Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Show and Tell Tuesday - Memory Lane

When I started working on this post I quickly realized a couple of things...

1) The 90's were awesome
2) Most of what I remember falls into the categories of toys, snacks/candy, school supplies and TV/books
3) The 90's were awesome.  Yes.  I listed that twice :)



So, for today's post I'm taking a trip down memory lane and remembering a few of my FAVORITE things from the late 80's/early 90's - and I'm hoping it'll be a fun walk for y'all as well.

- Toys/Games -

So simple! So fun! I remember taking this with us on road trips...


 Why did our parents let us have these?!?! I remember having a HUGE one that was REALLY hard plastic and super loud.  What were my parents thinking?!?!  I have super fond memories of my clacker, but am also really glad that they haven't made a comeback because mama doesn't want a clacker in her house!

 Another one for the what were our parents thinking category!  I think I got Gak in my Christmas stocking ;)

Y;all.  This was the exact same puppy surprise I had!  (not my picture... but you know what I mean)


Anybody else remember Popples?  They rolled up into a ball and were so cute!


Even McDonald's Happy Meal toys were better in the 90s!  (and the meal came in an actual box!)


I had quite the extensive Barbie collection and am fairly certain that this jewel hair mermaid barbie was part of it.


I was also a big fan of the Cupcake Surprise dolls (remember them?!?!),  Lil' Miss Mermaid (when you pushed on her chest she sang!) and Polly Pockets.



I also have vivid memories of my brother laying in wait at the top of the stairs with his TMNT pizza shooter and launching attack on me while I was on my way up to my room.  What was I headed upstairs to do?  Probably organize my Sanrio school supplies, that's what.


- School Supplies - 
There wasn't much that made me happier than taking my babysitting money to the Sanrio store and blowing it all on themed school supplies and seasonal trolls ;)  Sidenote - how was I like 11 and babysitting?!?! WHO WAS HIRING ME TO WATCH THEIR KIDS?!?!

I was a big fan of Keroppi because he wasn't as "mainstream" as Hello Kitty.  I also had several Peckle pieces :) This isn't my picture but it easily could have bene my EXACT pencil box.... erasers and all.


I also had one of these multi-function ones...


... and a similar tin box where I held all my postcards :)  


At school I was a BIG fan of the Lisa Frank trapper keeper (and folders because DUH!) and while I can't remember which exact pattern I had either of these would have been a safe bet..



I also had a sticker collection full of smelly, puffy, sparkly, holographic, etc. stickers.  We had them in photo albums and would trade stickers at recess :)


- Fashion -
I don't have tons of fashion-related memories... I definitely wore A LOT of leggings with oversized sweaters, slouch socks and Keds.  And my Keds often looked like this...


I didn't reserve the puffy paint JUST for shoes... I had shirts AND headbands that I had puffy painted.  I do remember these shirts...


... anybody else?  They were "hypercolor" and changed color based on your body heat.  Gross now.  Cool then.

- TV/Books -
My brother and I watched all the Nickelodeon shows (excluding Rugrats which we weren't allowed to watch because apparently they had "attitude") :)  My personal favorites were Doug, Hey Dude and Salute Your Shorts...


I think my FAVORITE 90's TV though was TGIF!  And not the remixed crummy shows. The ORIGINAL lineup.  Nothing better than pizza and TGIF on Friday nights!




 I LOVED to read in elementary and middle school (apparently I had lots of time on my hands) and the best days ever were when I got to go to the book store to get new books.  My mom would make me ration them out so I didn't read them all in one night but I'd pretty much always sneak them under my covers and finish them that same night.  My go-to-reads were Baby Sitter's Club...


Saddle Club...


And Lurlene McDaniel books.  If you're unfamiliar with Lurlene McDaniel books pretty much all of them involve young love and then someone dying or trying not to die.  I have no idea why my parents let me read them - but from 6th and 7th grades I pretty much ALWAYS thou

ght either I or someone I loved was coming down with a life-threatening illness.  I shed A LOT of tears on the school bus reading her books.  ;)


Last up...

- Snacks/Candy -

I didn't realize how many great memories I had revolving around food and candy until I got sucked into the rabbit hole of my "90s snacks" Google search.

Apparently I had a thing for gum because bubble tape, bubble jug (seriously?!?! This is so gross! If my kids asked me for this I would most definitely say no) and Ouch gum... because everybody wants to chew on something made to look like a bandaid. ;)




We used to drink Squeez-Its in the summer....


... as well as Fun Dip at the pool....


... and these juice bars.


Even the yogurt was better in the 90s!


