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Epic Win: Highlights for Children


Once Upon A Win

Submitted by Eric M

I never had a subscription to Highlights, but I did get to read it at the dentist’s office, making it the only good part of visiting the dentist. Anyway, Highlights was super popular and featured great stories (and mediocre jokes) every month.

Anybody remember Goofus and Gallant?

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» 71 Blasts From The Past

  1. sally says:

    My 4 y/o loves “High 5″,
    the one for minis!

  2. Brian says:

    I loved the “how many wrong things” on the back cover!!!!

    • Mel says:

      I know! That was the only thing I ever looked at myself. The only other thing is the sheet of multi-colored smiley face stickers that came every once in awhile.

  3. kno1 says:

    Goofus and Gallant is a classic win! I received it at home each month. Great book for youngsters.

  4. BAW says:

    I remember getting that. My grandmother bought me a subscription. At that age having something come addressed to YOU was a great ego-boost.

    • Rohvannyn says:

      My grandmother got me a subscription too. I remember becoming too old for it and being disappointed with getting the world wildlife federation magazine instead. I had a massive stash of those to read in the bathroom. I liked Goofus and Gallant (we made up a female version called Messy and Mindful) and the Timbertoes. And the rebuses were fun too. And the crafts section.

  5. jomarthegreat says:

    ahh, good old highlights. made waiting at the dentist’s office – and waiting for my piano lessons – that much better.

    • CatFace says:

      When I was in the 5th grade back in 1970, my teacher sent in a poem I wrote and it got published. I was awestruck….I still am kinda humbled. How dumb is that?

  6. hee hee says:

    We always found it at our doctor’s office. I loved to read Goofus and Gallant! And you got to read a magazine just like mommy!

  7. ThomasAces says:

    Man I loved Highlights. I actually won a contest when I was in the sixth grade and had a story published in Highlights.

  8. jularh says:

    Best. Magazine. Ever.

  9. vinco says:

    holy hell i remember this. had a subscription. it was pretty cool.

  10. katie says:

    man, highlights was awesome. remember the timbertoes? that was my favorite part when i was learning to read. i cant wait til i have a kid, ill buy a subscription so i – i mean they – can read it every month.

  11. ... says:

    Boys, girls, black kids and white kids all playing together in a cartoon book during the 90s! WOO!

    Throw in a kid in the wheelchair and you’ve collected all of the situations that never occur outside of a politically correct fabrication.

    I don’t have a problem with what they are trying to do, but stop lying to me. This never happens.

    Also: Incoming response saying I’m wrong from the guy who claims to have friends from every color of the rainbow.

    • GandWuser says:

      I know, I HATE it when people do this! It’s so… fake!

    • Devylan says:

      I have a half black half asian, handicapped friend. Beat that.

    • K'mom says:

      Sorry to disappoint you, but this is typical of my kids school. The parents get along, too.

      • ... says:

        I’m sure they do. You have tons of black, white, asian, hispanic, gay, straight, jewish, christian, muslim friends. You also sit around and do arts and crafting while smiling unnaturally large smiles constantly.

        Prepare your kids for the real world please.

    • Rohvannyn says:

      Is it lying, or is it portraying an ideal that we might want to get to someday? I agree with preparing kids for the real world, but do they really need to find out about what’s going on that early? I get irritated with the rampant political correctness sometimes. It’s probably worse than in the 80s when I was reading it. Still, it’s good to get the idea that interracial friendships are possible into a kid’s mind, because they are possible. They happen all the time actually. That’s not a bad thing.

    • Mad Ness Monster says:

      I got nothing to add to this but:

      http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveTokenBand

      (The cast of “The Puzzle Place” in particular boggles the mind.)

    • carpelibris says:

      Actually, all you have to do is make a civil reply to this post and voila, you’ve just gotten along with a person in a wheelchair.
      See? It’s not so hard. ;)

  12. Stick says:

    For me it’s become

    Highlights For Bored Teenager At The Dentist’s Office.

    • CB says:

      Add “Bored Thirty-somethings waiting on an oil change” for me…

      ::grin::

      I loved this magazine as a kid, and yes, I do still pick it up if I’m in a waiting room and happen to see one. To me it’s interesting to see the various reading levels and topics that are in there.

      • shalindria says:

        I’m glad I’m not the only one who may be seen picking this magazine up and giving it a gander. Better than most of the other mags I usually see around the waiting room. I don’t like looking at pictures of people’s perfectly decorated homes.

        • Waldo says:

          I read Nick mag at Great Clips. And please tell me I’m not alone when I say I watched Pokemon. You cannot be a 4-8 year old boy in the 90’s/early 00’s (I guess you can call them that) and not have even watched at least one episode and liked it. Pokemon should deserve it’s own Nostalgic Win page… too much for one post. The games, the show, the trading card game, the marbles (yes, I had Pokemon themed marbles), the theme song ([i wanna be] the [very] best [that no one [replace x with the next word] ever was. to catch] them[is my r]e[al te] s[t, t]o[ trai]n[ them is my cause. I will travel across the land, searchin]g (x) [far and wide for Pokemon, to understand, the power thats inside! Pokemon! Gotta Catch em all! (It's you and me) I know it's my destiny! Pokemon (Ooooh, you're my best friend,) In a world we must defend!]
          k im done…

        • Tboz says:

          I feel the same way! Usually I look for the Hidden Pictures first!

  13. BAW says:

    Ever wondered where Goofus and Gallant ended up?

    I sometimes think that Goofus grew up and became happy and successful, while Gallant became a serial killer and is locked up in a prison or high-security psychiatric hospital.

