Elementary School Fads That Rocked The World!
Our basement is a disgrace, and it’s mostly my fault. I’m kind of a pack rat, you see, and there are countless boxes down there filled with “souvenirs” from all periods of my ridiculous life. It makes Toney crazy, and we’ve had more than one argument about it. Many more than one, in fact.
A couple of weeks ago we were looking for something specific in the basement, and Toney unearthed a rich vein of artifacts from my grade school era. She held up a ball of red and blue electrical tape, and said, “Why the hell did you keep this?”
I explained to her that when I was in fifth grade the teacher created a giant diagram of a human heart on the floor of our classroom, and would have kids walk through it and announce each part of the organ as they progressed. And after she was finished with it, she asked me and Danny J. to pull up the tape.
“And there it is…” I added, dramatically.
But my wife failed to grasp the historical significance of the item, and rolled her eyes in exasperation. If it were up to her, I know, she’d just throw that big wad of used tape into the garbage. And can you even imagine such a thing?
On that day Toney also found a battered, and much-used Duncan yo-yo, from roughly the same time period. And it got me to thinking about the elementary school fads that rocked our world. Stuff that somehow took-hold with a white-hot intensity, and swept through all the grade schools of our town, and probably beyond…
Below I’ve made a list of the fads that come immediately to my mind. It’s certainly not definitive, but maybe you guys can help make it more so? After I’m finished rattling on, please use the comments section to tell us about the elementary school fads you have known. OK? OK.
Yo-yos In fourth grade, or thereabouts, every kid in town carried around a yo-yo, like it was 1947 or something. It’s hard to imagine, but we all attempted fancy tricks like “Walk the Dog,” “Around the World,” and possibly the “Dirty Sanchez?” I’m unclear on it.
I remember there was a TV commercial at the time, selling a book (this was the pre-video era) that supposedly taught you all the tricks. And during the ad some doucheketeer showed us how cool we could be, by demonstrating the various yo-yo maneuvers. He was a master!
And I believe it was that commercial that triggered the frenzy. Every teacher in our school had a drawer-full of confiscated yo-yos. After the fad fully kicked-in, the school engaged The Clampdown, as usual, and wouldn’t allow us to have our yo-yos anymore. No fun allowed!
And so it goes.
Oh, and it HAD to be a Duncan yo-yo. It couldn’t be some cheap piece of crap from a Revco dumpbin. Oh no. All self-respecting yo-yoers rocked the Duncan, and nothing else.
Clackers These were two hard plastic balls, connected by a length of string, and you’d “clack” them together. Here’s a video of some dude demonstrating.
Clackers were briefly as popular as yo-yos, but kids started getting their teeth knocked out (reportedly), and going home with big knots on their heads… So, they were quickly banned from schools, and then from stores.
Heh. I guess people would get them clackin’ real fast, and something would go askew? It makes me laugh, just thinking about it. I never knew anyone who was hurt by a set of Clackers, and wonder how true those stories really were.
Oh well.
Super Balls These were just small rubber balls that could bounce like a motherfucker. We’d get them from bubble gum machines inside grocery stores, and they came in many colors and varieties. I think they cost a dime each.
And for a while every boy in the universe (our universe, anyway) walked around bouncing the things, almost absentmindedly. We’d also throw them straight down at the ground, to see how high we could make them bounce. It seemed like they’d go sailing twenty stories into the air.
I also remember us going into the bathrooms at the elementary school, flinging a ball at the wall, and covering up. I don’t know why we thought this was fun, but we did. Every class had a tiny bathroom, and we’d unleash the Super Balls in there, and would often emerge with a big red welt on the sides of our necks, to the delight of everyone else in the class.
We were kinda stoopid, now that I think about it.
Frito Bandito erasers During the 1970s, the Frito Bandito was the cartoon spokesman for Fritos corn chips. He was a Mexican who spoke with a lazy accent, wore a sombrero, carried guns, and talked about robbing and looting all the time. For some reason people thought this was racist, and demanded the Bandito be put out to pasture. And he was.
But before the crybabies ruined all our fun, there was a full-blown elementary school fad involving the Frito Bandito eraser. Here’s an old TV commercial that explains what they were.
Every kid, boy or girl, had at least one of these things, and they were extremely valuable. You had to be careful, or someone would jack your eraser, and completely shatter your world.
I remember being in Kroger (aka Kroger’s) in Dunbar, and all the six-packs of Fritos were plundered. The plastic wrapping was ripped on every single package, and the erasers had been removed by junior criminals. Oh, those things were a hot commodity, and probably should’ve been stored inside a cage, like the iPods at Sam’s Club.
Pro Keds In grade school. sneakers were incredibly important. And for a while Pro Keds were at the very pinnacle of the “tenna shoe” hierarchy. They were just normal looking things, but had a small red and blue stripe on the side. Here’s what I’m talking about.
Converse All-Stars were also very popular during that period, and maybe a few others. Who the hell knows at this point?
