Rubber Band Ball!
I started working on this rubber band ball in the late 1980's or early 1990's. I saw an episode of Clarissa explains it all where Ferguson was trying to get in the Guinnes Book of World Records for the largest rubber band ball. I had one of those McDonalds halloween happy meal buckets, specifically the ghost one, full of rubber bands that I found. The source of the rubber bands was the letter carrier. They would toss the rubber bands down on the ground when loading their mail sacks. So I would gather them up and hoard them in the ghost bucket until I saw that episode of Clarissa Explains it All. Later in highschool my pal Ben thought it was neat so we established some rules for the rubber band balls. The rubber bands couldn't just be bought. They had to be found or "acquired" through happenstance. Most of my rubber bands would continue to be found in the mailman loading locations which I knew where they were all over my neighborhood like 5 different spots he'd park. The other biggest contributor was the rubber bands from the Kroger Salad bar. I guess the statute of limitations has passed for that so it's safe to brag about it now. But look at the poor state of that thing. The last time I added anything to it has been years possibly a decade or more and the dry rot is killing it. I guess I need to go buy some new rubber bands and add a fresh layer. The center of the rubber band ball which was a common question I'd get when people would witness it's majesty is just a single rubber band I wrapped around my finger then rolled it off of my finger so it was gnarled up into a ball. Then I simply started adding rubber bands to it. My other pal Anthony took a tin foil ash tray from a McDonalds and added it to the rubber band ball by mashing the ashtray to its body then wrapping more rubber bands around it. I thought it was funny so left it in there. Other than that it's all 100% rubber bands. THis thing used to bounce really hard with a loud thud. I think Ben's rubber band ball bounced a bit better because he would wrap the bands around tighter.
Once I get to the store and buy a bag of rubber bands I will put a little time into wrapping some new bands on this bad boy and get some new photos uploaded. I also think my old FatJuicySlop.com website had a page about the rubber band ball. Perhaps when I get some laptop time I will try to look that up and try to locate some of the photos of it earlier in life. This monument to the spirit of mankind needs to be preserved for eternity.
Turns out I have no classic photos but there was a page about rubber band balls. You can check it by clicking here but it's dumb an dnot really worth the click. But I've bought a few rubber bands and added a new layer to keep it held together. Here's a picture after adding the new rubber bands. Another thing that really stood out to me was how egg shaped it had become. There were certain areas of the rubber band ball that was bulging out.
I will try to get some more photos as I add to it. I want to get a really large layer of new rubber bands added to it because of how crunchy it felt when I first started revitalizing it.
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