Records, CDs and Music:

Sometimes being a bit of a pack rat pays off.

You see about 45 years ago I was given a toy for my eighth birthday. This wasn’t just any toy mind you. It was a bus. A plastic bus.

So what’s the big deal about a plastic bus you say?

I’m glad you asked. Let me take you back a bit.

This would have been January 1974. At the time I was a huge fan of the television show “The Partridge Family”.

Like millions of other teen and pre-teen kids I religiously watched the show every Friday night, along with “The Brady Bunch” and “Nanny and the Professor” (there’s a real blast from the past – you never hear about that show anymore), and bought all their records.

My first blast of Partridge came in 1970 when my older brother Tom and I were shopping with my mother at L.S. Ayres.

I believe we were in their little record section (they had one in those days, a very nice one too). Tom spotted the single for “I Think I Love You” and asked my mom if she would buy it and lo and behold he and I both got a copy.

(Note: Unlike other 4-year-old’s I had a thing for records even at that tender age and probably badgered my mother until she got me one too lol.)

The single came in a groovy picture sleeve and of course I still have it though it’s a bit tattered these days but I do own a mint copy as well (see a previous blog post).

Anyway, from 1970 to 1974 I managed to get all of The Partridge Family’s albums (and played them to death) along with other Partridge paraphernalia like a lunch box, comic books and the like.

But back to the bus. I distinctly remember getting the plastic Partridge Family Bus on my eighth birthday. Seeing as how the bus is dated 1973 on the box my mother probably got it a few months earlier and held it for my birthday or it was still stores at the time.

I don’t remember asking for it so she must have spotted it in a toy shelf or ordered it from a catalog. I don’t ever remember seeing in a store myself so the catalog seems a more likely bet.

I’m sure most older Partridge fans never even seen the bus as it was obviously geared toward younger kids and it’s fairly rare these days.

And of course being the pack rat that I am I still own the bus and I think it’s still pretty fun to look at as the Partridge bus is a pretty iconic image to a lot of people my age (translation: older folks).

Take a gander above at my plastic Partridge Bus, I thought it might be fun to see all sides of the box as I still have it in nice shape and you rarely see photos of it anywhere.

(Note 2: The reason I have this in such good shape and in the box is that my mother was a depression era child and I remember her saying that she didn’t have many toys growing up so she wanted us to keep our toys in good shape and put them back in box so we appreciated being lucky enough to have them.)

So there you have it, a pretty fun blast from the past toy and for any Partridge fans out there a really fun oddity to enjoy.

Well, that’s all for now.

Until next time be well and of course … Come On, Get Happy!!!