Children of the 80s,.. UNITE!

“You Know You Are A Child Of The 80's When:
1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word "SIKE".
2. You watched the Pound Puppies.
3. You can sing the rap to the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air"
4. You wore biker shorts under your skirts and felt stylish.
5. You yearned to be a member of the Baby-sitters club and tried to
start a club of your own.
6. You owned those lil Strawberry Shortcake pals scented dolls.
7. You know that "WOAH " comes from Joey on Blossom.
8. Two words: M.C. Hammer
9. If you ever watched "Fraggle Rock ".
10. You had plastic streamers on your handle bars.
11. You can sing the entire theme song to "Duck Tales".
12. When it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch
cartoons.
13. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
14. You saw the original "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on the big
screen.
15. You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class
at school.
16. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt
in a knot on the side.
17. You played the game "MASH " (Mansion, Apartment,Shelter, House)
18. You wore Jordache jean jacket and you were proud of it.
19. L.A. Gear....need I say more
20. You wanted to change your name to "JEM " in Kindergarten.
21. You remember reading "Tales of a fourth grade nothing " and all the
Ramona books Ramona completed in 1st grade.
22. You know the profound meaning of "WAX ON, WAX OFF"
23. You wanted to be a Goonie.
24. You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (some of us...head-to-toe)
25. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose
fell off...
26. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
27. You took Lunch Pails to school.
28. You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.
29. You still get the urge to! say "NOT " after every sentence.
30. You remember Hypercolor t-shirts.
31. Barbie and the Rockers was your favorite band.
32. You thought She-Ra and He-Man should hook up.
33. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you
exchanged friendship bracelets.
34. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes. (and like 24, probably in
neon colors, too)
35. After you saw Pee-Wee's Big Adventure you kept saying "I know you
are, but what am I? "
36. You remember "I've fallen, and I can't get up "
37. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline
skates.
38. You ever got seriously injured on a Slip and Slide.
39. You have ever played with a Skip-It.
40. You had or attended a birthday party at McDonalds.
41. You've gone through this nodding your head in agreement.
42. You remember Popples.
43. "Don't worry, be happy "
44. You wore like, EIGHT pairs of socks over tights with high top
Reeboks.
45. You wore socks scrunched down (and sometimes still do... getting
yelled at by "younger hip" members of the family)
46. "Miss MARY MACK MACK MACK, all dressed in BLACK BLACK BLACK "
47. You remember boom boxes vs. cd players.
48. You remember watching both "Gremlins " movies.
49. You know what it meant to say "Care Bear Stare!! "
50. You remember watching Rainbow Bright and My Little Pony Tales
51. You thought Doogie Howser was hot.
52. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.
53. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool.
54. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved
By the Bell ", the ORIGINAL class.
55. You know all the words to Bon Jovi - SHOT THRU THE HEART.
56. You just sang those words to yourself.
57.You remember watching Magic vs. Bird.
58.You cut your t-shirts in half and wore it with your homemade Levi
shorts.. (the shorter the better)
59. You remember when mullets were cool!
60. You had a mullet!
61. You still sing "We are the World "
62. You "Pegged " your pants ritually. You're still singing shot through
the heart in your head aren't you!!!
63.You french rolled your jeans.
64.You owned a bannana clip
65.You owned garbage pail kids.
66.You wore leg warmers.
67.You trickle down economics didn't work for the poor guy
68.when the berlin wall fell, you wanted a piece.
69.The Snorkles were the best next to fraggle rock n smurfs”

“LOL, that was great - i didn't understand the ones directed towards girls... but most of the rest i could sure relate to, lol”

“That's great! I remember most of that stuff!”

“hey...I remember some of them.
Does that make me hip or just inmature??

OR just the mom of a 80 born??”

“Gemini... you may remember it but you weren't GROWING UP in the 80s!!”

“yeah...I still was growing up then...right after my divorce...BELIVE ME....I was growing up back then....”

“those are for "Kids" of the 80's not teens of the 80's.”

“Thank goodness I'm not familiar with most of that stuff.”

“Scorchie.... you of all people should know that it's 'PSYCH!' not 'SIKE!'

<ARGH>


HEY -- Fraggle Rock was cool!

And I still have a Hypercolor t-shirt in my closet -- I saw it last week. Maybe it'd be worth something on eBay?”

“Yes to most of those things....YIKES lol its so true :)

Um, we cant wear biker shorts under skirts any more or florecent colors?”

“If you're going to hike in the woods during hunting season, fluorescent colors are a good idea....”

