Are These the ’80s Most Notable Moments?
CNN is debuting a new original series tonight called The Eighties and as part of an intense marketing campaign has been highlighting some of the decade’s biggest political, cultural and technological impacts on today. Recently, it released 80 moments from the ’80s that it thinks are the most notable events of the decade. The list includes events like: February 22, 1980: Miracle on ice happens as U.S. hockey team defeats...
Why Aren’t Neighborhood Kids Shoveling Driveways to Earn Money Anymore?
You’ve most likely seen the viral memes that begin circulating once again every winter. It seems like every cold season, folks reminisce about how children in the 70s and the 80s used snowstorms as an opportunity to make some extra cash, going around from house to house to offer their services shoveling snow. Gone are those days, they say, thanks to the distraction of social media and video games and texting. Kids simply...
Freedom Rock
Television shows of the late 70s/early 80s were slightly obsessed with the past. Think Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. These were shows we could all watch together as a family about sock-hops, make-out points, and water skiing over sharks – stuff everybody did back then, right? That nostalgic obsession extended to our everyday culture in the 80s as well. I remember 50s dress up day in school (poodle skirts!) and the return of the...
We Got the Beat – Teen Beat and Tiger Beat Magazines
I’ve always been big on magazines. I love lip gloss magazines like Glamour and Cosmo, magazines with photos of beautiful food I will never make or eat like Gourmet and Food & Wine, and magazines that keep me up to date on all the important news of the day like US Weekly or In Touch (don’t judge: they pass the time nicely while getting my hair done.) As a teenager, I loved my Sassy and Seventeen magazines, of course. But as a...
Return of the Original – Original New York Seltzer
There were so many 80s beverages that made an impression on my young life – think about how many metal cans of Hi-C’s neon green Ecto Cooler you put in your body. Or the novelty Crystal Pepsi (IT’S CLEAR!) and the betrayal that was New Coke. But there was one fizzy 80s drink that kind of defined the 80s. It was not your average soda. It was cool, refreshing, and came in a little glass bottle. And, I was so excited to hear that it is...
Q*bert Fever!
When I was younger there were a few choice video games that I was drawn to when I hit the movie theatre, pizza parlor or especially, the arcade. Sure I loved Donkey Kong, Asteroids and what seemed to be every girl’s game of choice – Centipede. But there was another little character just as important in my life as everyone’s favorite, the star of the show, Pac Man. He was little, orange and had a little weird snout. He was an excellent...
The July 4th Bike Parade
I guess it is the nature of traditions that they stay around and get replayed year after year, but it is still comforting to realize all over again that something that meant something to you as a kid hasn’t gone completely away. The 35 years that have passed since the start of the 80s have seen truly phenomenal change, particularly in the areas of technology and its impact on our overall culture. With all that change, it gives me an...
Remembering The Far Side
I always loved reading the Sunday comics; it was a little ritual every week: my dad pulled out the sports section, mom clipped coupons, and I lay on the couch reading the comic section. Sure, I loved Garfield, For Better or For Worse, Blondie, and Bloom County was cool. Cathy bugged me even back then with all of her bad dates, self-obsessing and “ACK’s!” But the comic that I really liked, the one that always made me laugh out loud was...
The Sweet Smell of Youth — Love’s Baby Soft
Before the days of Colors by benetton, before Liz Claiborne, and waaay before the very mature, very overpowering Obsession obsession, pre-teen girls of the 80s everywhere were spritzing this on their wrists and behind their ears: Love’s Baby Soft was the “it” fragrance to have sitting atop your dresser – it smelled (and still smells) like . . . well . . . youth. The powdery and pretty scent came in a rounded pink bottle with a big...
We Got the Colgate Pump!
Are you ready for your mid-week 80s earworm? No, it’s not a song that spent ten weeks at number one on American Top 40 or the theme song to The Facts of Life. It’s a commercial you probably thought you’d forgotten (watch below). But now that you hear it, you totally didn’t forget it – am I right?!? I came across this little nugget around two weeks back and it’s still going through my head on a loop. While it didn’t chart in the...
Look it up! – Encyclopedias in the 80s
Like junior high and high school kids today, ‘80s kids stayed busy doing homework, doing research, and writing papers. When books on the subject at hand, whether it happened to be pollywogs, cavemen, or the digestive tract, weren’t cutting the mustard, we had to look elsewhere for information. We had to look it up. This was of course way before the Internet—way before Google or Wikipedia. We couldn’t just look up information on...
6 Ways Your Birthday Party Was Different in the 80s
Whenever my birthday rolls around, I tend to get a little nostalgic. I find myself thinking back to the good old days, to parties of yesteryear, from childhood and teenhood in the late 70s and 80s. Is it me or do some parents today go reeeeallly over the top in planning parties for their kids? Semi-trucks pull up to their houses full of video games, artsy (read: CRAZY expensive) cakes from bakeries, and theme parties where every...
Goodbye to the Legendary Lip Smacker
Whenever I find out something from my youth is going away I always feel a pang of sadness mixed with some sticky-sweet nostalgia. So many 80s things that were important have passed on but are not forgotten: RIP Jello Pudding Pops, Sassoon Jeans, Planters Cheez Balls, Shine Free cosmetics, and Original New York Seltzer. But when I heard the news about this next product going bye-bye, I have to say it made my pre-teen heart ache just a...
Call Me! Phones of the 80s
Since my teen years in the 1980s, phones have changed immensely. They have gone from big, clunky, curly-corded devices to sleek, tiny, talking computers that you can take anywhere with you. Where you were once tied to the kitchen chatting endlessly with your B/F/F or nervously hanging up on that boy you had a crush on after he said hello, now you can blab away while in your car, walking down the street, grocery shopping, trying on...
The Fizz of the 80s
A sip or a taste of something can be a great little time machine. In fact, just seeing the packaging of a favorite food or a drink from childhood can make me thirsty for the 80s. Picture that giant can of Hi-C Ecto Cooler, makes me think of trading baseball cards, roller-skating, endless bike riding and being a kid. But it’s the following sodas that send me back to the mall, the convenience store, or to “laying out” on the beach with...