And last.... cosmic brownies.  I could go for a cosmic brownie RIGHT now :) 


I hope you enjoyed my little trip down the colorful, sugar-filled goodness that (apparently) was my childhood :)

I blogged my "mixtape" of songs that would play on the soundtrack to my life HERE and it's also a fun walk down memory lane via music.

I can't wait to browse through everyone's take on today's topic!  Now I'm off to see if I can find reruns of Boy Meets World on DirecTV.  Happy Tuesday, Friends!

   
   

56 comments :

  1. I feel the same way about babysitting now. Why was I so young?! ha! I completely forgot to add Step by Step and Boy Meets World to my list! I love these Andrea! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sanrio school supplies!! Yes!!!
    Loved Polly Pockets and Baby Sitters' Club-- you are spot on :) :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yesss! This is so great! I used to trade stickers at recess too! The 90s were awesome 😎

    ReplyDelete
  4. I totally forgot about the Puppy Surprise! And we totally had all of that gum at our house too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is the best post! The other day at Meijer my toddlers wanted to look at toys and they randomly had a selection of cupcake surprise dolls. I was so excited but unfortunately my 3 year old was not as impressed lol. And I totally agree on the babysitting, I started when I was 11 or 12, not even just for kids but actual tiny babies. Now I can't imagine leaving my kids (or babies!) with a kid. I have no clue parents thought it was ok to leave their kids with me or why my own parents thought it was ok. Especially because initially most of the parents didn't even have cellphones yet so if something did happen options were pretty limited if who to call. Pretty sure it's illegal now to leave your kid with an 11 year old lol

    ReplyDelete
  6. I completely forgot about puffy painting my Keds!!!! 90 girls UNITE!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your post made me think of a spin art shirt I had! Do you remember those? We went to the mall and decorated these glitter shirts by putting paint on them and having them spin around in a machine. I remember a vacation pic where conner and I both had them on, and we had these little plastic thingies that we put the sides of our shirt through to kind of tie them up. Do you know what I'm talking about? And we OF COURSE wore them with leggings and keds.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh my goodness!! So many of your things bring back memories! Bubble Jug....so gross now but so good then! Gak! So fun and sonloud when you would squish it back into the container! Babysitters Club was THE best! How did I forget all of these things?!? Happy Tuesday Andrea! Thanks for such a fun topic!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh my goodness. I LOVE them all. Poppels, puff paint, smelly stickers, TGIF and I need a cosmic brownie NOW!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Those teen books about death! Yes! I read a ton of those in junior high! Why on earth did anyone think it was a good idea for teens to read those?!

    ReplyDelete
  11. So, apparently we had the same childhood. :) I was just telling my husband the other day about those Lurlene McDaniel books. So depressing!! And just random, but they still have happy meals in boxes here in France. Also, I never knew about the cupcake surprise girls and just bought them for my little girl the other day. I had no idea they were a classic. Thanks for the blast from the past!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh my gosh a clacker! Yes! Babysitters club, Yes! TGIF was the best thing ever and I probably ate my weight in hubba bubba! So fun!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great list, girl! I loved TGIF!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Happy meals still come in boxes here in England!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Why are those cosmic brownies so good? You nailed this post by the way!

    ReplyDelete
  16. This is the best post ever! I mean the candy, the books, the shows, the games...totally me growing up.

    Those Lurlene McDaniel books got me every.single.time. ::sob:: I don't even like those books now!

    This was a great show and tell!

    ReplyDelete
  17. This is pretty much my life! I read ALL the babysitters club, and still have most of them. My daughter is 7 and I can't wait for her to read them. For now, we do Babysitters Little Sister (thanks mom for not getting rid of anything!). Bubble Jug, I can literally taste the chalk right now hahahha

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh my teacher self needs to get my hands on those stickers. My students would flip out! Puff paint, hypercolor shirts, such a great wardrobe. I remember getting new pairs of Keds and using the puff paint to jazz them up. Salute Your Shorts was my favorite. I used to LOVE Lurlene McDaniel's books. I had completely forgotten about those, but they were some of my favorite books in Middle School and High School. What a fun prompt today!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I love this! I forgot about toys when I was writing my own post, remember Pogo Balls and Skip-its? I had a few of those puffy stickers, and some scratch and sniff ones. Good times!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Skip It" was called "Footsies" in the late 60s!

      Delete
  20. T made me laugh so hard this morning because this was pretty much my life...from the McDonald's Muppets Happy Meal toys to the Lisa Frank school supplies and Lurlene McDaniel/BSC books. All of it...and you are totally right-I think about how young I was when I was babysitting and am aghast. I would NEVER let an 11/12 year old girl stay with my baby yet I did it all the time. What?!?! Such a fun walk down memory lane!

