I grew up in the 80s. Maybe that's dating myself, but it's true.
Do you remember the dorky/dumb things you did when you were a kid? In the 80s we did some of these things.
1) We pegged our pants. Seriously. What you do is pull out the cuff so it's tight, then fold it back so it is tight against your ankle. THEN you roll up each leg a couple of times, "setting" the fold. So, essentially you shorten and thin your leg. Some guys even had their mom's alter their pant legs so that they were slimmer. Talk about dorky!
2) Carried a comb. I've never really had that much hair. But, in the mid-80s I carried one of those de-tangling plastic combs. You know, the kind with the handle and the wavey teeth? My hair never got tangled, but I had to have one of those combs. I also think I carried a "pick" for a while. Afro anyone?
3) Trapper Keeper. Remember those obnoxious things with the velcro openings? Mine usually lasted all of 3 weeks before the plastic wore out, or I'd doodled on it so much you couldn't see the cool skateboard design or something. Rarely did I actually use it to organize shit. I threw everything in the main compartment and just closed it up.
What kind of things do you remember from the 80s?
5 comments:
Thanks for asking, lol. I actually remember having a metal lunch box with the Muppets on it. It was my first lunch box but then they realized what happens after metal gets banged around the play ground; it develops razor sharp dents and subsequently, became a weapon upon oneself and others. I then had a yellow, PLASTIC, "Fame" lunch box that lived with me for years and then housed pens and crayons after it became "passe" to carry something like that. I used to love compartmentalizing everything in the lunch box as if to somehow organize my life at the same time. I miss my lunch box days.
Yes! Lunchboxes! I had some of the metal ones too. The ones I remember were a Star Wars (duh) metal one and a Scooby Doo plastic yellow one. I think I might also have had a metal Scooby one shaped like the mystery machine. The thing I liked about the lunchboxes is the little thermos that came with them. Too funny. I also remember when I had to switch to brown paper bags for lunch. I only wish my old lunchboxes were still around.
Didn't you guys have pencil boxes over in America? We did when I was in Japan, that's where I kept MY pencils organized. And no, it wasn't simply a cardboard box, these were much cooler. They were plastic, with many many compartments, and fairly small, about the size of a thing paperback book. The doors usually stayed closed via magnets and they had various themes, like I used to get the robot anime ones.
Here's a Hello Kitty one on Ebay just to show what they look like: Hello Kitty Pencil Case
And here's a web article on them: Japanese Pencil Cases
I dunno, musta been a Japenese thing, but they were highly cool.
(Anyone else collect erasers? We used to get cool ones in Japan as well, star wars figure erasers, cartoon characters, etc)
Stuff I remember from the 80’s:
The Bangles
Being skinny
The strange importance of Nike shoes and Izod shirts
The Porsche 928 (Risky Business, Pretty in Pink)
As far as lunchboxes go, the only one I can remember is a yellow ‘school bus’ one when I was in 1st grade or so. Which was actually the 70s, so I don’t think it counts for this.
I never had a pencil box, and I think Brian’s on the right track with it being a cultural thing – I did see them with Japanese students when I taught in college. On the other hand, I was not exactly the most hip/urbane kid in the 80s, so it seems likely that it might have been a US trend somewhere.
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