Waiting Rooms.

An article about rooms, that we waited in.

Please have a seat.

It's one of those odd memories. Waiting rooms, that is. I'm pretty sure we all can remember being in them as kids. Whether it was going to the Doctor's, Dentist, or even the car dealership! I obviously don't spend my days sitting back in my rocking chair, smoking my pipe and reminiscing about sitting in Waiting rooms. But I think it would be fun to touch on this somewhat obscure part of child hood. So I'll play it as I remember it, from first stepping in to leaving. Heck, I may even touch on a couple of other types of rooms. Oh boy!

Just in case some of you are are nodding off. It's always good to have a Nintendo reference. No matter what the subject. Remember that.

Ahem...where was I...Ah yes, waiting rooms.

You have a fever, were going to the Doctors. I had been trying to hold in my coughing and not show signs of my stomach ache. But eventually my Mom noticed. I had a "healthy" fear of the Doctors ever since I could remember. And I'd rather tough out the black plague than have that psycho jab a swab at my tonsils.

The office itself was a dungeon of unimaginable terrors. You'd see kids go in, then hear yells for mercy and crying and screaming that would have made Chuck Norris' blood curl. Not to mention they put the doorknobs about 5 feet up the door. Heartless. But this article ain't about Doctor visits!! So let's get back on track.

This should get me a couple of more thumbs.

I hated when the room was crowded and me and my mom would have to sit in different seats. So when that happened, and it most always did, I would quietly sit down between the crying baby and the overweight kid with the ear infection. There I would read the most odd magazine on earth. HighLights!

I'll never know what this magazine was about. I'd open it up and flip though a couple of pages. I think they had crossword puzzles and mazes. But man was it boring! The kid version of the New Yorker. Lame-O! Soon I would put it back on the racks and go for an old issue of Car and Driver only to find my seat taken. Oh well, that's life in the Waiting Room. But that leads us to my next segment. The Play Area.

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I sure did like the city road carpets. Especially if I smuggled in some of my own Hot Wheels. Although when pushed the cars rolled about as much as a 82 Civic hauling a trailer loaded with Slap Bracelets, uphill. Not to mention now that I think about it, playing on a carpet in a room full of sick kids isn't he best idea. I guess that's how the doctors kept us coming back.

Now that's what I'm talking about! One of my earliest memories of being in a Waiting Room involves cardboard bricks. I must have been around 3 so my recollection borders on fact and fiction, as usually the case with early memory. It was a really crowded room with yellow tile floors and dim lighting. I was playing with the bricks with other kids...What?! That's all I got! I was 3, don't expect a memoir.

Hair was pulled and arms were scratched over this treasure. Probably the most simple, yet alluring item in the waiting room. The Bead Maze. It was like a toy roller coaster. You could slide the beads along the wire any which way you liked. Up, down, forwards and backwards! I always hated the kid who had this toy while I waited for it. It would look so stupid watching them arbitrarily sliding the beads. Then when I got it I would do the same thing. I'm playing with my own Bead Maze now, no sharing this one. Sike! Counter Sike!

Well that's my time. I'd like to thank you all for reading my Top 10 Licensed Super Nintendo games from 1992. Till next time!

Just kidding! Relax

Comments

I useta wreck havoc in those waitin rooms!!!!

the only waiting rooms i could remember were my family doctors and becoming a canadian citizen...i was there staring at the walls while some rep was talking about how great it was to be a canadian citizen..i was 6 so i dunno wtf she was saying

The only thing I remember about waiting rooms was the tiny table and chairs for kids. Before Kindergarten they were the first table and chairs to fit me.

The waiting room at the veterinarian where I take my dog has one of those bead mazes.

I always hated waiting rooms. It's just preparing you for something bad, like at the doctors office

That first picture is what resembles best the waiting rooms of my childhood. Always a nervous time, compounded by the waiting itself.
The bead maze must have been in every Dentists office supply catalog.

Yep, I remember the bead maze with the planes and those horrible highlights magazine, as well as a few generic toy dinosaurs I liked to play with. But what I remember most was the stale funny smell in the waiting room and the fear of seeing my doctor, who was a real ass. Not to mention how annoying everyone got after spending what seemed like forever with them in that crowded waiting room. It sometimes got to the point where every little habit seemed to piss me off.

Anyway thanks for the trip down memory lane. ^ ^

The only thing I remember about the bead maze vividly is that it was ALWAYS at the dentists....thats all I know lol

Ifelt like chris hansen when i read have a seat

I actually had a subscription to Highlights for the better part of the 90s. In fact I think I still have the issues somewhere.

The bead slide thingy is what I remember most from waiting rooms. Very unique article man, kudos!

Dude the only reason to open a Highlights was to do the two-identical-pictures-with-hidden-differences page!

What a random article but hey, that's what this site's all about. Dredging up all those cringe worthy memories we'd rather forget.

I remember my doctor's reception room having a kind of brass traffic light on the wall. When the doc was ready for you it'd flash a certain colour then the receptionist would call your name and you knew which doc to see because of the colour.

Strange flashback moment there. Well done.

I always thought Gallant was a big geek and should have gotten an atomic wedgie from Goofus.

Ah, Highlights for Children...it was like Reader's Digest for kids, really. My mom was a receptionist at a Dr's office for a few years so the occasional mag made it home. I think we even had a subscription, come to think of it! Being the voratious reader I was (and am still) I liked it, except perhaps the ridiculous "Goofus and Gallant" comic. Too preachy for me. As I got older (there is a reason it has "for children" in the title!) it lost its appeal, though I must confess if I see one in a waiting room these days, I do pick it up and thumb through, for old time's sake.

Thanks for the memory! A nice short n sweet entry into your pantheon of great articles. :-)

I remember the waiting room at my dentist I went to as a kid...As much as I dreaded (and still do) going to the dentist, the waiting room completely rocked. The seating was set up like a theater all facing a decent sized TV always playing some Disney cartoon, the back of the room had a few arcade machines (Pac-Man, forgot the others) set up on free play, and a semi-enclosed corner with a play structure and giant waffle blocks. The walls in the whole area was nicely painted disney theme. It completely took the fears away regardless of the screaming kid getting his root canal right on the other side of the wall.

lol you misspelled "psyche" near the end haha. great article man! thumbs up

One of my most vivid waiting room memories goes back to when I was around 8 years old when my mom took me to the doctor (pediatrician) because I had some sort of summer virus. As we were in the waiting room, there was this other kid running around and when his mom picked him up, he threw up all over the floor with some of it spattering on my leg. Although my virus didn't involve throwing up (but did involve diarrhea), I nearly threw up myself after seeing that.

Way to play the Nintendo card, a guaranteed winnah!(You didn't invent that trick, but you played it nicely) Highlights was indeed a major waste of time. My theory about the crap toys in waiting rooms was always been that the office staff wanted to avoid fist fights between children over who got the yellow Lego brick, so they slowly sedated us with these boring, joyless toys. Scoundrels!

Nice touch with the Nintendo and Beauty and the Beast reference, lol.

I love Nintendo and Beauty and the Beast! T.U. #2

Nice--those bricks!!! I had forgotten about those, but I too played with them a ton. Thanks for the memory revival.

You know I was wondering what the hell that B&TB picture was doing there. " This should get me a couple of more thumbs" made me crack up.

Good but short. It was funny how you put those pic's in to grab the reader's attention. Lol