The Classic Shaving.com Fun 'n Games Grand Prize Contest

[SRock]

If you haven't done so already, please consider making a donation.

Operation Smile




Well 's the time has come!

Our friends over at ClassicShaving.com in conjunction with
Thiers-Issard have sponsored the:

ClassicShaving.com

Fun 'n Games Grand Prize Contest

www.classicshaving.com


The Thiers Issard 8 Piece Straight Razor Set

(A $295.99 Value) ​

From ClassicShaving.com:

Thiers Issard has put together a splendid 8 piece straight razor set that an experienced or a novice shaver will enjoy using for a life time.

The Set Includes:

A 6/8 High Carbon Steel 3/4 ground Jaguar Straight Razor with razor sharpening instructions

A Luxury Two Sided Paddle Strop

A 21mm knot Pure Badger Shaving Brush

A Stainless Steel Covered Shaving Dish

A Classic Brand Shaving Soap

A "no residue" Alum Block in a plastic storage case

A Tube of the Thiers Issard Stropping Paste

All secured in a transparent covered black velvet case.

So what do you have to do to participate in this exceptional grand prize event?

Really, it's quite simple.

Just as the title suggests this contest is all about fun and games. In the great spirit of the fun and games we've had so far during the Carnival of Smiles we're asking that you all take a look back to yesteryear and think of the Fun 'n Games you had in your youth.

In order to enter this contest all you have to do is a single post explaining the most fun you ever had (your favorite fun/happy memory) whether it was playing a game, spending time with friends and family, attending a special event, fishing with Grandpa or whatever memory sticks out in your mind as your most memorable/fun event.

Only one entry per person, please. After the contest closes on Sunday the 22d the moderator team will narrow the entries down to our 5 favorites and we will then use random.org to pick the winner.

Keep in mind these entries can be as long or short as you'd like them to be but we will be looking at content, emotion and the amount of effort/thought you put into your entry.

At the request of the donating vendor this contest is available only to those with a CONUS shipping address.

This is only one of several Grand Prize contests that will kick off today!

Best of luck to everyone, have fun sharing the fun memories of your youth. ​

Please don't forget....​

If you haven't done so already, consider making a donation.


Operation Smile​

 

[withoutink]

My life as a kid wasn't very happy. But there is one thing that helped me through it all... my grandmother and grandfather... the times I spent with them in a summer home in the north woods of Wisconsin...

I came from a rather broken family. As a child I went through two divorces and an adoption. It was a messy bloodbath of a childhood. My biological mother abandoned me at 2 years of age. Pretty much on a street corner. Yes, I am serious. My father immediately filed for divorce when he found out. We moved in with his mom and dad, as he was always working and had extremely little time for me. So, Grandma and grandpa took care of me from the age of two until around seven or eight.

[Heres my childhood home (Grandma & Grandpas house) I often refer to it as my Hansel & Gretel house. This was taken a few years ago, my Grandma was a famous seamstress and the house still has the window treatments she made 40+ years ago hanging up...]

When my father married another looser of a woman, my new "mother" adopts me as her own. Fast forward some years, they too divorce but my father who wasn't the best of dads looses custody of me and I stay with my psycho, alcoholic and abusive adoptive mother. Crazy huh. If you only knew.

Anhoo, the only thing that kept me sane and not running off and doing anything crazy was my Grandma & Grandpa. I spent every summer with them. She taught me how to cook, she taught me how to be a good person, grandpa taught me how to fish, how to play ball, grandma taught me how to be kind and handle my emotions. We would pick raspberries and blackberries in her yard and make jams. Grandpa taught me how to chop wood and be a man. They both were very fond of me. I can still remember the smell of the fireplace and the outdoor air. The big bay window and the hummingbird feeder. Feeding squirrels by hand, playing badminton with them. Shopping at antique stores. Baking and just watching the one channel of tv that actually came through... Playing cards, eating the most amazing foods Ive ever eaten in my life. Camping in the backyard and watching stars at night. I remember my grandmother wearing 4711 all the time, she is the one who got me started on the stuff at around 5 years old. To this day the smell transports me back to when she would apply some to my face/neck and call me her little prince. They were truly my parents and the only adults who actually cared about me in my youth.