    ReplyDelete
  21. This was my childhood! Including not being allowed to watch Rugrats!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Babysitters Club and Lurlene McDaniel books - yes!!! My sister and I would look in the back of the Babysitters Club books to see when the next one was coming out and we'd get a ride to the mall that night so we could buy the "new release" from B. Dalton the same day it came out! We were obsessed! And Lurlene McDaniel books... I shed so many tears over those too. So heartbreaking every single time. This was such a fun post!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Andrea! You nailed everything on the head!
    And btw I have been trying to think of Lurlene McDaniel's name for several months now! I'd ask my friends if they remembered those books where the character was always sick?! They looked at me like I was crazy and I literally squealed when I saw her name on your post! I read every one of her books and if I still had them to this day, I would re-read them again most likely!

    Also, TGIF was some of my favorite memories ever. The Dinosaurs was my favorite and I personally think they should bring back the original "TGIF" with those same shows now!

    As for Sanrio, I'm pretty sure I had that same Keroppi eraser with the big google eyes as shown in the top right hand corner of the picture. I wouldn't use him for fear or ruining him but I had everything Keroppi and Peckle was my second favorite! Life was so simple back then!

    And my sticker book was my favorite thing ever. I would stare at my stickers and my favorites were my fuzzy stickers! I wonder if that company still makes them? I'd buy them now to show my students! haha
    Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Oh and I loved Are you Afraid of the Dark as well! I'm assuming you may not have been allowed to watch that since Rugrats was banned :). Unfortunately, my mother didn't really monitor what I watched and I get on her about it today because stumbling upon the Exorcist as a child ruined me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Yes yes yes!! All of the above were my childhood!! What a fun post!!! 1984 kid right here.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Cracking up about the babysitting...seriously my youngest is 11 and there is no way I would let her babysit! Maybe we were just way mature for our age lol. Nothing better than a themed trapper keeper. Thanks for a fun prompt!

    ReplyDelete
  27. The brownie!~ My mom bought those and I LOVED them! And I was a total Babysitters club girl. Fun post :-)

    ReplyDelete
  28. I think we had the same childhood. :) I remember every single thing on this list! I LOOOOOOVED Hey Dude (on Amazon Prime!) and all the TGIF shows! I also ready pretty much every BabySitter's Club book and saw the movies. I was HOOKED!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Yes! To all of this! Especially the original tgif on ABC. We weren't allowed to watch rugrats either.

    ReplyDelete
  30. That looks identical to my childhood! I just relived it in that few minutes!!! =)

    ReplyDelete
  31. SANRIO SURPRISE!!! Gosh I LOVED that store so much!!!! Man, those were THE days! This post has got me feeling all nostalgic today...Lisa Frank, Sanrio, Saved by the Bell, and Babysitter's Club--the good ole' days!

    ReplyDelete
  32. Thank you for that parade of my childhood!! So much fun stuff. I may be biased but 90s toys had it going on!

    ReplyDelete
  33. Ha! I'm pretty sure our childhoods were almost identical! Loved Friday night pizza and TGIF and then Saturday morning cartoons. Throw in boxcar children and goosebumps books--definitely book nerd here! Maybe I'm biased, but I think growing up in the 80's and 90's (I'm 33) was the best! I kinda feel bad for all that my kids are missing out on. I remember riding my bike to a local bakery or to the grocery a mile or so away to pick up stuff for my parents when I was 11. I remember coming home alone after school in third grade, not everyday, just if my mom was still running errands. She'd just leave the back door unlocked and I'd just go on in! But really, I have a third grader and no way would I let her do that. Plus, I consistently babysit kids at 11 and started at 10 with my baby brother. I remember him being younger than one when they'd leave me with him. What the heck?!? lol Times have definitely changed!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Such a fun link up! It's amazing how much you remember once you get going. Boy Meets World, TGIF, Lisa Frank and The Babysitter's Club were all on my list as well!

    ReplyDelete
  35. OH my goodness, I haven't thought about some of these things in a long time. That bandaid gum, oh goodness, and trapper keeper, loved those things! I had the one with the blond girl on it...Oh Babysitters club how I loved thee! Thanks for this walk down memory lane!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Yes to everything in your list!! I had the exact same Hello Kitty multipurpose case that you showed!! I loved Hello Kitty! Also, I grew up in Mexico and came to the US when I was 11, so I started Junior High here and the Babysitters Club was my saving grace when it came to learning slang and what "American" kids did. My mom let me subscribe to their club where you would get 4 books a month and I would read them in a weekend. Thanks to them, my junior high years were tolerable. :)

    ReplyDelete
  37. Great memories of my second decade of teaching! Fun Dip definitely was created by someone my age, who grew up in the 60s & 70s! We put jello powder in a baggie . . . FunDip!

