Ode to the joy of the 80's

[jaybird2001wi]

I don't want to hijack the Oregon trail thread, so I am gonna post my thoughts here on the wonderful era we call the 80's. In elementary school, our teachers used to have the "600 minute reading club" where students who read for 600 minutes got a free ticket to Great America (Six Flags). I also remember learning the dewey decimal system in the old library and watching Levar Burton in Reading Rainbow. My 3rd grade teacher made us read pretty much all Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume books, and remember "Mouse on the Motorcycle" of all the books I read.

Did any of you eat paste in kindergarten? I may sound like Ralph Wiggum when I say this, but I ate the crayons during arts and crafts hour. Any of you all forced to wear "idiot mittens" at recess like me (mittens attached to your coat)?

The two most fun activities in gym class were those small little square boards with four wheels on them and you can slide across the floor and the large parachute activity.

I may be 24, but my elementary school still had the old school film strips from back in the 60's.

I remember me and my friends walking to the nearby card shop and buying a pack of topps cards for like 45 cents and I was a total idiot when I was seven years old and thought that we "randomly traded" baseball cards for one another.

My teachers were so corny that during holidays such as Thanksgiving, we would have to dress up like pilgrims or something and we would have actual thanksgiving steal feasts during lunch the day before the holiday.

Oh, and the elementary school had a student run play called the Nutcracker every year. The coolest project ever was my fourth grade teacher let us raise our own ant farms for science class.

I was also selected as milk monitor during lunch hour in elementary school by a teacher which made me feel special. http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/happy.gif

[trwi7]

I first started school in 1992 but your post brings back so many memories. I remember when I first started kindergarten, the 1st-4th graders got the big playground while we had to go to the other side of the school with a small little playground. Reading Rainbow was still on and still as awesome as ever and I only had school for half the day! How awesome is that?

 

Then everything was pretty boring from 1st-3rd grade except we went on our first vacation when I was in 3rd grade. Disney World was pretty cool. Got back on March 1st and I was the only one with a tan.http://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/smokin.gif

 

Then 4th grade came. It was so awesome. It was my last year at that school and over the summer they basically tore down all the old stuff on the playground and replaced it with new and better stuff. I was also in the smart group in my class (says a lot about my classhttp://static.yuku.com/v2//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/laugh.gif)

 

The only thing I didn't like about elementary school was that they took down the tether ball thing after 2nd or 3rd grade. I can't remember. That made me sad.

[temke]

In elementary school, our teachers used to have the "600 minute reading club" where students who read for 600 minutes got a free ticket to Great America (Six Flags).

this is still done somehow. my wife teaches second graders and they have some sort of program where they give out free vouchers to great america.

 

and the parachute definitely rocked

[pogokat]

reading rainbow is STILL on the air...

[brewerjamie15]

I miss the Pepsi Challenge.

I miss The Great Space Coaster

I miss wearing tube socks jacked up to my knees, a comb in my back pocket, and "feathered" hair.

I miss Underoos commercials. (I was a bit too old to wear them)

Skelator! (too old again)

Garbage Pail Kid stickers (too old. My brother collected them though)

My super sweet black pants, teal T-shirt, and white "Don Johnson" sport coat

Walking around with a Boom Box

Cassette Tapes

Tiger Striped Neon

Horror flicks that scared me

The Muppet Show

Fraggle Rock

Video Arcades

Atari 2600. Yeah, I said it. I mean it, too!

TV Lenny (local dude from American stores)

I miss my M-TV!!!

 

There's more, but if I recall too much of it I won't be able to sleep ever again)

[mothershipconnection]

Sony Walkmans with 3band EQ and auto-reverse

Parks and Rec neighborhood playgrounds being the cool place to be

50-cent packs of cards

Having a rat tail

Thinking my XJ-900 high tops were sweet

Back to the future skateboards with removable scooter attachments

School Talent Shows

Zubaz

Being told we were drinking animal blood when we were awarded a new Cub Scout badge

Pogo Ball

Shooting stuff with a wrist rocket

Quantum Leap

He-Man and Gi Joe

Sledding hills and other dangerous equipment on playgrounds

Lack of fear-mongering news channels to scare our parents into hiding us in the attic

The WWF still trying to pretend everything was real

Being able to watch WWF and Boxing matches without spending $59.99 on PPV

Dual Cassette Boom Boxes with high-speed dubbing

Pizza Hut Book Club

[danzig6767]

Sony Walkmans with 3band EQ and auto-reverse

Parks and Rec neighborhood playgrounds being the cool place to be

50-cent packs of cards

Having a rat tail

Thinking my XJ-900 high tops were sweet

Back to the future skateboards with removable scooter attachments

School Talent Shows

Zubaz

Being told we were drinking animal blood when we were awarded a new Cub Scout badge