So, yes, the summers with my grandparents in Boulder Junction WI [google map]. It didn't bother me that I had no other friends to play with during the summer. Those were the happiest times I had as a child. To this day, those memories are my "wooosaaaa" moments. Its my special place I think of when times in my life are tough.

Thanks to the mods and the Classic Shaving for such an awesome pif!

 

[SRock]

While obviously I'm not eligible/participating since I'm hosting/running this thread I thought I'd share an example of the kind of story I'm talking about.

This is both one of my oldest memories and one of the most fun/proud.

I've actually shared part of this story elsewhere on the forum before...

When I was about two and a half years old my Dad took me on one of my first fishing trips. He went all out. He found a fishing pole for me (kid size) that was the same color/style as his. He bought me a pair of shorts and a T-shirt that looked just like his. I got my first tackle box, a smaller though very similar version of his. He also bought me a fishing hat that looked just like his. We packed identical lunches in nearly identical lunch boxes. I was so proud, like many little boys my Dad was my hero. That day I felt like I was all grown up, just like my Dad.

On the way to the river we stopped to pick up my Grandpa. When we got there Dad let me ring the doorbell. We stood there side by side waiting for them to answer the door. When Grandma opened the door naturally she made a very big deal out of our matching outfits. I of course swelled with pride.

That day my Father, Grandfather and I spent all day at the side of the river. I caught several small fish and my Dad and Grandpa made quite the haul. I absolutely had a blast. Naturally, like any kid I went on to have lots of Fun and Games over the years this but this is one memory that has stuck with me all of my life.

This is one example of the fun 'n games I had as a child.

Who's next? Get your entry in!

 

[chainfire]

As a kid one day may father's company had a party at the local amusement park where you could ride everything without tickets as long as you had the company's wristband. I spent the whole day just riding and re-riding the bumper cars...I'm sure today I'd be diagnosted with a case of OCD or ADHD today, but on that day I had the time of my life. The only break I took was to get some lunch - fun times.

 

[SRock]

Keep 'em coming folks!

 

[WhosYerBob]

The happiest days of my life have always been family related:

• The day I married my wife, Cindy - the greatest love of my life, my best friend and partner in everything I do.

• The birth of my first niece; I don't have any children myself, so the birth of the first child from one of my siblings was a doozy for me.

• The day my youngest sister graduated from college. She was the ultimate black sheep of our family and appeared to be on track for an early death due to drugs and such, but she turned her life around, worked like a dog, went to school and finally graduated cum laude.

I have others, but those really stick out for me.

 

[raditzer]

I grew up in a very suburban area that was surrounded by woods (I now know them as undeveloped lots) and there were about 8 other kids my age on the street with whom my brother and I could play with. TV was limited and toys were few, but well chosen. Yet we found ways to entertain ourselves.

Ahh some of my favorite childhood memories....playing with the other kids of the block on the street and in the "woods!" When we got home from school we were basically kicked out of the house and told to "go play outside" well we did. We turned fallen trees into space ships that landed on distance planets or a pirate ship patrolling the seas ready to collect any treasure we could find. We spend hours making "forts" from a pile of leaves, a single piece of plywood or a group of trees. We played foot ball with any type of ball (even an old towel tied up), kickball, spud and any other game with a ball and a group. We spend hours playing manhunt (adult hide and seek but with teams) in the woods trying to find each other or "get the flag." My folks set up one of the old style family tents in the back yard and it stayed up all summer long so we could "camp out" every night! Cards by flashlight till the wee hours of the morning or the batteries went dead. Midnight walks in the woods because we were told not to and an occasional camp fire to tend.

We spent hours riding bikes on the street making jumps and ramps and obstacle courses. Extending the forks to make choppers and then riding to the drug store (over a mile a way) to get candy (from allowance or money found in the sofa-really!). Once Atari came out, we played that, but only when it was raining.

My fondest childhood memories are of "playing" with who ever was around doing just about anything outside in the woods....I think I'm going to go for a walk in the woods now and look for fallen trees.......

 

[bradyarz]

well the swmbo would probably not be too happy if i didn't say my best memory was our wedding day, but i think that's just a little too cliche. it was a great day, don't get me wrong, but i am going to share a different memory.

i went to school for engineering, but i've always liked to get my hands dirty. a lot of the other engineers i was friends with always used to ask me with help changing their oil, building lofts for their beds, etc.

i had several internships over the years, and one of the selling points i always used for myself was that while i am an engineer, i don't mind getting dirty and working down on the factory floor with the guys.