    ReplyDelete
  38. I'm agreeing with so many others; this was my life!! (minus the t-shirts..I don't remember those.) My Sanrio go-to characters were Spotty Dottie and WinkiPinki because like you, they weren't as mainstream as Hello Kitty. I had (still have) the multi-function pencil box and thought I was the coolest kid ever that Christmas! OH LISA FRANK! I had SO MUCH LF stuff!! I didn't have a Puppy Surprise, but I did have the Quints (maybe an omen for my life as a multiples mom, HA) PJ Sparkles, My Littlest Pet Shop and lots of Polly Pockets that I'm still holding on to for dear life...those were my absolute favorites! TGIF was the best night of the week! My cousin and I played the Baby Sitters Club board game at least a few times a week after we read the books as soon as they each come out. I had a Popples themed birthday party one year. I had the exact Cupcake Surprise doll on the far left of the picture shown. I drank Squeeze It's like it was my J.O.B. And I have ZERO shame in admitting I ordered the complete Hey Dude series on DVD..um...just two years ago. #bradandtedforever

    ReplyDelete
  39. I'm kicking myself for not remembering this linkup today but I think you just covered everything I would have said in my blog post! Were we the same person? haha. TGIF, Hey Dude (I thought Melody was the most beautiful girl ever and wanted to be just like her), Salute Your Shorts, ALL the Babysitters Club... Seriously. All of it. So fun!!

    That Inspired Chick

    ReplyDelete
  40. Yes to AAAALLLL of this! OMG, I have having SUCH a blast reading through everyone's posts! You and I had tons of similar memories! And girl, I had forgotten all about Bubble Jug. That is absolutely revolting. Lol. I was completely and utterly obsessed with BSC and my friend and I started our own. We made fliers and everything! and it's crazy because tons of people actually paid for us to baby-sit their kids... and we were only 11. Lol. My how times have changed!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Basically yes to every single one of these! I totally forgot what the Cupcake Surprise dolls were called; I even mentioned them the other day. My Nanny still has ours on her dresser. Remember they smelled like strawberry?!

    I forgot about puff paint too. Neon! Everything was puff painted!

    ReplyDelete
  42. Yes to everything!! So fun!!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Wow flash back...my sister and I used the McDonald's Happy Meal toy Muppet Babies as the kids for our Barbies in our Barbie Dream house!!

    ReplyDelete
  44. My 9 year old started reading a Babysitters Club book yesterday! I am so excited to share those books with her! Oh, and Puppy Surprise came back, maybe last Christmas or the Christmas before!!!

    ReplyDelete
  45. I still tell my husband that TGIF and pizza were the highlight of my Friday nights growing up! :)

    And Lurlene McDaniels?! What in the actual heck was my middle school thinking for having those readily available (and my parents for that matter for not realizing what they were about and letting me read every single one!)? I blame my hypochondriac tendencies on those books - ugh! Scarred for life! ;)

    The only thing I would add to your list is seeing Father or the Bride and Home Alone at the movie theater - they were definitely my favorite movies at the time! I also loved Troop Beverly Hills!

    ReplyDelete
  46. The 90's were such a great time to be a kid!!!!! Thanks for this trip down memory lane!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  47. About 95% of your list is the exact same for me! Tgif, Lisa frank (the dog one), all of the toys, baby sitters club, bubble tape...the 90s were good!

    ReplyDelete
  48. Omg puppy surprise! My mom used to hack into the box at toys r us to find the dog with the most puppies haha! We were such criminals ;)

    ReplyDelete
  49. If you loved the babysitters' club books, you need to listen to the babysitters' club club (yes, that's two clubs) podcast. It is two thirty something guys reading through the books for the first time and they host a weekly podcast on iTunes about it. It is hilarious! I will say they do use some swear words so I don't listen with my kids but I am usually crying laughing during each one. Hearing their point of view on "The truth about Stacey" (aka she has diabetes and the BCC battles rival babysitters in the babysitting agency) made my life. Try it, you will love it!

    ReplyDelete
  50. Lurlene McDaniel books were my life!! I love this list!

    ReplyDelete
  51. I am way late on commenting on this post, but I just had to because YES. All those things - the 90s were truly awesome! I just can't get over it - all the toys, the shows, the candy...classic.

    ReplyDelete

Blog design by Get Polished | Copyright 2016