Pogo Ball

Shooting stuff with a wrist rocket

Quantum Leap

He-Man and Gi Joe

Sledding hills and other dangerous equipment on playgrounds

Lack of fear-mongering news channels to scare our parents into hiding us in the attic

The WWF still trying to pretend everything was real

Being able to watch WWF and Boxing matches without spending $59.99 on PPV

Dual Cassette Boom Boxes with high-speed dubbing

Pizza Hut Book Club

 

I had a tail for a few months and also a mullet after that in my early teens before finding punk finally allowed me to rid myself of some of those hideous 80's hair cuts

 

Went the black high tops route for a few years myself

 

Also hung at the park for about a year

 

Agree on being able to watch big boxing matches without the big charge,except i gave up on wrestling around age 10.Can't remember if i got my first descrambler in the late 80's or early 90's.

 

Had the auto-reverse Sony Walkman and needed to be careful when using that feature to not have it eat the tape,then being forced to splice the tape back together turn it back in with a pencil.

 

I thought cards were 25 cents,not 50 cents,but i could forget.I remember my mom sometimes would send me to the gas station with a note to buy her a pack of cigs,yes that worked back then.They were like 1.50 a pack and she would give me two dollars,i could buy a pack of baseball cards and some grape Nowandlaters with the change.

[mothershipconnection]

The first year I collected cards seriously was 1987, and they were 40 cents. Whats really crazy is that when I searched for that price, I found that today you can get a box of 36 packs, 20 years later, for $14.95.

[trwi7]

My super sweet black pants, teal T-shirt, and white "Don Johnson" sport coat

Is it bad that I can actually take a picture of what you look like now, turn it into what I imagined you looked like as a kid and picture you in this attire?http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/laugh.gif

[Patrick425]

Wow this is a great thread. I'm an extremely nostalgic person. I went to grade school in the 70's, but it really wasn't much different than the 80's in regards to a lot of things mentioned in this thread.

I miss the ABC after school movie. We also use to occasionaly have an after school movie in our cafeteria. It was usually some nature story of two mis-matched animals treking their way across mountains, streams, and nature in general. The whole film would be narrated by a voice that I can still hear in my head.

Baseball cards - wow, great stuff. Use to buy mine at Larry's drug store in West Allis (anyone actually remember when they sold baseball cards in grocery and drug stores?). There were one or two years in the late 70's were I collected the entire set by buying packs and trading with my friends (man did I have a lot of that hard cardboard like gum that came with each pack). They also had the clear strips (I think there were 45 or 60 card in a strip) for something like $1.00 or $1.50. and you could see six of the cards that you were buying. I remember when I would need 4 or 5 card to complete the set and I would spend a half hour in the store searching the clear strips for the cards I needed.

[RobertR]

I miss Alan Moore directly working for DC Comics. I fondly remember picking up Moore's Swamp Thing off of drug store spinner racks and having my mind blown, repeatedly. And Howard Chaykin's American Flagg! And, Dave Sim's Cerebus, when he was reasonably sane.

 

I'll second the love of the old Atari 2600. I had hundreds of hours of fun with that primitive machine. Adventure being one that I fondly remember.

 

I miss the Talking Heads.

[PKBadger]

I remember buying Sportflics baseball cards at Woolworth's!

 

 

 

http://www.beckett.com/images/pgitems/726450101.jpg

 

 

[FVBrewerFan]

I Was in HS in the early 80s..

Someting magical called "computers" were introduced when I was a Junior. Part of an accounting/business class for some reason
WLUM 102.1 FM The hot FM
WQFM 93 FM Rock
MTV - When they actually had MUSIC
Coleco- man that system sucked
Pepsi Fan Club
The Whizzer at Great America
Bike helmuts?? what are those?
Soccer? what is that?
Getting jeans caught in bike chain
Getting generator caught in rear tire
Pacer, Gremlin, and Pinto
New Coke
No swimming for an hour after you eat
Putting a tape recorder next to the radio
Unbreakable black combs
Little league bats were still under $500
Ghost runners
Pitchers hand out

 

 

[pitchleague]

Mattel Electronic Football II (the one that allowed you to pass the ball as well as run. kicking, too!)

 

Intellivision, baby! (I had to get those Intellivision Lives! and Intellivision Rocks! CD-roms a few years ago)

 

Metal lunch boxes with the weird thermos

 

Pudding and fruit cups that came in metal cans with pull tabs and sharp pointy edges for school children to play with

 

Swingsets, slides, and teeter-totters. oh, and merry-go-rounds (ALL banned and taken down at many schools across the country)

 

Backyard baseball and football.

 

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing & Superfudge

[Brian the Automator]

Intellivision

Choose your Own Adventure books

Rated Rookies

Transformers: The Movie

GI Joe

Pogo Ball

Slap Bracelets

Slime from vending machines

Sticky hands from vending machines

[Thurston Fluff]

I was in my late teens-early 20's then. Parachute pants, big hair, Brewers being relevant, man perms, heavy metal explosion due to independant labels, MTV played music, Micheal Jackson was known for his music, and free tv still ruled the ratings and I was still able to wrestle without spraining an ankle or increasing the nerve damage to my shoulder. Wow got tears in my eye.