(side note: i can't stand the cliche that engineers are anti-social nerds with all brain and no experience, and who relate better to their calculator than their coworkers, and it is my personal life goal to debunk that where possible.)

anyway, in 4 different summers i worked for 2 foundries, a steel mill, and a residential tree service. the last one was non-engineering related, but at every job, the perception among the guys was "this college boy won't last here 2 weeks."

by the end of each summer, i had not only stayed at the job, but i had also earned the respect of the seasoned employees there. collectively, it was one of the greatest senses of accomplishment i have had to date. my dad always taught me to work hard no matter what, and in a very real sense it paid off.

i realize it's not a very sentimental post, but to this day i remember each one of my bosses (and some of the guys) congratulating me at the end of the summer, and that's not something that will ever leave me.

 

[SmoovD]

The happiest day of my life was getting to married to my lovely wife. I was also fortunate it that she had two wonderful children. So I got an entire family in once glorious autumn day.

 

[luvmysuper]

One of the happiest days of my life was a return / homecoming from the Gulf War.
A stressful deployment, getting shot at by people your not really mad at, and being on station and watching fellow servicement in trouble on a ship running over a Mine all wash away when you walk down a pier and see your little girl running towards you.
That look of happiness on my daughters face, and the most amazing hug I ever received in my life is something I'll never forget.
These things we take for granted, that your kids will always be there there, smiling and waiting for you are just fleeting moments.
Soon, they grow up and that level of pure unadulterated love and joy at seeing their Daddy is just too much to ask for in this hustle bustle life we live as adults.

 

[Badgers]

There have been a lot of GREAT experiences shared here and I'm not even going to try to match them emotionally. Instead, I'll take a far different turn here.

The most fun I ever had, as the question asks, was the summer of my freshman year at college. I had arrived early to get a feel for what the campus was like. As I'm walking out of the main building, this blond bombshell walks right into me dropping her folders and about 15 papers (quite cliche I know but still classic); she's just completely out of my league. Of course, I help and I realize she's wearing this perfume (I believe it was Happy by Clinique or whatever like that). I point this out to her and she's completely amazed. We talk a bit and I learn she's a 3rd year there. The next thing I know she's invites me to her friends' party that night.

When I get there, I find that there are about 5 other guys and about 15-20 girls which is quite a miraculous ratio. Must have been luck since I decided to come early to college and most guys don't do that?? Basically, the rest of the night, I had fun like no other high school party could compare to. Drank much more than I should and I "think" at one point made out with the blond and then her friend. By the end of the night, I "think" another girl asked me to come to her room at which point I can't remember anything. All I know is that I woke up at 5 in the morning on the floor next to her with this rediculous hangover and left.

Its definately cliche but it was the most fun I ever had in a night. I will never forget what I can remember of it.

 

[strat1117]

This one's easy.

The days my sons were born are the two happiest of my life; no contest. Fatherhood has brought me more pleasure and and more pride than any other experience.

My older son just turned 21, is a senior in college and is in the process of applying to law school. He's also an accomplished musician, plays guitar and keyboards, and writes and performs his own material. He looks like his mom, but he thinks and acts just like me.

My younger one is 17, a senior in high school, and applying to college. He's captain of the varsity tennis team, and intends to major in animal sciences and go on to vet school. It is scary how much he resembles me physically at his age.

These two guys are my best friends in the world. They understand me better than anyone and, of course, I understand them better than they understand themselves. They are, in some ways, as different as night and day yet, in others, they are clearly cut from the same cloth. I get misty when I think about how quickly the time has gone by, and that in a just a few more short years they will both be out of the house and on their own. Although I pine for the days when they were just innocent little boys, I could not be more proud of how they have grown into responsible young adults.

That is what it is all about.

 

[letsdisinfect]

I already talked about the best day of my life (meeting my girlfriend while delivering pizza) but I definitely have a number of fun days that stick out in my mind.

Early in our relationship we spent a lot of time doing goofy/fun stuff -- going to shows, staying up really late watching movies, drinking way too much coffee, etc. But a couple weeks after we started dating we had an amazing time at the Alachua County Fair.

