Stupid 1980s Fads
Last night. I give my telephone number to a boy. I know, I know … I say that I am done with the dating stuff. I say that I am going to give it a break. I say that I am throwing in the towel. But, I can’t help it. He is a cutie. Did you catch that? He is only “cute”, not “hot”. And, there’s more … the reason that I give him my number is this: I enjoy our conversation. I am trying something different here. If he calls, I’ll let you know how it turns out.
At any rate, all this talk about telephone numbers makes the song 867-5309 magically appear in my head. Remember that one? Well, oddly enough (… and believe me, I am an avid collector of useless & odd trivia facts …) so, oddly enough and as a gag, someone in Modesto, California (land of Scott Petterson) actually maintains the number 867-5309. When you call the number, Jenny answers and tells you where in the world she is today. Try it: (209) 867-5309. Ahh, 1980s fads. Acid-washed jeans. Jheri curls & teased bangs with Aquanet hairspray. Friendship Beads. The California Raisins. Molly Ringwald movies and “Where’s the Beef” commercials. Were any of you alive in the 1980s? Do you remember any other goofy fads?
May 11th, 2006 at 11:14 am
Mullets. Mullets and more mullets. Oh, and black heavy metal band t-shirts. Those were awesome!
I loved Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club – those were great 80’s movies.
I remember dating – it sucked. Good luck with the boy you gave your phone number to.
May 11th, 2006 at 11:53 am
Good luck with the cute boy. And congrats on straying away from the “hot” ones for once. It might do a body good. ;o)
Ah, the 80’s…I LOVE the 80’s (plug in VH1 joke here). I was alive and well in the 80’s, and always said I was born 10 years too late, because I would have ROCKED the 80’s like none other. I still rock the music. Oh, the music…
As for what I remember: slap bracelets, boom boxes, and neighborhood boys dragging cardboard boxes out to break dance on them. Miami Vice and Kit the Car (you know, when David Hasselhoff was “cool”) and cabbage patch kids. Ooooh, Garbage Pail Kids, too!
The crazy thing is how much of the 80’s fads are coming back into style right now. My friend’s daughter has a Strawberry Shortcake addition, and I was like, “Um, that was cool when I was your age…you are so late, girly!” ;o)
May 11th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
The only thing I remember about the 80’s is diapers, formula and sleepless nights being that I had my first son in 80 and the second in 86. I’ll have to ask my sister what she remembers. I’m sure she would have head full. Its kind of funny that my son born in 86 is totally into 80’s movies and music.
Good luck with guy. Hope he calls.
May 11th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
The first half of the eighties was one long party.
May 11th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Okay so we’ve got:
- two different colors of neon socks (in alternated order on each foot, of course)
- those plastic circle things with the bar in the middle you put the right corner of your t-shirt through
- not being able to breathe because you had to have that I-don’t-give-a-damn-about-the-ozone-layer look
- then putting everything but your huge bangs into a ponytail using 4 scrunchies (thereby making your outfit complete: 2 scrunchies match your socks, one matches your t-shirt thing, one matches your one-pocket neon t-shirt which you bloused out over your pleated acid-washed jeans with a 4 inch zipper up the back of the calf leading to a denim bow)
- those Bass shoes you curled the laces into curlicues and then just slipped on
I think I’m done here.
May 11th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
how about video games? trying to play pacman and frogger in roller skates at the rink?
All the toys are back now, because the marketing guys now are our age and know we’ll buy the same stuff for our kids that we had out of nostalgia. My daughter loves Care Bears, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and I’ve seen Rainbow Brite in stores lately too.
May 11th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
Remind me to kill you for making me hear that song. I started singing it as soon as I saw the picture. It will be with me the rest of the day.
Let’s not forget parachute pants.
May 11th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Jellies!
And wearing neon spandex under ripped jeans.
Pegged jeans.
Whitney Houston’s hair.
And jellies.
OMG what were we thinking?
May 11th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Mmmmmmm. The 80s.
- Michael Jackson Beat It jackets
- breakdancing
- Friday Night Videos
- high-top fades
- Lotto sneakers
- Laura Biagiotti sunglasses
- Guess jeans
- CTA tokens
- Adventures in Babysitting
- cell phones in a portable bag
- Reaganomics
- Black Monday
- Harold Washington
- collapse of the Berlin Wall
- Challenger shuttle disaster
- Reagan assassination attempt
- New Edition
- The original “Must See TV” (The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, Hill Street Blues)
- Wall Street (”Greed, for lack of a better word, is good”)
- Thriller
- Punky Brewster
- Thundercats
- Spiderman and his Amazing Friends
- Dungeons & Dragons
Man, I could go on and on.
May 11th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
I completely overlooked technology
- Colecovision
- IBM PC
- TRS-80
- dBase III
- WordPerfect
- MS-DOS
- BBSes
- acoustic modems
- dot-matrix printers
- Apple Mac
- 5.25-inch floppy disks
- CompuServe
- Compute!
