What are some of your favorite things from back in the day? Stuff from childhood?
Asked by
Jude (
32204
)
May 20th, 2009
Name five, if you can
80’s kid here..
The Goonies
Jelly Bracelets
Madonna
Collecting and trading stickers
Judy Blume books
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138 Answers
Garbage Pail Kids
Sony Walkman with an R.E.M cassette in it
Huge neon colored shoe lace that I wore like a neck tie
Jellie shoes
Tight rolling my jeans and wearing slouch socks touching the bottom of the jeans with a pair of white KEDS
Things were slower and more relaxed.
Climbing trees
Dirtball wars
Skateboarding
Bike Riding
Comic Books
Sparklers! Real metal handled, 4th of July fireworks Sparklers! The new subsitute is just lame.
waits for someone to mention Pogs
Men At Work – Cargo
Dungeons & Dragons
Zips (until I found out what fucking liars they were)
Mr. Wizard
Running around in the woods
the b52’s, SNICK during Halloween, TRIX that were still shaped like fruits..hmm lots of thing now that i think about it )=
Nash Skateboards (although I was glad they eventually changed)
Ghost Busters
Fighting in the Backyard (may have been a little scary sometimes, but at least back then kids didn’t carry guns)
All the unique games we cam up with
Sony Walkman with an NWA cassette in it (@knitfroggy)
You Can’t Do That on Television.
New Kids on the Block.
Madonna before she was British.
Splatter paint clothing.
The Princess Bride, Muppet Movie, and Labyrinth.
First child of the 70’s to check in!
The Brady Bunch
Homemade tie-dye t-shirts
Easy Curl
Easy Bake Oven
David Cassidy
Really big bell bottom pants
Farrah Fawcett’s feathered hair
Strawberry Shortcake
Roller skating
The Last Unicorn
Little House on The Prairie
25ยข candy bars
Good call on Judy Blume.
GQ
@Likeradar Sheesh…I miss all those too…what did they say to get slimed? I can’t remember…
@tinyfaery at the Sav-on around the corner from where I grew up, candy bars were two for .25! Ice cream was a nickel a scoop! The mother of all stomach aches could be bought for a mere fifty cents.
@SuperMouse Ha! Save-On. Was it next to an Alpha Beta? I’m 35, so I actually span two decades. I also love Captain Kangaroo and The Carpenters.
@tinyfaery…I still make a point of watching The Last Uncorn every time it is on.
a lavender car the color of old kotex boxes.
my burgundy “come on baby light my fire” shirt thanks to jose feliciano
yellow tonka trucks
skating in the basement to music of the band “chicago”
going to amusement parks that piped music of sly and the family stone and other hot bands of the day as you rode the “mad mouse” and the “tilt-a-whirl.”
@Likeradar I was always so jealous when they got slimed! I wanted nothing more than to get slimed! Alanis Morrisette was on that show! God…I’m getting misty with all the nostalgia…
omg. i think i am before your time on childhood memories based on the question and details.
@tinyfaery it was actually in the same strip mall as Ralph’s, Alpha Beta was down the street! The other corner had a Thriftimart and a TG&Y!
Here are a couple for us Southern Californian’s; Farrell’s, KMET (The Mighty Met – Jim Ladd at night, Jeff Gonzer in the morning) and Moby Disc! My entire record collection came from Moby Disc.
<looks around for @jonsblond>
hurry up baby…they’re using up all of the eighties!
Mmm Farrell’s.
How about Licorice Pizza? Oh, yeah!
Music Plus! They had a case full of bongs and rolling papers behind the counter!
Elvira Mistress of the Dark
The Smurfs
Mork and Mindy
Rollerskating to Lionel Richie
80s slasher movies
A few more..
Mon Chi Chi
Neon shoe laces
Vintage Chucks
Princess Leia (had a wee crush on her back in the day). Loved my glitter heat transfer Princess Leia (in her white suit, pony tail with a huge, white gun) pink t-shirt…
Oh, and Mr. Rogers. Gotta love Mr. Rogers.
Kid’s Shows:
The original Scooby Do – The ones where you could always count on the person who showed the gang around town to be the one dressed as the ghost.
Inch High Private Eye
Hong Kong Fooey
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Electric Company
@jonsblond…knowing what you and i would have been up to if we’d met in jr. high :)
Mon Chi Chi!!!! …“oh so soft and cuddly”...
How about Glow Worm?
Ok. I’ll stop now.