I had free tickets because my band was playing in the local 'battle of the bands' and she had told me she couldn't make it. Well, I didn't know that she had talked to the other guys in the band and decided to surprise me. Halfway through the set I looked down and saw her standing at the foot of the stage, instantly my mood changed. I couldn't wait to get off the stage!

We spent the rest of the night walking around the fair, making fun of the carnies and eating gross food. We went on rides and just spent time together. Our band had a terrible set, but it was ok because my girl was there.

I think that was the night that I knew that she was the one for me!

 

[Will P.C.]

One of the greatest memories of my life was my first time in New York City. When I was 15, I moved from Anderson, SC (small southern town) to Stroudsburg, PA. Stroudsburg was only and hour and 15 minutes away from NYC. A couple of friends and I took the bus to NYC and were going to spend the night at a friends house. Being from Sc, NYC was just a myth to me. Something I had only seen on TV. When walking around the city, I was thinking this is the coolest place in the world. Everything from the hot woman, street performers, cool shops, and subway impressed me. We mostly just walked around, but it was excellent

 

[Icemanxxxv]

Hands down I still to this day remember the whole neighborhood playing kick the can at twilight. Then enjoying icecream at one of the neighbors houses. We only did it one summer but we did it for weeks I thought the fun would never end. I had to be about 8 years old.

 

[CzechCzar]

Favorite memory: when I was a kid, going to the Christmas tree lot to pick out a tree. We would spend hours looking for the perfect ones. Of course, dad did all the heavy lifting while the kids got in the way offering help. There was even a bounce-house to play in. Sometimes we'd find one we liked, and look around a bit more to make sure there were none better, and when we came back to get it someone else had already taken it!

I'd play hide and seek in the lot with my siblings while my parents did the buying. After lugging the things home we'd spend hours and hours on just setting them up. My dad is a bit OCDish, so he'd pack as many lights as possible into the Christmas tree, so that the entire trunk was glowing. Then, he'd sit down and unwrap ornaments while the three siblings waited in line to go and put them on the tree. We could only reach the first 1/2 of the tree because we were so short, so eventually my parents would have to take over.

We would spend literally all weekend on this, and in the end we'd just have a very pretty tree. But MAN was it fun!

 

[DSB]

I live in California, but my family is originally from New York. In the early 1930's, my grandfather started going to a lake in up state New York. He would take the train with some from friends from New York City to a town called Pottersville. The lake he visited is privately owned by the Nichols family. Dr. Nichols built his family home on this lake in the 1850's. The house he built is today known as "the main house," and is in excellent condition. During the Depression, his family began renting out rooms in the main house to help pay the property tax. The Nichols family eventually built cabins around the lake. When my grandfather married, be began taking his family to the lake. My grandmother would spend the entire summer at the lake with my mother and uncle, while my grandfather worked in New York City. My grandfather would take the train up on weekends, and then back again for his work week. When my grandfather retired, he and my grandfather would spend two months a year on the lake. When my grandmother passed away in 1991, one of her dying requests was that my mother throw my grandmother's engagement ring into the lake, so that a part of my grandmother would always be at "The 'N', as it is known (N is for Nichols).

My mother has gone to the lake every single year for the last 68 years. She started taking my sister and I to the lake when we were babies.
I spent my childhood summers at this lake. My grandfather taught me to fish there. I learned to love the woods and how to row a boat. I learned to search for salamanders under logs after a summer rain, and that the smell of the forest after a rain is one of the best smells in the world. As a young boy, I would catch frogs and giant grasshoppers, and let them go, just to catch them again. My mother taught me to write postcards on birch bark, and that a cheeseburger tastes 100 times better when cooked over an open fire outdoors.

As an adult, my connection to the "N" will forever give me a connection to my childhood. I have been going to the N for almost 40 years, and nothing has changed there since I was a very young boy. My grandparents passed away almost 20 years ago, but around every rock I see my grandmother getting ready to swim in the lake. Every time I open up a tub of worms in the row boat, the smell reminds me of fishing with my grandfather. When I walk in the woods, the smell of pine needles reminds me of salamander hunts. The summer lightning storms bring back flashes of my 10 year old self sitting on the porch, waiting for it to clear up so I could go outside to play.