  14. Miroku says:

    I mainly read it for Goofus and Gallant, and the ‘what is different’ pictures.

  15. YourDrugAddictDaughter says:

    I Had One Of Those!!
    I LOOOOOVED Goofus And Gallant :D

  16. bodo says:

    It was at the pediatrician’s office, and the awesomest feature was the “find the hidden things” bit (unless some bozo actually marked them – that was so annoying!).

  17. kirby says:

    My local Planned Parenthood clinic has Highlights.. I will pick one up every so often if I read all the Rolling Stones and am still waiting. Totally not as epic as it could be..

  18. Courtney says:

    It was okay, I mean, it got me to read and that was all mom wants, though I never was a fan, though the hidden pictures, they rocked! I actually had an official highlights hidden picture calendar too!

  19. Chass says:

    My mom got me a subscription <3 Man, I loved that magazine. Plus they sent me so much extra stuff, like stickers, and booklets, and whole books of "find the object in the picture", which could double as colouring books, since they were line drawings.

  20. Grace says:

    *laughs* My grandparents got me a subscription to this when I was little; I just thought it was the coolest thing to get something with my name on it in the mail and yeah, it was a great ego-boost. XD I got a scholarship to an art school, (I finished my session last week,) and my teacher was actually a lady that has worked very extensively with Highlights as an illustrator, (her name is Anni Matsick.) I just thought it was really cool to work with someone who had a part in making a childhood magazine I loved. WIN =D

  21. Multi-Facets says:

    Another fun learning experience from my childhood. (happy sigh)

  22. Rich says:

    NONONONONONONONONO!

    Good mag, but…

    My school used to effing make us sell subscriptions to raise funds for the school and the penguins got a new station wagon every year.

    Then I’d pick up a copy in later life and saw that some little ankle biter had beat me to the games page-I would check to see if the little beesturd got all the words in the Word Search right.

  23. Kitty says:

    god, i couldn’t live without highlights when i was little. I remember once they did a article on Eugine Clark, and I wrote them and told them I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. They sent me back a letter and said they forwarded my letter to HER! She sent me a letter, a book list, and an autographed pictures. It was better than getting an autograph from any celebrity, I’ll tell you that! lol

  24. Superman64 says:

    “I tell you what, this Goofus fellow is a jackass.”

    -Hank Hill

  25. Meowth says:

    I had a story published in Highlights Magazine once when I was seven. They sent me a free copy as well as my normal subscription issue. It was great.

  26. Samantha says:

    Ah, Highlights. Even as a kid I thought Gallant was a goody goody douche bag.

  27. TlalocW says:

    I recently read through a Highlights at the mechanic while waiting for my car. For some reason all the other magazines were women’s magazines. Anyway, they now have podcasts you can download for some of the features, and as for Goofus and Gallant… Well, I hate to say it, but Goofus is going to be the successful one in life. The issue was privacy, and Gallant was stuck in the 1950s, stopping a classmate from opening someone else’s diary that had a big heart on the cover and a padlock. Meanwhile, Goofus had entered the high-tech and profitable world of computer hacking by figuring out a classmate’s email password, all at the tender age of 10.

  28. lost90'skid says:

    i had a computer game based on this magazine, i never got to see the magazine

  29. Waldo says:

    I still read it! I love the comics in them, and I like taking one of the riddle questions, and using an answer to a different riddle. For example:
    What do firefighters put in their soup?
    A monkey, a turkey, and a donkey.
    What do zoo animals wear when they go swimming?
    Firecrackers.

  30. emilytastic says:

    Highlights, Highlights, Highlights…
    I used to always write letters to them for advice about my evil sister :D

    and we didn’t only subscribe to Highlights, but we also subscribed to Mathmania, Puzzlemania, and Which Way USA. My parents wouldn’t get us the subscription to Top Secret though :/

  31. Alex Wells says:

    And to think Highlights For Children inspired baby boomers (and everyone else) to have a little fun. (I’m surprised Mad Magazine hasn’t made OUAW yet!)

  32. PeachyKat says:

    Goofus and Gallant was so funny! Let me make up one now…”Goofus surfs the Internet unsupervised. Gallant asks his parents if he can go online” :) I LOVED what’s wrong. The stories were lighthearted, the pictures colorful and fun. I liked the think about it page, it had questions like “what is taller, a hill or a mountain” and “where would you like to go on vacation”?

  33. Ellie says:

    Oh man, I used to love these! My favorite thing when I was little was turning to the back to see the hilarious version of what picture was on the front cover. Not to mention looking at the submitted artwork and seeing where the artists were from (I learned a ton of countries that way! XD)

  34. Rob says:

    Yup, I remember Highlights from back when I was in elementary school, in the late 1960s/early 1970s. I had totally forgotten about it, until I got into a friend’s car a few weeks ago — in the back there was a CURRENT issue of Highlights, from one of his kids. I was totally surprised that it was still around!

  35. Tboz says:

    The only magazine I rem that I had a subscription to. And it was the best! I, too, still look at it when I see it in a waiting room. It brings back memories & gives me something to do!

  36. Hito says:

    I could never get into it… I liked the ‘What’s Wrong’ thingie, but otherwise I was more fascinated by the coffee tables in the dentist’s office.
    (I rather like coffee tables.)
    Probably too much Ranger Rick and such early on.

  37. TomFlowerPro says:

    yeah… the good old days… but subscription? no…

  38. Brandi says:

    Yay…loved doing the things where you search for hidden objects. Also one of my pictures that I drew was published in one issue and it was like the major highlight of my childhood

  39. Groan says:

    I could never find that porpoise. Where is the porpoise?


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