1) Big League Chew - Of course we weren't allowed to actually HAVE any of this. But as kids, we would go to the corner party store (Hay's Market) and stare longlingly at it, wishing we could buy some. We couldn't think of anything cooler than eating strings of gum in handfuls from a little pouch. Now, as a parent, I can see why my parents objected. For the same reason they objected to us buying candy cigarettes: BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT US TO HAVE ANY FUN AT ALL! 
2) Strawberry Shortcake Dolls - Oh, just saying this name brings back the fond memory of their sweet smelling, plastic-fibered hair. My favorite was Raspberry Tart, with her delicious pink raspberry afro. Remember Apricot & Hopsalot? Or the Purple Pie man? Toys should always smell that good, I think.
3) The Muppet Show - A family tradition was watching this together on Sunday nights. Pigs in Space. Beaker. Animal. The Swedish Chef ("mordy mordy bork bork"), Gonzo and his insecurities. And Fozy Bear's bad jokes. And my favorite, the two guys in the balcony who would make wise cracks.
4) Big Green Machine - We didn't have one of these, but we "borrowed" our neighbor's whenever we could. We had a regular Big Wheel, but nothing compared to driving the Big Green Machine with the two hand controls instead of the stearing wheel.
5) Sea Wees - One of my favorite childhood toys. These little mermaid dolls came with a lily pad made out of a sponge. You could put the Sea Wee through a hole in the sponge and she would float in the tub. I had the light blue one with silvery hair, and I thought she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
6) Crazy Foam - Does anyone else remember this stuff? I remember that I loved it. And I remember that my mom actually bought it for us. But as far as I can tell, it's just shaving cream in a cooler can. Or was there more to it? Well, either way, I remember that I loved it.
7) Jordache Jeans - There was NO WAY my mom was ever going to buy us Jordache jeans. She was strictly a Kmart shopper. I remember wishing with all my heart to get a pair of jeans with the Jordache horse on the coin pocket. Never happened. (But while I'm thinking of Kmart, does anyone remember the blue light specials? How everyone would run to the ailse with the blue light flashing to get a super good deal? Or how the back of Kmart had a greasy cafeteria in it? My mom would get us ham and cheese sandwiches with mustard on them to eat while we shopped. Ah, Kmart.)
8) Underoos - We thought the Wonder Woman underoos were about the coolest thing we could ever wear. But it always made me jealous that the boys had more choices (Superman, Spiderman, and Batman). I think Underoos' stock probably plummeted when parents suddenly realized that Underoos made their kids want to run around in their skivies ALL DAY LONG. No one wanted to put clothes on over those sweet babies!
9) Atari - We never had one (boy, this seems to be the pattern of my childhood!), but our neighbors did. I remember thinking how amazing it was, especially Duck Hunt. That you could shoot that gun at the screen and an invisible bullet would take down the blocky targets that only barely resembled ducks. And then Pitfall--SO advanced! Our kids would just laugh at us now.
10) I had such a happy thought today when I was thinking of things for this post and remembered this one: the Barbie Corvette. We didn't get many cool toys when we were kids. Or cool clothes, or cool candy, or cool cereal. Nothing cool, really. We were poor, our mom was terribly unhip and incredibly, um, thrifty. But my parents really fulfilled one of my greatest childhood fantasies when they bought me the Barbie Super Vette. Remote controls were a new technology then, way too space age to be used for a toy. So this had a non-remote controlled, battery operated, tiny steering wheel with about 3 1/2 feet of cord to connect it to the Corvette. You had to walk right behind it in order to steer it, but it still was by far the most amazing and awesome toy I ever got.Hope you had a fun stroll down memory lane. If you want to play along with this post, consider yourself tagged!
19 comments:
Oh Strawberry Shortcake! I rented one of her movies at Blockbuster awhile ago and Avery is now hooked. I'm a little sad that the show isn't the same but it's still cute. To be young again!
I loved underroos, and that bubble gum, oh I forgot about that bubble gum, those were the good ol' days...
I remember all of these except for the Crazy Foam.
I lived for Valentines day when I would get a new pair of Underoos!
Oh and I fully wiped out on my brothers Green Machine!!
Ok, so last year Costco was selling a bucket, yes a bucket of big league chews. It had 30 pouches in it for 10 bucks, and we bought it for my Brothers birthday. Oh.. talk about memories!
Mine is exactly the same, so I'm just going link to yours.
You can't link to mine, Jennie! You have to have your OWN memories!
I feel bad telling you this...BUT, I had ALL of the Strawberry Shortcake kids, I always got big league chew, and we snuck down to the sev(7-11) on our bikes for candy cigs...we also had an Atari, with a bunch of games. But you've got me on the Barbie corvette...I always wanted the convertible, but instead I got the Barbie and the Rockers van. I still have the van and all of the Barbie and the Rockers Barbies. I also have Strawberry Shortcake dolls I bought on ebay in their original boxes. I LOVE them! Come over one day...we can play with them and chew Big League Chew...I think I might even have some candy cigs we bought in San Fran.
I'm giong to have to do this tag! I remember that stuff too.
I did one.... there was so many things to choose from I didn't even get to all my idea's.
I love Sea Wee's too. I still have one. =D I'm lucky.
This is a fun tag - I think I'll definitely play along
I just made my list last night...it was so fun! I forgot all about Sea Wees! And I never had Atari but my neighbor did and we played Donkey Kong all the time!
I've never heard of the Barbie corvette you could control!!!
And Duck Hunt is from Nintendoooo
Well, I might just take on this tag, but then again... it might make me feel REALLY old (just to give you a hint... I remember buying some of this stuff for my nieces for their birthdays!)
:)
I still have my Atari! So fun to compare it to the Wii!
And...did you know the big green machine is BACK!!! So tempting to pick one up for Christmas?!?!Hmmm
Is it sad that I remember smelling the Strawberry Shortcake dolls (including the grape guy and all the others)? I remember most everything else on your list. Those were the days, weren't they? We actually had an Odyssey game system (predating the Atari, I think). I loved playing the cowboy shooting game (even though they looked like choppy blobs, not cowboys) and Pickaxe Pete (which was like Donkey Kong). Ahh...
I just want to set the record straight since you are "video game challenged". Atari, which our neighbors bought around 1981, did indeed showcase the classic game "Pitfall". But Duckhunt was only available for NES, the original Nintendo. I bought the Nintendo in 1988, along with Duck Hunt, which out family did own. My favorite Nintendo game for my sisters to play was Ice Climbers. It featured these little Eskimos with hammers that had to jump progressively up 32 stories of an 'ice building' bopping animals with their hammers. The game was kind of lame, but when my sisters played it together they would shriek and holler as they tried to keep the characters from slipping all around, and to make them jump through nearly impassible holes. The end result was that, with their remedial controller skills, they would resort to swinging the controller around in the hopes that their arm movements would somehow translate to more accurate precision jumping in game. This hopeless flailing was hilarious and a favorite childhood memory, and shows highlights the roots for the new Wii video game system which my sisters now both accurately control with the exact same hopeless flailing.
FINALLY!!!- Whenever I ask people if they remember the ham and cheese and mustard sandwiches at Kmart they ALWAYS look at me like I'm crazy. None of my siblings remember them, my parents don't remember at all..so frustrating. Thank you for validating my sanity.
Just wanted to let you know that I finally got a chance to do this tag on my blog (and, because it was so difficult to choose just one dolly, I made those a seperate category! :)
It was fun, but it just proved to me how much older I am than you! ;)
I have never heard of Crazy Foam. But I did love Big League Chew. I probably wouldn't now. It probably loses its flavor within 20 seconds.
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