guess I'll continue. My seasoned long-term memory has lots of wild and
crazy things :)
Remember these?
-Weekend ratings in Mrs. Apostle's class. Heck, everything that happened in
Christian life for that matter! That was so cool! We watched Breakfast
Club! Totally radical, dude :) Then we got to look through old yearbooks,
and do the Padua quiz...and remember "talking time"? Remember watching the
Wilson Phillips "Hold On" video? Can't forget Day 1 when we learned about
Karma. And the "Book Project". That was totally awesome, and I got a 98 on
mine :) Mrs. Apostle was such a positive teacher and really encouraged
everyone to do their very best.
-Creeeeepy crawlers. Those rubberized creatures you put into a mold, heated
'em up and became fun to play with. I never had one of these, but I know
Bernie did :)
-Paperboy. The Nintendo game. EVERYONE had played this game...and I don't
think anyone has ever beat it. I got to Thursday once, but never past that.
That game made everyone want to be a Paperboy, but I always feared riding my
bike with an approaching tornado, or an errant breakdancer on the sidewalk.
-Crash test dummies. You popped 'em in the car, rammed the car into your
basement wall and POW...the figures fly out and emulate a real car wreck.
How many people were single-handedly convinced to buckle their seat belts by
these guys? Probably none, but they were still fun to play with.
-Family Life and Patricia Miller sex ed. books/videos. Ok, maybe this was
only a St. Charles thing, but chances are everyone had something similar to
these. It was just so funny how sugar-coated everything was and how none of
the teachers looked forward to teaching it. Even worse were the permission
slips I had to give mom and dad to view these materials. Why on earth did
we have to go through 4 years having to watch the SAME exact video each
year? Did they really think we forgot where the sex organs were located on
the human body? The videos were the best, because you got to watch the
really good ones by the time 8th grade came around. In 5th or 6th everyone
wanted to see "Dating Decisions" but you had to wait until 8th. And when
that day came when we finally saw it, our lives were all complete.
-Book It! The club where you got Pizza Hut personal pan pizza certificates
by reading a couple books. Now that was fun, because I loved my ZA! Do you
know how many shitty books I had to read just to get one little ZA for
myself? Back then it was good times, and spending hours reading Choose Your
Own Adventure was well worth the $1.99 I saved. Speaking of reading, how
many had used "Accelerated Reader"? The program on the old Apple IIe
computer that tested you on a book and gave you points according to the
difficulty of that book. I always got the most points in grade school (and
I also tested on the same books each year :). Again, this may be a St.
Charles thing but if you didn't have it, you were left out. Big time!
-More books. How about Judy Bloom? She was the best. She wrote like,
Freckle Juice and
Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing and all those other awesome books. I would
recommend any book written by her to a kid. Then the book that EVERYONE
wanted. "Where the Sidewalk Ends" I don't think I even have to explain.
-Slap bracelets, or friendship bracelets or anything circluar the could be
put around your wrist or ankle. Again, another 3rd-4th grade craze that
complemented the peak of the New Kids On the Block era. I can't believe
even the boys used to like this stuff ;) What were we thinking????? Then
again, I was never the popular type and never followed any of this stuff,
but always wanted to. Maybe it wasn't so bad I grew up in a bubble!
-Teddy Ruxbin. Everyone had one...in fact, a few still do that I know of.
Well, everyone except for me, that is... The lovable bear that you popped
in tapes in his back and his lips moved to tell you a story. Well, guess
what? I had Mr. Gameshow instead!!!! BWAHAHAHA! And a pinball machine for
that matter
-The Nerf TURBO football. These things were the BOMB. They probably still
are, but they just came out in the peak of our childhood. I always remember
wanting one sooooo bad for Christmas of 1990 and I got another one for my
10th birthday. Heck, I still have one. Then you had the "mini-turbo"
footballs. These were even better because you could throw them twice as
far. Then there were all the "imitation nerf footballs". When will the
madness end?
-SkipIT, JumpIT, WhateverIT. Those things that had counters on them so you
could see how many times you could do IT. I never had one of these, and I
never actually know "how" to do IT. I know some people who cheated and just
rotated it a bizillion times just to see the counter roll over back to 000.
How fun.
-J.D. Roth, and all his kid gameshows, with his best being FUN HOUSE. I
remember it coming on at 4 every afternoon, and it was just the coolest TV
program ever invented. Then I know there were other good gameshows. Hey,
remember Liz from WUAB-Kidsland? I wonder what she's up to now?
Nickelodeon shows were great to back then. Remember these: Wild 'n'
Craaaazy Kids, You Can't Do That on Television, Make the Grade, Hey Dude,
Guts. Nickelodeon ROCKED back then...why do they blow ass now?
-Bo Jackson. What ever happened to that him?
...and the epitomy of our childhood memories....
-Super Mario Brothers 3. This game defined our era. It WAS bigger than
anything else. It was the absolute greatest game ever. It was fun. You
were cool if you had it. (I didn't get it until the ULTIMATE Christmas of
1991) Everyone still knows what level everything was. I personally like
"Big World #4". It was good. I could go ON and ON and ON about how my life
revolved around that one game, but everyone else knows so I really don't
have much to say that is news to anyone.
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Again, my life revolved around the turtles.
Even moreso than SMB. It was just so cool to do ninja. Or at least pretend
like you could. I think I pretended a "little" too much :) (I know Bernie
is probably laughing his ass off when I mentioned that). The funniest part
is that I didn't let the Turtles go until I was like, 12 when the whole fad
was long gone. I watched TMNT the movie at least 75 times. It was THE
movie. The cartoons were good to -- good enough for me to tape almost every
episode on my VCR. Heck, I still have them too :) What killed the turtles?
The 2nd and 3rd sequels to the movie. They killed everything. Who really
needed Super Shredder? Grr.
I got lots more memories where that came from. Expect "Nostalgia Part
Trois" coming soon!
-Chris
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