Every memory I have of the "N" is connected to the fun of my childhood. I just had a daughter in August. My sister is expecting her first child in February. As much as I looked forward to going to the "N" in my youth, I look more forward to sharing this magical place with my daughter and my nephew as they get older. I hope that they have the same strong link to this place that I have.

 

[flabajaba2213]

EDIT: Just thought of this. When I speak about Diana, I forgot to mention that she was from California, so winter was a foreign subject to her, and she wanted everything that winter had to offer, no matter how cheesy.



Back in undergrad in Maine, we got a huge Nor-Easter, and it dumped about 14 inches of snow over 3 days on the campus. So, Friday morning rolls around, and classes have been canceled. My friends and I were out romping about campus at 9:30 am, having just come from breakfast. Now, our campus was in the middle of nowhere, so we were pretty much stranded and had to make our own amusement. Well, my friend Diana had an idea: SNOW FORT!





So, we set out to find the perfect spot. While I went to my car to get the pair of entrenching tools that I always keep in the back seat (Always Be Prepared!), I ran into more people that I knew, and got them excited as well. Eventually, our group of three turned into a dozen.

So, after much deliberation, we found the perfect spot. It was a snow pile where the snow plows had dumped the majority of the snow taken from the campuses three largest parking lots. I brought my tools, and my friend Ben...found...a few other shovels. We set to work. First, we pounded down the snow on the top of the pile. Next, we had two teams start on either end, digging into the pile. One of our team mates went and cut three dozen 18" long sticks (this is an old boy scout trick for when you are making an igloo. You use the sticks to measure the thickness of the walls and ceiling. 18" is the optimum thickness, since it is strong enough to stand up to the elements without caving in, but light enough that it won't overburden itself and collapse). While one person digs, the person behind them passes buckets of the extra snow back along the line to be dumped, and the person behind them measures the thickness of the walls and adds the snow, packing them in and adding supports made from fallen branches.

Eventually, our teams met in the middle, and the entire snow pile had been turned into a large fort, complete with two rooms and windows. When I say large, I mean large enough for all 12 of us to sit upright inside comfortably. We had made a flag (a school t-shirt with mascot on it, tied to a stick) and hung it outside of the fort. While we were inside finishing packing the snow walls and ceiling, several members of the team had made a snow man, about 7 feet tall, to guard the fort.

Well, it had been about 4 hours by this time, so Diana and I headed in to her dorm room (the snow pile was next to her dorm) to make hot chocolate for everyone. About 20 minutes later, we're carrying trays of hot chocolate out to the weary group. As we sat there enjoying our efforts, my friend Ben came up behind us, carrying three cases of beer, a 30 rack of PBR, and two 12 packs of Corona's. We found a section of the fort to make into a cooler, and since we were drinking indoors, it was technically not against school rules.

So, the twelve of us had a grand old time in the snow fort, playing cards, chatting, having snowball fights, and imbibing. We noticed that the sun was setting. I looked at my watch. It was almost 5:30 pm! We had spent, quite literally, the entire day playing in the snow. So, our troop of winter engineers decided to go to dinner and warm up. On our way back, my friend Steve, an RA, said, "Hold up, I got an idea." He managed to get permission for us to pull a half barrel over and get a fire going in front of the snow fort. Meanwhile, people had gone back to their dorm rooms to change into dry clothing, get stuff, etc. As we all start to filter back, we notice that now several battery powered LED lamps, a radio, and a number of fold out camp chairs had made their way back. Also, upon closer inspection, our snow cooler had been refilled with various alcoholic delights, and the cooler itself had been expanded to accommodate the growing inventory.

Some time later, I look up (in a slight haze), and count again. Our dozen had turned into well over three dozen, more lights, chairs, another half barrel, and alcohol had found its way to our fort. Also, and I have no idea where they got it on such short notice, a full size keg had been delivered, and packed all the way up to the top with snow, making it a PBR volcano! I find this amazing because the closest place to get a keg was 35 - 45 minutes away. So, our impromptu winter wonderland bash was a hit, especially after we got the Dominos delivery guy to drop off 10 medium pizzas ($5 medium pizzas for the win!).

