off of Maude, which itself was a spin-off of All in the Family, arguably making Good Times the first television spin-off from another spin-off. Good Times also was television's first African American two-parent family sitcom. The teenage son of the family, J.J., routinely delivered his signature catchphrase when something was to his liking, which was dynamite, pronounced like dyn-o-mite. The catchphrase became synonymous with the character and the actor that portrayed him, all while becoming a pop culture phenomenon of its own.
Description: Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a 96-mile border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. It also contains more than 790 islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands.
Description: Floyd's Barbershop serves as the sole barbershop in the fictional small town of Mayberry, North Carolina. Floyd Lawson is the proud proprietor of the shop, and in addition to haircuts and shaves, the shop also serves as a gathering place for many of the men in the town to chat about the goings-on and current events. They often gather there to play checkers and gossip with one another, and women may occasionally enter the barber shop, this is seen as somewhat taboo and is a rare occurrence.
Description: The legacy of the Sacramento Mile goes all the way back to 1959 when Grand National champion Carroll Resweber captured the first main at the California State Fairgrounds. Since that historic event, every top flat track motorcycle racer in the world has competed at the California Capitol City's legendary dirt oval, doing battle at speeds topping 140 miles per hour.
Description: Debuting as a show car in 1989, the Viper supercar entered production and was released as a 1992 model. Introduced as a two-seat roadster, the Viper's key source of attention was it's massive 8.0-liter aluminum V-10 engine making 400hp mated with a six-speed manual transmission. Early Viper models lacked basic amenities such as sliding side windows and even outside door handles. In 1996, the Viper received more power, a stiffer chassis and the addition of a coupe body style choice. The 1996 Viper GTS Coupe received a more powerful 450hp.
Description: Cosmic Ark is a video game published by Imagic in 1982. The objective is to gather specimens from different planets in a spaceship which contains the survivors from the city of Atlantis. There are two versions of the cartridge. One allows the player to toggle the starfield display on and off with the Black & White / Color TV switch, and another which the starfield cannot be disabled. The first stage has the player fending off meteor showers from all four sides of the screen by pushing the joystick to fire in the desired direction, similar to the 1980 arcade game Space Zap. The second stage requires the player to pilot a shuttle to a planet and use its tractor beam to pick up life forms.
Description: Rum production has been an important part of Puerto Rico since the 16th century. While sugar cane harvesting has virtually disappeared in Puerto Rico (except for a few isolated farms), distilleries around the island still produce large amounts of rum every year, including 70% of the rum consumed in the United States. Puerto Rico has laws that lay out requirements defining Puerto Rican rum: It has to be made with molasses from sugar cane juice, must be produced using a continuous column still, be aged for a minimum of one year in white oak barrels, and lastly, it must be distilled and aged in Puerto Rico.
Description: When David J. Heerensperger took over the Pay 'N Pak, it was an eight-year-old, $15 million-a-year company. By the time the reins were passed to his successor 20 years later in 1989, he had grown Pay 'N Pak to a $400 million-a-year company. Instead of simply retiring, Heerensperger decided to start over. Just two months after resigning from Pay 'N Pak, he incorporated his new company, calling it Eagle Hardware & Garden, resurrecting the name of the hardware store he founded in Spokane in 1959. With a motto of "More of Everything," Eagle's stores were bigger than the competition, averaging 120k square feet. Heerensperger grew Eagle rapidly, taking the company public inside of two years, and by 1995, was a $650 million-a-year company.
Description: Tales from the Hood is a 1995 horror anthology film that presents four short urban-themed horror stories based on problems that affect the African-American community. Segments include police corruption, domestic abuse, racism, and gang violence, all presented within a frame story of three drug dealers buying some "found" drugs from an eccentric and story-prone funeral director. Critical reception for Tales from the Hood has always been pretty mixed, though the film, and it's two sequels, definitely have built up a small cult following.
Description: Honeysuckle Rose (also known as On the Road Again) is a 1980 American romantic drama film that's a loose remake of the 1936 Swedish film Intermezzo. The story centers around Buck Bonham, a country singer, with a good family, struggling to find national fame. He juggles his music career with his responsibilities to his wife and son. He has everything going his way until the daughter of his former guitarist joins his tour. The road leads to temptation, which leads to his downfall.
Description: The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson trial is often characterized as the trial of the century because of its international publicity. The trial spanned eleven months, from November 9, 1994 to October 3, 1995, and is said to be the most publicized criminal trial in human history. The only thing crazier than the televised goings-on in the courtroom was the veritable circus outside. With media from every major country in the world, paparazzi, a curious public, and vendors selling everything from hot dogs to souvenirs, the atmosphere was sheer chaos. This one is a replica of one of the many souvenir designs that were at the ready when the not guilty verdict was read at 10:07 am on Tuesday, October 3, 1995.