Creature Features
Mystery Science Theatre 3000
Mother’s Iced Raisin Cookies
Astro Boy
@tinyfaery Blondesjon had a friend with a unibrow that we called Mon Chi Chi! He was younger and had no idea what we were talking about! :)
@Blondesjon No good I tell ya!
I’m glad I met you when I did. :P
I miss my 83 Capri sometimes.
Star Wars was in there.
Liked the little league sports.
I forgot Grape Ape!
@SuperMouse My mom has the entire collection of raisins from McDonalds displayed in her sewing room. She swears she’ll get money for it some day.
Commander USA
Kung Fu Theatre
Rhonda Shear
Bill Cosby
Cruising (glad we got some of that before it disappeared)
@SuperMouse Of course! I hated that commercial as a kid.
Big League Shredded Gum
Pop Rocks
Star Wars trading cards
ColecoVison
Intellivision
@jonsblond…I guess what I meant to say is that I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how the two of us would have acted with each other in Jr. High…you know…while i’m in the shower :)
Terry Brooks’ Shanara series.
Any Stephen King Release.
@jonsblond When I was a little kid I literally got my dad to push the car a few feet and run and jump in it and say Grape Ape Grape Ape! and I yelled I’m Beagly Beagly! What parents won’t do…
@Supermouse I read that series when I was in the 7th or 8th grade…kinda racy stuff for that age…I loved it!
@jmah Good call! Intellivision rocked!
@jonsblond I remember sitting close enough to the television so that I could change channels with my toes! That was when the channels were on a dial!
The 70’s also had Fonzie and his jump over the barrels.
Seeing Jerry Lawler smack Andy Kaufman on Letterman.
Joust
Frogger
Donkey Kong
Ms. Pac Man
damn this is fun!
@SuperMouse We had the dial TV until I was in the 9th grade 1990 my sister and I were so flippin’ excited when we got a TV with a remote and we weren’t the remote anymore!
@filmfann Yup. Burger Time and old school Donkey Kong.
@SuperMouse Oh god yes! Excellent creepy pervy pre-teen reading!
Leg Warmers! I was awesome with my leg warmers and my bat wing sleeved shirt that matched!
Feeling awkward and alone.
Solid Gold
Video One w/ Richard Blade (So. Cal)
Swatch
Member’s Only jackets
Flashdance shirts (one side off of the shoulder) and rat tails (hair)—looking back, I’m thinking and that was fashion?
@jmah Off the shoulder shirts are still in fashion. According to my closet, at least. :)
I got a Swatch for my 8th grade graduation…do they still make those? I’d love to have another one. The band gave me a terrible rash, but I didn’t care, I lurved it!
@knitfroggy – leg warmers! Those were high school for me. I remember I saved up until I could buy the perfect pair, white with pink stripes. I walked through a field, got them full of stickers and never wore them again. It is probably a good thing because I am sure I cut quite an interesting figure wearing those things with my bright blue satin jacket and my wallabees.
@SuperMouse I always wore my leg warmers when I went to the skating rink. I also had my own white skates with purple pom poms on the toes, purple and pink leg warmers and my bat wing shirt was purple, pink and black. I was a vision of loveliness in about 1986 at Skateland Family Fun Center!
Remember the 1990’s television show Parker Lewis Can’t Lose? Swatch always reminds of that show. “Synchronize Swatches!”
@Likeradar (I probably have one stuffed in an old clothes bag at my parents—along with my gold, glittery shoulder pad jdressy jacket – for reals) Remember those god awful shoulder pads? Oh, and those button-down shirts with long tails at the back?
Sugar and butter sandwiches
Red P.F. Flyers with white rubber toes
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Beatlemania
Red Skelton
Go-go boots
I liked the shoulder pad era…I’m sadly lacking in the shoulder department…
Thundercats
Transformers
The Goonies
Valley Girl
Romancing The Stone
my favorite thing was getting a new leotard lame i know lol
“Choose Life” shirts, “Boy Toy” shirts, “Relax” shirts, button-down shirts with a pin (broach) right at the top button.
@Blondesjon Valley Girl the song, or Valley Girl the movie? I grew up over the hill from the Valley and I totally sounded like that! As a matter of fact I still find myself sounding that way now and then. If you don’t believe it you can totally gag me with a spoon. I am so sure.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
The Stray Cats
Jack in the Box Steak Fajita Pita
McDonalds original Fries
@tinyfaery Richard Blade was on KROQ wasn’t he? I remember when that was a brand new station fighting KMET and KLOS for listeners. The punks and the new wavers discovered it first if I remember correctly.
