Do you recall your Green Lantern plane?

Do you remember your Green Lantern plane? It was an Imaginext toy and went with the all of the superhero toys made by that company (like the Batcave and the Joker's hideout)!

Perhaps because green was your favorite color as a preschooler, you had a definite affection for the Green Lantern, though there wasn't much on the air about him. I do recall a couple of Batman cartoon episodes involving the Green Lantern, though.

In any case, we often used the Green Lantern plane when taking astronauts on adventures to other worlds (usually a table in another room!) rather than as a superhero toy! Our Imaginext astronauts fit perfect into the cockpit!

Watching splashdowns on television

One of my favorite things to watch when a little boy your age was the return of the astronauts from space. We were sending people to the moon during those days, so when they returned from their expedition, it was big news and on TV!

The astronauts would come back to Earth in a capsule that sort of looked like a cone. They would "land" in the ocean - which is why it was called a splashdown - where a helicopter would pick them up and take them to an aircraft carrier.

As the capsule descended toward the ocean, three parachutes would hope up to slow its descent. Once the capsule hit the water, the astronauts would bail out and then grab a life preserver attached to a rope and be pulled up into the helicopter. It was quite exciting to watch!