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...
A Prince Is Born
The world has been waiting in anticipation on the announcement from London of the name of the new little princess — welcome to the world Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. Living in the USA, all of the pomp and circumstance of kings, queens, princes and (sigh) princesses is all so fascinating, so regal, and so different from how we do things here. It’s so, well, royal. Who can forget the fairytale wedding of Charles and Diana back in...
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...
Valentine’s Day, 1987
Let’s step back in time – how about February 14th, 1987? Imagine you’re 16 again; it’s the most romantic day of the year, and you have several guys (or girls) you have serious crushes on. You don’t have a date for tonight – yet. But again, it’s the most romantic day of the year! And today, the possibilities, like your love, are ENDLESS. 6:30 a.m. The alarm goes off on your pink Conair alarm clock with the bright green numbers. Heart...
Strawberry Shortcake Dolls
In the early 80s, we sure loved putting perfumy-fruity scents on things: scratch-and-sniff stickers, chunky erasers, lip balms and magic markers were all kissed with the scent of buttered popcorn, pink lemonade, pepperoni pizza and Dr. Pepper! But ask any girl what her favorite strawberry-scented object of affection was in the 80s, and I bet she will tell you this: Strawberry Shortcake. She was the doll that smelled like...
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...
The 80s Most Famous Feline – Garfield
Think of 80s icons that were so famous, so totally popular, that you know them by just one name. For instance: Madonna, Sting, and Bono. Now think of cartoon cats of the 80s who were so famous they went by just one name – I bet only one comes to mind: this guy here. Garfield was so insanely popular in the 1980s that it was rare to attend a sleepover party where one or all attendees were not accompanied by the fat, orange, big eyed...
In Defense of Band-Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
In 1984, an instantly classic holiday song tried to save the world. Thirty years later, it seems the song needs to be saved from itself. I originally intended to write a piece outlining how the 1984 version of Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is infinitely superior to the 2014 version. (Sorry, One Direction guys, but it’s true.) But after some initial research, I realized the 1984 version is not quite as beloved as I...
5 Ways Christmas Was Better in the 80s
When I think back to Christmas as a kid in the 80s, things seemed a lot less complicated. There was the glow of the television screen — not of the iPad/iPhone screen — with the yule log burning or “Emmet Otters Jugband Christmas” playing on a loop on HBO. When we wanted to watch our annual Christmas specials, we had to check the TV Guide to make sure we were home in time for Rudolph or Frosty; there was no On Demand back...