[Patrick425]

Outstanding list FVBrewer Fan...we must be about the same age.

MTV - When they actually had MUSIC - I use to spend hours watching nothing but music videos
Pepsi Fan Club - Man that was an awsome deal. Just like our Jr Golf IDs at the county parks, my friends and I abused that beyond the allowed age limit.
Soccer? what is that? - Best part of the list. My son doesn't play soccer, but many of his friends do and their dad's coach. The dads are about my age. I'm always asking them.."Soccer?, How can you coach it? How do you know anything about it? Where did you grow up? Soccer was about as common as Jai-Alai when I was growing up.Nobody played it or knew anything about it."
Putting a tape recorder next to the radio - I used to have a taperecorder/radio combo. I would sit by the radio with my hands on the buttons waiting for one of my favorite songs to come on. Heck, even had a reel to reel tape recorder in grade school (70's). By the way..remember 'close and play' record players?
Unbreakable black combs - Wow, remember everyone with the big end of the comb sticking out of their pockets??
Ghost runners & Pitchers hand out - And, don't forget right field out. Use to play all day. I'm not sure if anyone ever really kept score. I have a 9 year old and I really hate that he will never really get to experience that. Putting the bat in the bike handle bars and zooming off to the playground to play baseball (a lot of time on the concrete). Hopefully the ball we were using would stay in one piece long enough to last the day. Everyone would break for lunch and dinner and enevitably 1 or 2 kids would end up having to do chores and not return afterwards. Also...remember strikeout? I still see the boxes on the school walls...but I never see anyone playing anymore. Damn I wish I could be 11 again..just for a week or two.

[PaulRigdon]

-Shakey's Pizza

-Little League/hockey banquets at the end of the year where the whole league would get together

-Selling candy bars/christmas wreaths/etc...door to door to raise money for little league (i had a fat guy buy my whole box of candy bars, didn't go to another house, went home and played mike tyson's punch out)

-Saturday Night Main Event

-Tuesday Night Boxing on USA

-Rhonda Shear's Up All Night

[FVBrewerFan]

Soccer was about as common as Jai-Alai when I was growing up.

Best line I've seen in awhile!

[jaybird2001wi]

KegStand, that is a sweet Reggie Jackson card. I started going up and down on my computer screen to see if it actually could work on a computer.

Anyone ever remember Collect-a-books? The small little books the size of baseball cards? I somehow always got Jim Abbott and Nolan Ryan's "book."

http://i3.iofferphoto.com/img/1162627200/_i/15174708/t_1.jpg

 

 

I also remember when shredded beef jerky the shape of tobacco chew had baseball cards in them. I used to be a big collector of Wally Joyner cards.

Here are some other things I remembered in a series of pictures:

The old-school computer floppy disk:

http://store.syndicomm.com/images/iie-telecom525.jpg

http://www.theanthillmob.com/images/gamecentral/atari2600.jpg

 

http://www.collectorscardsandgames.com/new/nes001.gif

MLB for NES

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2003/all/boxshots2/563437_45508.jpg

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/media/11627/1/51.jpg

[brewdude15]

i grew up in the 90's, but some of this stuff is pretty similar. If any of you have a Facebook, or know of it, there is a huge group dedicated to growing up in the 90's. The list of memories they have is AMAZING. If anyone is interested, i will find the link to it...

[Brian the Automator]

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/9/9c/255px-Earlweavercover.jpg

 

 

[Mike Felder]

MicroLeague Baseball

Brewers Pepsi Fan Club (with an official Paul Molitor membership card!)

Getting complete sets of baseball cards as Christmas gifts

The LEGO Pirates series (that might have been early 90s, can't remember)

[splitterpfj]

The 80s covered both HS and college for me, the summer of '85 was insane, and is still probably the most fun I've ever had.

 

Rock concerts, at a time when there was a fine layer of smoke around the lights by the time the opening act took the stage

Whining on end when gas peaked at $1.20 a gallon

Making $3.35 an hour - and feeling wealthy

Creating fun with my friends in a town with nothing to do

Watching my friend Joe panic when he realized he had stumbled upon a nude beach

[Thurston Fluff]

Early 80's also meant unemployment and long lines at any place hiring. I got laid off in 82 and went back hat in hand to Kentucky Fried Chicken because I worked there as a kid and knew they liked me and got turned down. I was told by the owner to go to college or join the military because there just were no jobs anywhere. All in all I loved the 80's but it wasn't all peaches and cream. Anyone younger than 40 probably never had to go through a time when jobs were actually not available for anyone. Hopefully they never will.