“I am a child of the eighties. That is what I prefer to be called. The nineties can do without me. Grunge isn't here to stay, fashion is fickle and "Generation X" is a myth created by some over-40 writer trying to figure out why people wear flannel in the summer.
When I got home from school, I played with my Atari 2600. I spent hours playing Pitfall or Combat or Breakout or Dodge'em Cars or Frogger. I never did beat Asteroids. Then I watched "Scooby-Doo." Daphne was a Goddess, and I thought Shaggy was smoking something synthetic in the back of their psychedelic van. I hated Scrappy.

I would sleep over at friends' houses on the weekends. We played army with G.I. Joe figures, and I set up galactic wars between Autobots and Decepticons. We stayed up half the night throwing marshmallows and Velveeta at one another. We never beat the Rubik's Cube.

I got up on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m. to watch bad Hanna-Barbera cartoons like "Snorks," "Jabberjaw," "Captain Caveman," and "Space Ghost." In between I would watch "School House Rock." ("Conjunction junction, what's your function?")

On weeknights Daisy Duke was my future wife. I was going to own the General Lee and shoot dynamite arrows out the back. Why did they weld the doors shut? At the movies the Nerds Got Revenge on the Alpha Betas by teaming up with the Omega Mus. I watched Indiana Jones save the Ark of the Covenant, and wondered what Yoda meant when he said, "No, there is another."

Ronald Reagan was cool. Gorbachev was the guy who built a McDonalds in Moscow. My family took summer vacations to the Gulf of Mexico and collected "The Great Muppet Caper" glasses along the way. (We had the whole set.) My brother and I fought in the back seat. At the hotel we found creative uses for Connect Four pieces like throwing them in that big air conditioning unit.

I listened to John COUGAR Mellencamp sing about Little Pink Houses for Jack and Diane. I was bewildered by Boy George and the colors of his dreams, red, gold, and green. MTV played videos. Nickelodeon played "You Can't Do That on Television" and "Dangermouse." Cor! HBO showed Mike Tyson pummel everybody except Robin Givens, the bad actress from "Head of the Class" who took all Mike's cashflow.

I drank Dr. Pepper. "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper, wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?" Shasta was for losers. TAB was a laboratory accident. Capri Sun was a social statement. Orange juice wasn't just for breakfast anymore, and bacon had to move over for something meatier.

My mom put a thousand Little Debbie Snack Cakes in my Charlie Brown lunch box, and filled my Snoopy Thermos with grape Kool-Aid. I would never eat the snack cakes, though. Did anyone? I got two thousand cheese and cracker snack packs, and I ate those.

I went to school and had recess. I went to the same classes everyday. Some weird guy from the eighth grade always won the science fair with the working hydro-electric plant that leaked on my project about music and plants. They just loved Beethoven.

Field day was bigger than Christmas, but it always managed to rain just enough to make everybody miserable before they fell over in the three-legged race. Where did all those panty hose come from? "Deck the Halls with Gasoline, fa la la la la la la la la," was just a song. Burping was cool. Rubber band fights were cooler. A substitute teacher was a baby sitter/marked woman. Nobody deserved that.

I went to Cub Scouts. I got my arrow-of-light, but never managed to win the Pinewood Derby. I got almost every skill award but don't remember ever doing anything.

The world stopped when the Challenger exploded.

Did a teacher come in and tell your class?

Half of your friends' parents got divorced.

People did not just say no to drugs.

AIDS started, but you knew more people who had a grandparent die from cancer.

Somebody in your school died before they graduated.

When you put all this stuff together, you have my childhood. If this stuff sounds familiar, then I bet you are one, too.

We are children of the eighties. That is what I prefer "they" call it.”

“Sacco, your deal sounds more familiar to me, minus all the boyscout stuff. (But I did get all sorts of patches in Girl Scouts and never remember doing anything but playing Red light, Green light.)
I think I'm off by a few years for some of the stuff in Scorch's thing.”

“You know you are getting older when:


1. The children of the 80's are posting nostalgia lists that you can't relate to 90% of

2. Not only do you remember Micahel Jackson when he was white, you remember him when he was a kid, just like you were at the time

3. The only blue, smurf-like creatures you can remember were the 'blue meanies'

4. Yeah, i can relate to, "I've fallen and can't get up"

5. Not only did MY kids have birthday parties at McDonald's, I actually remember when the chain opened

6. You remember when Reeboks weren't even in existence and the only sneakers available were Converse, Keds and P.F. Flyers

7. You hated New Kids On The Block

8. You NEVER thought mullets were cool

9. You remember when M*A*S*H was a movie

10. Your favorite TV alien was not Alf, but 'My Favorite Martian'”

“whoops, Michael Jackson, when he was black! lol”

“Well, count me in as a child of the 80's.

The Autobots always beat the Decepticons...

One of my college friends has an Atari 2600 that actually works. When he brought it to our dorm, suddenly the PlayStation 2s and the Nintendos gathered dust. Argh, Pitfall flashback!”