Eventually, campus security, which up to this point had let us have our fun, decided to intervene, and suggested that we start winding it down, since it was almost midnight. Midnight? Wow...didn't seem that long... (we were lucky that they didn't see our keg-cano, as that would have been a bit harder to justify having). So, we start to wind down, chairs are folded up, lanterns collected, pizza divvied up, booze safely stowed away into backpacks for the trek across campus. The keg, well on its way to being empty, was hoisted into a pickup, its destination unknown. We made sure to put out both half barrels, and we returned them and the shovels to the maintenance shed.

By 1 am, we were all wrapped up, with only the original dozen left. As we went our separate ways, five of us decided to keep the party going in an appropriately winter mood. So, we went back to my dorm room (I had single in a double size room, so I had a futon and an extra bed for seating, not to mention the biggest fridge for our beverages to chill), and we watched one of my favorite movies, Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Killer Mutant Snowman! By 4 am, the majority of my merry band were passed out from exhaustion, as well as enhanced BAC. As I look around, I notice that Ben had fallen asleep laying backwards on the extra bed, with two of my female friends, on either side of him, using his stomach as a pillow. I look to my left, and Diana had fallen asleep on my shoulder, wrapped up in an old comforter. She was cute, so I didn't mind too much. I pick up my beer, finished the dregs of the can, place it on the end table, and I let out a sigh of satisfaction.

The last thing I remember thinking before falling asleep was this. "Today was a pretty awesome day."

 

[Argonaut]

My happiest memories revolve around my grandparents house in Wanaque, NJ. Being from Oklahoma we only got to visit every other summer or so. I really had no family in OK other than my parents and younger brother and sister, but in NJ I had 5 uncles and aunts. They made the most out of my few weeks, Yankee games, going to the beach, trips to Cooperstown, wiffle ball games in the front yard, sneaking onto the Wanaque reseviour to fish. My grandfather was a well known member of the community,he and his four brothers all fought in WWII and came back without a scratch. He would take me down to the Lions club to meet the guys, then over to the carpenters local union hall(of which he had been president of) to meet the working men. To a little kid from Oklahoma these Italian/American people seemed like movie characters, I used to love just listening to them talk about anything. The food was so much different and so much better than what I was used to back home. Flash forward 20 years and I've taken my five children to this town they've heard so much about, we went to a Yankee game, to the beach, up to Ringwood Manor to catch crawdads (crayfish to my aunts and uncles) and lots of wiffleball. My grandfather never got to meet his great grandchildren but I feel he would have been proud. One of the proudest moments of my fatherhood career came during one of the famous wiffleball games when all three of my boys hit hard line drives off my uncle John in consecutive at bats. Uncle John doesn't let up on the little guys, he'll strike them out same as an adult. After giving up the hits to my guys, he gave the ball to my cousin to pitch for him, as he walked over to get a beer I heard him tell my other uncles "I'll tell ya, there's nothing wrong with those boys." I couldn't have been more proud. On the long drive back we asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was, after a bunch of obvious answers involving activites, my littlest who had just turned four said "I like how they talk funny." We haven't made it back since that trip in '07 but the seed has been planted. I hope to return next summer and keep the memories anew.

 

[mikromicke]

Awesome contest and an amazing price. Thanks you classicshaving and Thiers-Issard!

This took a bit of thinking, which I think is a very good thing. We spend far too much time stressing through our everyday lives to remember all the great and fun memories/moments we've had and instead focus on work/stress and bad things that happen. There are so many fantastic moments in our lives and everybody should feel good about these.

I eventually find one of my happiest memories. I was accepted as a participant in a science/technology camp run by the Swedish Federation of Young Scientists while in high school. I didn't know anyone else going there and it was in a different part of my country. I was a very shy kid and now I'm surprised that I dared go off on this totally unknown adventure.

The camp turned out to be an absolutely amazing experience and I got so many new friends and hardly slept for a week. I remember sitting on the train on my way home with some of my new friends discussing that we should try to get involved in this. To spread the word and give more kids the opportunity to find friends with similar interests and realize that it isn't only "nerdy" to be interested in science and technology. Two years later we were part of the organizing committee and I spent four years working with this camp.

It felt great to see all these (normally shy) kids come to the camp and change. A lot of them later got involved in the organization and continued to organize other events. I ended up getting an engineering degree and later a PhD as well and realize that I have a lot to thank this camp for. It really changed me to the better!