Off-brand sneakers were called “dobies,” and there was no greater shame than to come to school wearing a pair of dobies, or even worse… “K-Mart dobies.” Luckily, I was able to convince my parents of the importance of all this, and always had reasonably fashionable footwear.
Whew!
Now I’m going to turn it over to you guys… If you have anything on the subject of elementary school fads, please tell us about it in the comments.
And just so you know… I also remember some lower-grade fads surrounding paper footballs (remember those things?), Bic Banana pens (heh), and various lunchboxes (Planet of the Apes, Hot Wheels, Evel Knievel, etc). But they were second-tier fads, and never reached critical mass.
What were the hot items at your school? Tell us about it, won’t you?
And I’ll see you guys tomorrow.
Have a great day!
Filed under: Daily
Faster than Jesus!!!
Faster than Muhammad.
Almost as fast as Jesus!!!
Faster than Dolly the Llama
top five!!
CO COLTS!!!
Oh Jeff, your old-man toys reminded me of this commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PsSBKATkRo
As a tomboy child of the seventies, all I really remember with great fondness were Star Wars toys and matchbox cars. I never was a big fan of the Rubix Cube. I cheated and just rearranged those fucking stickers.
The “word” at our school was that clackers would actually EXPLODE if you got them going fast enough. Heh.
Our elementary school fad were the original hand held video games. Coleco Football was hot shit.
Oh, I remember that Coleco Football game! Add that to my meager list too. That was awesome.
I forget what it was called, but there was a plastic wheel, with a magnetic axle that stuck to a metal, hand held frame. You’d spin the wheel, and it would run along the frame, inside and out. Those were popular for about 5 minutes in the ’70s.
Jordache jeans-brings about a full body shudder, now.
Big Wheels were a big deal in our neighborhood in the 70′s. The cool kids all had them, and formed bad ass Big Wheel gangs, where we would terrorize the neighborhood from 3 inches off the ground.
My brother loved that Coleco game. I wouldn’t know because he never let me TAKE A FREAKING TURN!
Friendship pins were big around these parts. We’d spend hours putting those little beads on saftety pins and then give them to everyone to put on their shoes.
Duncan Yo-Yos, clackers (I think we called ‘em “click-clacks”), super balls, and Frito Bandito erasers were also fads at my elementary school ’round about 1970. This was suburban Philadelphia, so we know these fads were spread throughout the Northeast, at a minimum. The Bic Banana pens bring back some memories — I hadn’t thought of them in 30-some years.
Here’s one that I wonder if it was a widespread fad or confined to my school — fake blood. I think it had the brand name “Vampire Blood.” It came in white tubes with red lettering, sorta like toothpaste tubes. This probably would’ve been when I was in fourth or fifth grade, which would’ve been ’70/’71; but could’ve been slightly earlier. The stuff was real popular at my school, and was eventually banned (as most of these fads often are) when teachers discovered some kids putting the stuff into their milk at lunchtime, to color the milk red. And yes, then drinking it. Who knows what nasty chemicals were in that stuff. Those kids probably have leukemia today.
I had all of those things except the Keds. I still have a lot of my old toys, among other things. I have always been a collector.
I think Duncan still makes those Yo-Yos. The one I had lit up when it up and down, if I recall correctly.
I also recall that we use take those super balls and sling them throughout the main walking area of the mall.
That reminds me of the time I bought a blank gun off of some kid for 50 cents. We used to take that around and shoot at each other. Now, we would be locked up such things.
I still have a tube of Vampire Blood.
OH. We had several fads like that as well. The one that comes immediately to mind is the rubics cube. everyone had them.
I think the tennis shoes I had were made by Sears. They were called The Winner.
Probably not a fad you went for, Jeff, but remember troll dolls? Ugly little bastards with neon hair?? Not the big ones. Those came later. I loved them. Probably prepared me for how ugly my babies going to be.
Hickeys were the next thing I remember. The bigger and redder the better. A badge of honor if you were. Guy. A mark of shame for the girl
How about that green slime they sold in the little plasic trashcans.
Tenna shoes….hehe. That’s what I always called them. I’m not a fan of the word “sneakers”.
I am a product of the 80′s and female. Those slap bracelets and banana clips come to mind for me. And the race to see which girl had the tallest bangs. We always had a ruler on the bus and we messured those things every morning. I think we single handedly caused the hole in the ozone layer.
Hula hoops, rubiks cubes, and from way back in the 50′s – wearing a dog collar on your ankle sock (can’t remember which leg).
Hackey Sack I never really got into this bullshit game because I wasn’t any good at it. I couldn’t throw my hip out of socket at will to keep the thing going like everyone else could.
Friendship Beads These were made into bracelets or put on saftey pins, mostly by little girls. But I had a couple of little trollops that liked me gave me some pins and bracelets and I wore them with pride.
