You Know You Grew Up in the 80s If...

“1. You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE ".

2. You watched the Pound Puppies (or owned one).

3. You can sing the rap to the "Fresh Prince of BelAir " ...and can do the "Carlton."

4. Girls wore biker shorts under their skirts and felt stylishly sexy.

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 "WHOA" comes from Joey on Blossom.

8. Two words: Hammer Pants

9. If you ever watched "Fraggle Rock."

10. You had plastic streamers on your handle bars... and spokey-dokes" or playing cards on your spokes for that incredible sound effect.

11. You can sing the entire theme song to "Duck Tales" (Woo ooh!)

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... and still know the turtles' names.

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 stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it.

19. L.A. Gear....need I say more?

20. You wanted to change your name to "JEM" in kindergarten. (She's
truly outrageous.)

21. You remember reading "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing " and all the Ramona books.

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 and his cheeks shifted.

26. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.

27. You took lunch boxes to school... and traded Garbage Pail Kids in the schoolyard.

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 (Princess of Power!) and He-Man should hook up.

33. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade 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.. and walking around with one on your
shoulder like you were all that.

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/Samantha Micelli 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... and don't even flinch when people refer to them as "NKOTB".
***And when Mark Wahlberg was part of Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch***

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 THROUGH THE HEART. (You
Give Love A Bad Name)

56. You just sang those words to yourself.

57.You remember watching Magic vs. Bird.

58. 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 tight rolled your jeans.

63. You owned a banana clip

64. You remember "Where's the Beef?

65. You used to (and probably still do) say "What you talkin' about, Willis?"

66. You had big hair and you knew how to use it.

67. You're still singing "Shot Through the Heart" in your head,
aren't you!!!”

“lol”

“if you tight rolled your bugle boy pants”

“Call me a Child of the Eighties

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 "The 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 "Muppet Movie" 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? A substitute teacher was a baby sitter/marked woman. Nobody deserved that! "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.

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.

by Bryant Adkins
published in The Reflector
January 20, 1995”

“Is wore wrestling shoes to school on this list? I didn't see it.

That was very 80's”

“you didn't have to grow up in the 80's to remember those things. Just have kids who were born in the late 70's or 80's.”

“Back! Back! Back to the 80's! Go back!


”

“D4mn I remember alot that stuff but i also had 3 older sister that really grew up in the 80 BUT i remeber alot of that stuff”

“That's my 80's Time Machine, BTW.”

“i remember lots of zippers.

zippers on sneakers.

zippers on pants.

zippers on shirts.

all at wierd angles

for no reason at all.

zippers just seemed cool back then.”

“I need someone to post a picture for me that will speak volumes. Tell me how to do it or something...please.”

“


delete everything between the "s and insert your address.”

“[img src="http://web address for the picture" width="300"]

also, change the [ ] into < >”

“I need to post my senior picture from high school. I looked like Robert Plant. Hair all down my back”

“Dont for get about wearing two different colors of Chuck Taylors on each foot. Chucks still rule by the way.”

“or getting the high top chucks and folding the top part down. then they came out with the pair that did that. how about tying a bandanna around your jeans. Who had Teddy Rukspin or pound puppies?”

“i had tons of starwars chit.
man, i could prolly retire early if i kept that stuff in mint condition instead of selling it all for like $20 when i was in junior high.”

“yeah me too. I loved star wars.”

“Aero, I'm sending you an email to post, please.”

“Hey EarthNsky
I remember those. My friend had a pair of the knee high kind. Turquoise and yellow. He used to rap them in duct tape in the winter to keep is legs from freezing. LOL what a dork! Gotta love the 80's”

“My kids were born in the '80s.


I did enjoy Fraggle Rock.”

“Down at Fraggle Rock!

That show ruled”

“I think Fraggle Rock must've been on in the latter part of the 80's - when I was, um, uh, working,,, yeah, that's it. working.”

“Guess I was just born too early. None of this makes sense to ME.”

“That picture always makes me chuckle.”

“OH MY! Flashback!

I'm proud to say I never had big hair, but I did wear shoes with zippers and stonewashed tightrolled Palmetto jeans. I also wore socks OVER my stirrup pants:)”

“I'm proud to say, I never wore stirrup pants!!

I did wear Calvin Kleins with ONE roll only. I wore my collar up and all white basketball shoes. I had an ID bracelet, too.

Oh, the 80's!”

“I still wear my collar up”

“Thanks, Aero! I could never have figured that out. I'm lucky I can do a link.


Who else wore a wrist full of Swatches? If you were really cool you had more than one on at a time.

And it was cool to wear a white button up shirt under a sweater and let the tails of the shirt hang out rather than tuck it in.”

“I was a non-conformist in the 80's which coincidently was the decade of non-conforming. I was too young and too much of a nerd to conform.”

“to conform to the non-conforming that is”

“so, in other words, you exercised your right not to walk?”

“Hey Roam, is that you on the right hand side of that picture? I could hardly reconize you without the Gators hat on!!!”

“How about Growing Pains, E.T., and Indiana Jones?

In the video game genre, does any remember how incredibly difficult it was to get either the Super Mario Bros 2 or Super Mario Bros 3 games? I don't think that any one video game since has been that popular...”

“Would you belive that wearing Polos with the collar up is coming back in style? Makes me feel old...”

“I can only relate to #'s

9, 14, 22, 25, 29, 35, 36, 52, 54, 55, 64, 65, 66, & 67”

“Yep, that's me on the left

”

“webshots sucks”

“Early on, I had a tail that was dyed blond and braided. It went down to the mid part of my shoulder blades.

My was every single color of the rainbow. I never picked up so many chicks than when I had platinum hair one summer. Oh, that summer......


That's one of the reasons I HAVE no hair today. I wasted it. I loved the music and the culture. We are a great generation.”

“Deffinatly a great decade for music!!”

“do you remember a Nashville band called Eazy2Pleez I think is how it was spelled?”

“It seems I remember the name but never saw them.”

“when I lived in Nashville, I played in a band that was somewhat the reincarnation of that band with out the teased hair and make up. We were called Pheromone.”

“Do you still play?”

“yeah, I am trying to get back into it. Played at a coffee shop last week. Played two songs I wrote and the crowd liked them :). That was the first time I played in front of a crowd, just me and piano in a long time. Scary. I miss playing at the Exit/In and 12th and Porter though. I liked those clubs alot.”

“We played a couple of times this year at a little coffee house. That was our fisrt time on a stage in about 17 years.”