May 11th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
I remember teething! Learning to walk! And most importantly, being born! (Also Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, and watching my older sister and learning where Paradise City is and who Sid and Nancy are)
May 11th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
I was born in 1984 so I remember bits and pieces of the late eighties:
-Rainbow
-Rainbow Brite
-My Little Pony
-CareBears
-receiving a Brush-a-Loves bear that I still have
-Dallas
-Bullseye
-Murder She Wrote
-Bros
-watching StakeOut when my uncle Stephen babysat me.
-starting primary school, moving house and my old english sheepdog Tina(she had same hair as Tina Turner) going missing.
May 11th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
On the country side of things, the group Alabama was HOT – top of the charts and Randy Owen was too cute for words.
Fashion wise all I could think of were parachute pants.
Pac Man
HBO was still “fascinating”
May 11th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
In 1987 there was a series called WEREWOLF. There was a 1-800 number with this guy who would say “…now werewolves are very dangerous and should only be viewed from a distance” and other informative things.
May 11th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
And Attari and Nintendo. And, my God, the Jellies! Stinky feet makers is more like it.
Good vibes to you with Cute Boy. ~~~~~~
That 867-5309 thing was funny. I called and laughed!
May 12th, 2006 at 8:07 am
Barry: Mullets. All business up front with a party out back … The Breakfast Club is one of my favorite movies!!! :) … And, thanks for wishing me luck with the boy.
AmyD: The Cute Boy. I think that’s the name that I’ll give him if he comes around and stays long enough to warrant a name, The Cute Boy. Yeah, no one would mistake him for being hot, but he’s definitely a cutie … By the way, I **LOVE** breakdancing. I’m so glad that it’s back!! … Oh, and, by the way, David Hasselhoff is *STILL* cool in Germany and Eastern Europe. Over there, it’s like he never went away. Okay, I know you’re all going to hate me for this, but I might do another “What Ever Happened To” post tomorrow. I simply MUST let you know what the man has been up to. :)
Mel Chickk: I hope he calls, too!! :)
goldennib: One long party??? Post the details!!! :)
Anita: Oh my, you were DEFINITELY a child of the 80s!!! I remember everything that you mentioned. :)
KEP: Remember Ms. PacMan??? She looked just like PacMan, but she had a really big pink bow. :)
AWE: You know you love that song!!! Oh, and, parachute pants … Please. Hammer. Don’t hurt ‘em!
Lola: JELLIES!!! Whoever came up with the idea that people should wear plastic shoes should be shot!
Carlos: Friday Night Videos!!! I’d totally forgot about them!!! :) … About the tech stuff, my family is overrun with luddites, so I totally missed a lot of that stuff.
El: I can still remember the scent of that Strawberry Shortcake doll thing. Ahhhh, childhood … Paradise City? Isn’t that where the grass is green and the girls are pretty?
Nics: Tina Turner is one sexy bitch! :) I want to look like she does when/if I get to be her age.
ET: I remember the sound of the HBO intro … back when the “O” would circle around and lights would eminate from it. :)
Raymond: I never heard of WEREWOLF. Where was I during all of this??? That must have happened during the Dark Years (1980 – 1988).
MamaChristy: We had an Atari!!! I’m not sure, but I think PacMan was the game that didn’t program in enough zero spaces into the game. So, if you were REALLY good and your score was REALLY high, the counter would flip over and go back to zero. :) (BTW, glad you called the Jenny number; I did too. I think it’s hilarious!!!)
May 12th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Can I tell you how much I LOVE 80’s music? haha I know..I know..I’m a dork :-) Wanna hear what else makes me a dork? Yeah…how about that on my old cell phone I actually had the game Frogger…yeah baby!!! haha It was fun while it lasted!! :-)
Good luck with CuteBoy…hopefully he ends up being a keeper :-)
May 12th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
I graduated high school in 1980 (yep I am an old fart) so I remember it all. And those Dynasty Nolan Miller dresses with those huge shoulder pads… yeah that’s the ticket..
May 13th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Blondie: I remember Frogger!!! When you think about it, it is/was a really odd game. I wonder who came up with the idea to make an entire video game about a frog’s quest to leap its way cross busy highways … By the way, CuteBoy has not called me. I gave him my number on Wednesday. We saw each other at an event the following day (and he flirted with me). Now, it’s Saturday. Still no call. Hmmm … I wonder what gives …
Tonito Bandito: You’re only as old as you feel!! :)
May 13th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
That one and 777-9311…what you know about that? LOL
-Berry
May 15th, 2006 at 8:47 am
Honestly? Nothing. I don’t remember that one at all … was it a song, too?
May 15th, 2006 at 10:03 am
I didn’t think you did. Yes, it was a song too.
-Berry
May 15th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
I don’t think cute boys are legal for someone who recognizes that phone number.
May 17th, 2006 at 7:52 am
Oh, but I *LIKE* them young. ;) Younger men are just so, you know, SPRY! :)