I wanted to be Molly Ringwald-I loved her so much.
Karate Kid, roller skating arena (skating to music while wearing your skates with colored rabbit’s feet dangling from them (so wrong).
I never realized they were really rabbits feet until way later! So nasty! I saw one at a yard sale recently and it kinda made me vurp a little.
@SuperMouse Valley Girl is one of my favorite movies (from back then). Have you tried watching it recently? I couldn’t quit laughing…. and yawning!
@SuperMouse Richard Blade was from KROQ. Remeber the Poor Man and the OG Love Line?
Getting black and white tv for the first time, with 2 channels..Then saw TheEd Sullivan Show that night with 22 family and extended family members watching in rapture at the marvels of modern science…
The Wham-O Magic Window
Tennessee Tuxedo cartoons
Super Balls
Wading in the creek all summer long
Riding my bike at midnite during a full moon alone and no one else around. I can still remember that, and it was GREAT!
Climbing trees.
@dannyc That brought back some good memories, we had the first TV in our extended family also, and they all lived within walking distance of us.
I remember the summers we could roam around the countryside with a picnic lunch, along the creeks and in the fields for the entire day; making straw dolls; lemonade stands; collecting popcycle wrappers at the park and sending them in for prizes.
In the fall, the entire neighborhood gathered for leaf day, when all the leaves were piled up in the middle of the street and we burned them, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, and singing until the little kids fell asleep.
@filmfann – LURVE!! I love that you mentioned Creature Feature and Mystery Science Theatre 3000!!
I just remember my smelly swatch. I had one of the scented ones! Guess Jeans, huge belts, Nightmare of Elm Street, ooohhh Duran Duran, Roller Skating
Do you remember when Beta Max and VCRs came out? OH…the Sony radios that were in different colors, mine was in bubble gum pink…dual cassette tapes, oh yeah. I was on the cutting edge!
Michael Jackson, before he became a complete freak? Thriller, anyone? Or…Beat it? Billy Jean?
Oh yeah…the 80’s!
saturday morning cartoons
penny candy
walking to school
playing outside in the summer evenings
happy days on tv
The Neverending Story
View finder
catching lightning bugs
The Muppet Show
fishing and canoeing with Dad
art class
piano lessons
Superman popscicles
rollerskating
my grandma
playing Where in the US is Carmen San Diego on my Tandy 200
Bewitched
Wonderful World of Disney
Under Dog
Feeling perfectly safe leaving my house in the morning, going to the park, coming home for lunch and not coming home again until dark. My grandkids could never do that in this day and age.
The Rocky and Bullwinkle show
Silly Putty
Climbing trees
ice skating and swimming in my friend’s pond
Playing Cowboys and Indians (so un-PC)
40 cent hot fudge sundaes in a metal dish
Drive-in movies
Asbury Park boardwalk
List would be too long. My childhood was perfect. Neighborhood was safe. Ya knew everyone and everyone was looking out for you. I jumped out of bed by 6am and is was non stop till bed time. I think it is not the past we miss but the newness and wonderment of it all.
Thanks for this, now I can figure out what age people are by their responses. the video games lists remind me that when I grew up, a computer or gaming system hadn’t been invented yet, we had to actually use our imaginations and play with real friends.
Oooh ooh Schoolhouse Rock ”...I’m just a bill, I’m only a bill…”
Oh, I forgot. Love letters in the mail.
Jet Woman and Dyna Girl
Sigmund the Sea Monster
H.R. Puff n’ Stuff
AHHH… I can’t stop.
Sigmund and the Sea Monster? Let’s not forget, H.R. Puff ‘n’ Stuff. And The Bugaloos!
And, besides TV. Remember when water was free. :-)
@ChazMaz Water is still free – just don’t buy the bottled stuff!
This is true. :-) But, if I go back 40 years, walk into a store. (they were Mom & Pop stores back then) ask for the bottled water I guarantee I get laughed at. Also, except for the cost of getting the water to your house. I have a filteration system on my house water. You have no idea the nasties that are in your drinking water. That cost me, and the changing of filters now and then. They are not cheep. So unless I live in the Rocky Mountains with a stream running down the back. It might be cheaper then bottled, but I do have to pay to enjoy clean water. And, one more thing. Was I the only one that got together with a group of kids with bikes and played chase all over the neighborhood till mom screamed my name out to come home?
