Taking the Plunge
By Julie Anderson The NESTEA plunge, that is. The hugely successful Take the Plunge commercial campaign for Nestea began in the 70s, so our older siblings and cousins knew all about it. (Random trivia – from 1978-1980, Six Flags St. Louis’s Log Flume ride was called the Nestea Plunge!) However, we 80s kids sure loved it as well. Taking the Nestea plunge was a favorite pool and lake game when I was growing up. The commercial campaign’s...
1980s Movie Mt. Rushmore Part IV: The Slashers
By Michael Nazarewycz This is the fourth article of a 4-part series that will look at those people most influential on movies in the 1980s. Click here to read Part I: John Hughes, Part II: The Brat Pack and Part III: Kenny Loggins. The slasher film as we know it today was not born in the 1980s, but rather in 1974 with director Bob Clark’s Black Christmas. (Yes, the same Bob Clark who brought us such ’80s gems as...
Handclap Games of the Eighties
By Julie Anderson Brrrrrrrrinnnggg!!! You close your fuzzy-kitten Trapper Keeper and stow it under your desk. Your second grade class lines up and thunders outside for playtime. The boys head directly toward the sharp steel seesaws, tetherball, and merry-go-round, those wildly unsafe and now-defunct playground structures we adored. And sure, dizzying centrifugal force and strangulation hazards were exciting, but if you were a girl,...
8-Bit Art
By Tibs Many art movements have come and gone through the years, most of which have been intentional, reflecting messages of the times. However, one movement stands out, for me, above all others. This movement was, until recently, not a movement at all. Simply, it was a representation of the limitations of technology at the time. I am referring, of course, to 8-Bit. 8-Bit arguably became famous with the introduction of third...
Double Dutch Much?
By Julie Anderson Double Dutch jump roping was totally cool in the early eighties. The basic idea is pretty simple: it involves two turners who hold one jumprope in each hand and get them swinging in opposite directions. The jumper then hops in the middle of the two swinging ropes and jumps both. According to skill level, the jumper might do tricksy foot moves or feats of gymnastics while simultaneously dodging and hopping the ropes....
