Trails End Popcorn

Twenty-six years ago, I started a career in Scouting, and it got me all the way to Eagle Scout.

One of the things we did to afford our annual trips to camp was selling Trails End popcorn in collector's tins, door to door. Caramel, cheese, plain, cinnamon...a lot of flavors. 

Trails End, like most other companies, rang in the new millennium with one of their tins.

It's more of a way to close out the 20th Century, but the sentiment still holds true. As you can see, the timeline ends at 2000.

Limited Edition Millennium Bear

I bought this gorgeous little bear at a secondhand shop a couple of years ago. It's surprisingly well-made for something  that would have been sold at Factory Card Outlet. The little jumpsuit has durable crushed-velveteen appliqués of roses, and his little top hat has a plastic structure underneath it.

He comes bearing a little double picture frame for you and your significant other's millennium memories:

 

But the main attraction is his certificate of authenticity. It's so pompous that it left me helpless with laughter in the store:

"Congratulations! You are the proud owner of a SPECIAL EDITION MILLENNIUM KEEPSAKE BEAR

Issued Once Every Thousand Years, this Edition is Truly a Collectable Heirloom to be Treasured for Years to Come.--Master Toy Designer, Lee Capozzi"

So if you didn't get it the first time around, then bad luck for you; you'll have to wait until the year 3000 for the next one. Hmm.

A cursory search for "Lee Capozzi" reveals that there are a few variants of this bear. One of them comes packaged in full tuxedo in a two-pack with a girl in matching dress; one wears a purple tux; and one is in blue, but with a mug. I believe that the overall design was reused to create a Christmas bear in red and green tux. 

A "Limited Edition" for any definition of "Limited."

Chuck E. Cheese

 Ugh, I've been in a right funk all year. Been running around doing Instacart.

Right. Let's get into gear.

A brief history of Chuck E. Cheese, in which I make a lot of sweeping generalizations:

IN THE BEGINNING, there was an arcade game called Computer Space. Released by Nutting Entertainment in 1971, it was the creation of Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who went on to found Atari and release the smash hit Pong. 

Bushnell noticed that Atari's video games were most commonly found in places where a kid could not be a kid: beer-soaked taverns and smoky bowling alleys. He sought to rectify this with a pizza parlor where animatronic characters would call out when orders were ready. Thus was born Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre.

The first restaurant proved a big enough hit to attract the attention of Bob Brock, owner of Holiday Inn franchise company Topeka Inn Management. But Brock booed Bushnell's 'bots, and he turned to a young man named Aaron Fechter, whose animatronics proved far superior. Thus, Brock founded Showbiz Pizza Place, which had its own set of characters, spearheaded by a ballyhooed bear named Billy Bob.

Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz duked it out until CEC filed for bankruptcy, at which point Showbiz bought its competitor. Problem: Aaron Fechter owned Showbiz's band, whereas CEC owned its own IP. Thus, the Showbiz brand took its final bow in the early 90s, leaving old Chucko as the last man--sorry, mouse--standing.

We used to have a CEC on 95th and Pulaski. Never went there. *tsk* 

So this is the Chuck E. Cheese Millennium Time Capsule. It's fairly run-of-the-mill, a capsule with a large sticker on it. Still, not too bad for something that probably cost 500 tickets.