Description: The Dallas Tornado was a soccer team based in Dallas, Texas that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1967 to 1981. The franchise was one of the original clubs that played in the United Soccer Association, one of the two precursors to the NASL. Of the twelve teams that comprised the U.S. in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest - a full 15 seasons. Their home fields were Cotton Bowl (1967–1968), P.C. Cobb Stadium (1969), Franklin Field (1970–1971), Texas Stadium (1972–1975, 1980–1981) and Ownby Stadium (1976–1979). The club played Indoor soccer at Reunion Arena for one season (1980–81), and hosted the two-day 1975 Regionals at Fair Park Coliseum.
Description: Custom vans were all the rage in the '70s, and there were shops catering to boogie van lovers from coast-to-coast helping vanners build their dream ride. By the mid '80s, many of those shops had either gone under, or shifted their focus as vans fell out of favor, but for those who kept on trucking, a few standouts kept the flame alive. Miami's Contreras Customs is one such shop that kept building show quality rolling rooms well into the '90s. Sure, they did lots of other custom work too, like traditional lowriders and restomod muscle cars, but continued to support vanners, even going so far as to manufacture many custom parts that could no longer be found.
Description: On November 8, 1968, classic music station 98.5 FM KXRQ emerged from months of silence as KZAP after being purchased by Lee Gahagan. The new free form radio station quickly found its groove and had an immediate impression on the large college crowd in Sacramento. Playing an eclectic mix of rock 'n roll music, KZAP was a very much a college radio station that appealed to a youth audience that had never really bought into the other commercial stations. The station remained extremely progressive, and was the first station in the United States to air a commercial for condoms and was an early adopter of Stereo Quadraphonic sound technology. When Gahagan unexpectedly died in 1972, KZAP settled into an album-oriented rock format.
Description: Founded in 1962 by Stan Thurman, Pay 'n Pak was a home improvement chain based out of Kent, Washington that grew to 112 stores throughout the west in just three decades time. In 1969, Pay 'n Pak began their long history as a sponsor of an unlimited hydroplane racing team that would last through the early '80s. Playing off their racing sponsorship, Pay 'n Pak began offering many branded automotive and marine products in their stores, simply calling them 'Pay 'n Pack Racing Performance Rated.' From spark plugs and sealants and to motor oils and gas cans, the 'Performance Rated' line was a hit with consumers, even outlasting their sponsorship deals.
Description: Man's Ruin Records was an independent record label founded in 1994. The label's eclectic catalog is vast, ranging from the relatively famous, to the lesser known. Man's Ruin prided itself in being the opposite of everything that was wrong with the record industry, keeping their operation very straight forward. They did not make signed contracts with the artists that they released, and profits were split 50-50 between band and label. Recordings were licensed for 2–5 years, and all rights were retained by the bands. The label became began to falter after a combination of events, including having outgrown its original distributor, and losing its lease at the height of the Bay Area Dot-Com boom. This combination led to the label's 2002 demise.
Description: Legend of the Werewolf is a 1975 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis, starring Peter Cushing, Ron Moody, and Hugh Griffith. The film takes place in 19th century Paris, and focuses on a man named Etoile who was raised by wolves. Now working as an assistant to a zookeeper, Etoile appears to have a pretty normal life, but with a full moon, he transforms into a dangerous beast. A series of violent attacks draw the interest of Professor Paul Cataflanque, a skilled forensic pathologist, who initially deduces that they were the work of a wolf, and takes charge of hunting down the attacker.
Description: On March 17, 1981, First Media completed their pourchase of KBLE-FM, and flipped it to an automated Top 40/CHR format as "The Northwest's New 93 FM." On July 8, 1981, KBLE officially launched with live on-air staff. On April 2, 1982, the call letters were changed to KUBE, and the station became known as "KUBE 93 FM". Shortly after the switch to Top 40/CHR, KUBE shot up to the top 5 in the Seattle radio market ratings (occasionally reaching #1 in some books and target demographics) and would later become the dominant CHR station in the Seattle metropolitan area. KUBE primarily competed against two other Top 40/CHR stations in the Seattle metropolitan area, creating an intense rivalry between the three stations throughout the '80s.
Description: The prehistoric Stonehenge monument sits on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, and is arguably one of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom. It consists of an outer ring of vertical standing stones, each around 13 feet high, seven feet wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside is a ring of smaller stones. Archaeologists believe that Stonehenge was constructed from around 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Of course, it didn't become cool until '80s souvenirs like this became available, but we think it was worth the wait.
Description: Night of the Creeps is a 1986 science fiction horror comedy that is both an earnest attempt at creating a B movie, and an homage to the genre. The movie did not perform well at the box office, but developed a solid cult following though video rentals. The film's story begins in 1959 as an alien experiment crashes to earth and infects a fraternity member. They freeze the body, but in the modern day, two geeks pledging a fraternity accidentally thaw the corpse, which proceeds to infect the campus with parasites that transform their hosts into killer zombies. The design features Detective Ray Cameron, who comically over uses his catchphrase, 'thrill me' throughout the movie.