Three is a Magic Number or Interjections my two very favorite School House Rocks! I bought the videos for my boys and they love them!
@ChazMaz, HR Puff ‘n’ Stuff always freaked me out! Witchy Poo scared me out of my mind and that talking flute was more than my little brain could handle!
@ChazMaz – There was still bottled water back in the Dark Ages when I was young, but it was deionized water for using in your steam iron.
Also, be careful about that Rocky Mountain stream. Giardia lurks even there, thanks to the cute, brown-eyed forest creatures.
Puffalumps, Rubiks Cube, and Fuzzy Pumper Barber Shop.
Our family’s Commodore Vic-20. It ran a full 5K RAM.
i miss the tape drive
ATARI…. I cannot believe I forgot to mention ATARI! I used to waste countless hours playing ATARI on my black and white TV.
I used to love these hand-held (fake) aquariums that would have water in it and lots of small rings in it. You would press these two buttons at the front of the aquarium and the bubbles would push the rings up and around, and idea was that you were supposed to maneuver the rings, so they would land on tiny pegs. The water had glitter in it, too, So hard to describe them and I can’t for the life of me remember what they were called, but, I loved them. This was from around late 70’s/early 80’s.
Yup, like that. Missus the bears, larger and they were a bit more difficult than those.
@drClaw I still have my Atari with 25 games. It’s fun to play with now and then.
a Mickey Mouse watch that will be 54 years old on Tuesday – I got it for my 6th birthday!
Sherman & Mr. Peabody, Boris & Natasha, on Rocky & Bullwinkle – we had a Sylvania TV with a halo light.
catching lightning bugs in a mayonnaise jar until Mom called us home at 9:00
Pinewood Lake Country Club where I spent endless hours getting tanned or water-logged
band-aids that first had cartoons on them and a great reason for boo-boos!
@VS I still like to catch lightning bugs!
@jonsblond what I wouldn’t give to get back my old ATARI.
@drClaw—we still have my husband’s old Atari…and all the other game systems, too. Pong, included!
Atari 2600
G.I. Joe with the Kung-Fu Grip
Commodore 64
Rock-em Sock-em Robots
Saturday morning cartoons
My life before diabetes
Raindrops on roses
whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles
warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
Cream colored ponies
crisp apple strudles
door bells
sleigh bells
schnitzel with noodles
okay, enough with the rhyming, you’ll turn this site into a haven for lousy emo poets, and no one (with any sense) wants that.
that’s the first time I’ve heard Sound of Music and Emo in the same scentence.
Had a wee crush on “Liesel” back in the day..
@cak You lucky SOBs ;-) I remember when I lost my ATARI, I took it to a friends house and on the way home some older kids stole it.
Atari? How about the PET Computer? (highschool) Or, the burroughs computer. Ok, now hanging on the fringes of my conception.
@drClaw That sucks! I am married to a pack rat. It’s a good thing, sometimes.
My He-man lunchbox. How I miss it so.
Pop Rocks Candy
Movie night on your Beta Max(not VHS)
Atari
Drive In Theaters
Riding bikes with friends till dark
Being able to go for a walk in the woods without being followed by someone masturbating.
Being able to play kick ball in the street without worrying about getting kidnapped.
Saturday morning cartoons.
God this thread has made me so nostalgic! Ah, the 80s were a wondrous time to grow up. :)
@rowenaz I was in the woods in England in the 1970s and was followed by someone masturbating. Some things are timeless!
Ooh, I just thought of one nobody mentioned! Not exactly from childhood, but from the teen years: Sex before the advent of AIDS.
Yes, it’s not just English speaking countries – the first time I NOTICED I was being followed by a masturbator was in Turku, FINLAND – I was trying to board an overnight cruise, and I realized that there was the same car following me through the parking lot and parking nearby before I was able to board…finally caught on.
Clackers
Lite Bright
King Vitamin cereal
American Bandstand
Lamb Chop—the puppet
Clue—the board game
Ronco—any product
The color bars when TV signed of (along with the national anthem and snow reception)
Record players
See and say
Atari—pong / Altered Beast
Mood rings, pet rocks, Love’s Baby Soft fragrance
Soy burgers from the school cafeteria (yes, I actually liked them)
Oh Mighty Isis
The original platform shoes
The Lockers dance crew
The Bump
@Darwin OMG sugar and butter sandwiches!
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