Love this Buzzfeed.
I loved those New York Seltzers.
Do they make those anymore? Probably not...I think only slap bracelets
were too young for me. Muppet babies, too. I loved those book orders and
the book and records on my awesome Fisher Price record player. Vintage.
And scratch and sniff stickers, too.
Cannot believe many of those items are already over thirty years old.
Showing posts with label the 80s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the 80s. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
TV Time Away
We needed a break from watching the heartbreaking news coming from Boston yesterday. Marathons are joyful times, when runner are rewarded for months of hard training. An entire city celebrates, and its spirit transcends the entire 26 mile course. I know my Boston friends were very much looking forward to it when I saw them on Saturday.
We tuned into an exception National Geographic series on the 1980s.We made it through the first few hours, which was full of anecdotes about Steve Jobs, President Reagan's assassination, the Rubik's Cube, The Day After movie, Madonna, Run DMC, Calvin Klein underwear, Star Wars, CNN, Valley girls, new Coke and the Pepsi Wars, and more. The site has plenty of more background. You could make the case that the 80s was transformative of a decade we've had, where personal computers and cell phones and VCRs and handheld video cameras and new luxuries became common. Disposable income with a booming economy transformed American culture. Yes, the documentary has had a little too much Jane Fonda. But Larry Hagman, RIP, contributed some witty one-liners as he reflected on Dallas.
That was our formative decade, where I went from turning 4 in March of 1980 to leaving as an 8th grader. I remember most of the decade, from Princess Diana's wedding to the Challenger and the 100th birthday of the Statue of Liberty to President George H.W. Bush's election to the music and the movies and big hair and jelly bracelets to Iranian hostages to Judge Bork's failed confirmation. What a remarkable decade. And now enough time has passed that you can reflect on something 30 years ago and it wasn't just yesterday.
We tuned into an exception National Geographic series on the 1980s.We made it through the first few hours, which was full of anecdotes about Steve Jobs, President Reagan's assassination, the Rubik's Cube, The Day After movie, Madonna, Run DMC, Calvin Klein underwear, Star Wars, CNN, Valley girls, new Coke and the Pepsi Wars, and more. The site has plenty of more background. You could make the case that the 80s was transformative of a decade we've had, where personal computers and cell phones and VCRs and handheld video cameras and new luxuries became common. Disposable income with a booming economy transformed American culture. Yes, the documentary has had a little too much Jane Fonda. But Larry Hagman, RIP, contributed some witty one-liners as he reflected on Dallas.
That was our formative decade, where I went from turning 4 in March of 1980 to leaving as an 8th grader. I remember most of the decade, from Princess Diana's wedding to the Challenger and the 100th birthday of the Statue of Liberty to President George H.W. Bush's election to the music and the movies and big hair and jelly bracelets to Iranian hostages to Judge Bork's failed confirmation. What a remarkable decade. And now enough time has passed that you can reflect on something 30 years ago and it wasn't just yesterday.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Retro
This article talks about the re-issuance of the Baby Sitters Club series, news which even provoked a story in the New York Times. Yes, this is interesting, though I'm torn about whether the Sweet Valley High resurgence is slightly more interesting. I was definitely a fan of these books back in the late 1980s, because I was about these girls age, and hey, who didn't like baby sitting? The girls seemed like sweeter, nicer ones than the ones I was stuck going to school with, and I couldn't help thinking "Wow, Mary Ann has all of these great friends, what about me?" Sigh.
There's always the facebook-esque vindication when someone formerly athletic is crowing about being able to walk four miles. Big whoop. Maybe books like this allows our revisionist fantasies about what school was like, what friendship was like back when we were that age. Or maybe it just recalls what we hoped life was like back in the day, a fonder reminiscence of life at 13 in 8th grade, when quiet nerdy girls had boyfriends named Logan and they had lots of spending $$ to buy wardrobes far cooler than I could ever hope to attain. Where circles of friends would last.
Though gosh, how young is an 8th grader? Twenty years younger than me, and I have "friends" with daughters almost that age. I used to think that was so old and cool, and now, wow, that seems so damn young.
There's always the facebook-esque vindication when someone formerly athletic is crowing about being able to walk four miles. Big whoop. Maybe books like this allows our revisionist fantasies about what school was like, what friendship was like back when we were that age. Or maybe it just recalls what we hoped life was like back in the day, a fonder reminiscence of life at 13 in 8th grade, when quiet nerdy girls had boyfriends named Logan and they had lots of spending $$ to buy wardrobes far cooler than I could ever hope to attain. Where circles of friends would last.
Though gosh, how young is an 8th grader? Twenty years younger than me, and I have "friends" with daughters almost that age. I used to think that was so old and cool, and now, wow, that seems so damn young.
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