“I remember when Mario was guy that climbed scaffolding and jumped over barrels so he could save his girlfriend.”

“My daughter literally, sincerely responded to something I said about MJ once with the question, "You're kidding...Michael Jackson used to be black?"

:)”

“Geez, tree! You had me worried there for a minute - I did remember when MJ was a kid (remember the Jackson 5 cartoon show?), but not when he was white!”

“Sorry, Bowlderman! Color is a very confusing issue with regard to Michael Jackson! :)”

“And Reagan was never cool.

An unindicted co-conspiritor, maybe....”

“Anyone remember where they were and what they were doing when they announced over the school PA system that President Kennedy was killed?”

“I had a mullet, wore neon Jams, and remember Def Leppard when the drummer had 2 arms and all its original members were alive.

I STILL have a working Atari 2600 above my TV, which I play occasionally. In fact, I asked for and am getting several "new" cartridges for it for Father's Day from my wife! No, it hasn't been above my TV since 1983, I pulled it out of storage 2 years ago after I found an Atari emulator for my PC - and downloaded every game ever made. Nothing quite like using the real Atari joystick, so out came the Real Thing.”

“I do, Chicago Mark! i was eight years old. My mother had taken me to the doctor that morning. We were in the waiting, which had quite a few people in it. All of a sudden, I noticed the place got quiet. And I also noticed that many of the mothers were weeping. I didn't quite know why until my mom told me that Presient Kennedy was shot and killed. I will never forget that.

I also will not forget watching Oswald get shot and killed on national TV!”

“I was in my mother's womb when Kennedy got shot. (I think. what month was he shot in?)

I remember seeing the lunar landing/liftoffs, sea rescues on tv in the classrooms. That was so cool! And sliding down the fire escapes (big tubes on the sides of the buildings).

The neighbors and I would play army with our little green men and firecrackers. All I had was boys to play with when I was young. No girls on the block.

We lived in Omaha and didn't need a chaperone to go trick or treating but mom did check the candy after a razor was found (a news story) in a snickers bar.

When we moved from Omaha, the neighbor sent me my first tape of recorded music. I remember "Puppy Love", and that allegator song: "Amos Moses", my mother wasn't impressed.

I dated a guy who owned a charger painted to look like the general lee (ref to Sacco's expose).

so I guess that means I'm not a child of the 80's.

:P”

“None of those make sense to me...I was raised by the Cleaver family.”

“I was an 80's child.”

“I remember many of these things, but I observed them at a distance. I was a child of the late 60's and early 70's. Is anyone else old enough to remember learning how to disco dance in order to go to the senior prom?”

“I think I'm on the cusp here.”

“I can relate to the PF Flyer, Keds and Converse item Treebeard brought up. In fact, I can relate to all his items.

I grew up watching Captain Kangaroo, Mighty Mouse, Lassie and Sky King.

I was in first grade when President Kennedy got shot and can still remember our Prinipal, Mr. Hodges, come over the loudspeaker and announce the news. I remember my mother crying when I got home. I remember how people were glued to the black and white TV with any news report.

I remeber watching rocket launches on TV either in the school classroom or at home. Everyone sat glued to the TV for that important event.

Yes, it was certainly a very different time.”

“I think some of these were too late for me”

“My favorite TV alien was Mork, but probably because I had a big crush on Mindy. Does anyone else remember watching the Apollo 11 mission from start to finish on a B&W TV?”

“I do, Texas! I was really into anything to do with the space program as a kid. That was fascinating stuff back then!”

“who can forget the hair.

”

“Me too, Tex! I remember staying in the yard all day so we could run in and catch the moment on TV.”

“HAH! Oregon Trail Days. Jeez I haven't heard that since I was in the 3rd or 4th grade.

PSST...Tilt, it's been 20 years, clean your closet!”

“maple...that's a pic of you?”

“Maple, that looks like a short haired girl with one of those Eskimo coat hoods pulled over her head!”

“It looks like she's wearing a Terrier on her head!”

“Here's my 80's girlfriend. She was 6 feet tall with that hair!”

“LOL
no that is not me. I was an 80's hippy”

“I thought all the hippies went corporate in the '80's.”

“i wanna see a pic of maple in the 80's.... everyone...please post pics of yourself in the 80's... :)”

“aero...which one was your girlfriend on that pic??”

“I still have some 70s clothes, too... Great for Halloween, LOL





There were no VCRs back then, so I took a picture of the TV set!”

“One of my very computer-savvy friends recovered an Oregon Trail disk a few years ago. He tried to play it on a modern computer, but the little pioneer character would just spin in circles or (worse) fire every bullet with a single button push. The computer processed the game too quickly. D'oh! :)”

“LOL Gemini! Hmmm, they're both kind of attractive in their own way!”

“Yeah! ”