Garbage Pail Kids These were kind of like baseball cards but they were also stickers. They had sometimes obscene cartoon characters with weird names like “Bony Tony” (whose skull would be showing) or “Ralph” (who would be up to his hips in his own vomit). I kept some of them for years and years. Then my wife threw them out by “accident”.
Truth or Dick this was probably more of a local thing. We convinced about 5 girls to play a game with us, the main theme being having our pipes cleaned out. You could only tell one Truth so they had to pick “Dick” rather quickly. We didn’t do it in front of everyone (we weren’t freaks for God’s sake) so we’d take the girl to another room and do the deal. I wish it were that easy today. I wish I could convince a bunch of women to play a “game” with me that involves sex.
Oh man, Trisha…..I had some outragiously high bangs. And my hair was always crunchy. I’m surprised it didn’t all fall out. That was after high school for me though.
Yeah…I remember Clackers, the yo-yo phase, Vampire Blood. But the big thing going around Horace Mann Elementary School (Redmond, WA) in the late ’60s were cinnamon toothpicks. Basically toothpicks soaked in cinnamon oil…each kid trying to get theirs hotter than the surface of the sun. It was the 6th grade equivelant of the drug trade…kids selling their own specially formulated hot cinnamon toothpicks for a nickel apiece! Our principal, “Peg-leg” Heber (hardass, but respected principal who lost his foot in WW2) put a stop to cinnamon toothpicks when Ricky W. fell on the playground with one in his mouth and the toothpick stabbed through the side of his cheek. Fun times!
where’s Dorothy today i want to know what the “it” item was when she was in elementary school!!!
Lets see…
slap bracelets- basically a jagged piece of aluminum that when slapped would wrap around your wrist creating a bracelet. Apparently the thin fabric covering the metal was dangerous.
LA Lights- light up sneakers…when syncing your shoe to your ipod was just a dream in Steve Jobs head.
we had clackers too… every parent and teacher swore up and down about injuries caused by them.
also those slap bracelets. those apearantly would go awry and slit your wrist. but nobody ever knew anyone who even knew anyone that had that happen…
We also had super balls. and yoyos. which were made contraband in my school. EVERYthing that was fun was contraband.
Why do adults do that? i’m sort of an adult.. and i’d never disallow a kid to play with a “dangerous” toy, unless it really was dangerous…
I can’t believe I forgot Wacky Packages!!! Oh, and Slime.
Good Afternoon Surf Reporters….
Most of the fads mentioned I remember or was part of circa mid to late 1970′s.
I’ll add a few too.
SSP’s : This was a product of either Mattel or Hasbro, maybe Kenner. They had a giant rubber wheel centered in the middle with a cog off to the side(gear?). You fed a plastic ripcord along the teeth than gave it a pull. That wheel would spin at 8000 rpm’s and when you set it on the ground, it would take off. There was also a set that was demolition derby. These cars had detachable parts so when they collided, shit would go flying everywhere.
God forbid if you got your hair caught inside that spinning wheel. That was a trip to the emergency room for sure.
Topps Wacky Packages : These were “collectibles”, heh, and a new series would come out every few months. They were stickers parodying a common household product. Comet cleanser was “Vomit” cleanser. Crest toothpaste was “Crust” toothpaste, you get the picture. There was always one sticker in the series that was rare or unattainable. Each pack of stickers cost like 25 cents and came with a piece of rock hard bubblegum.
One last thing I remember going on like crazy was making paper “fortune tellers”. Take a sheet of notebook, tear off the bottom portion so that the paper was square, then fold and manipulate it in a way that there were four sides that opened to eight, under each one of those sections you would write down some ludicrous prediction. I know the teachers hated those things. We’d spend more time making those than actually, you know, doing school work.
Smoking cow shit and/or pot was the big thing when we were kids. Once I smoked too much cow shit and got too high. I thought I was going to die. I woke up 3 days later in a cow pasture. I was covered in animal bites and my mouth tasted like the Russian army had marched through it in their socks.
Another big thing was wearing very tight jeans and using a rolled up wash rag in your pocket to give the impression that you had a John Holmes cock. Or maybe that was just me. It worked. By the time they figured out I was fooling them it was too late.
I remember buying candy from the Ice Cream Man that came in the form of cigarettes. They had the white paper around the ‘gum’ part and if you blew out while holding the cig in your mouth, a bunch of candy smoke would billow from it, making you look like a ’40′s superstar.
We would also buy candy that was wax bottles in the shape of liquor bottles that held “juice”. I still don’t know what the “juice” was, but it was nasty. And what made it even worse was the kids who would chew the wax forever after drinking the “juice”. Blech.
And did anyone else get into The Garbage Pail Kids cards like I did? I loved those things!
Since I went to the same schools at the same time as Jeff, I cannot really add to the fad list. I think Pop Rocks came about a few years later (Mikey’s dead!) and possibly liquid smoke (chemicals that you could rub between your fingers and make it float in the air).
I had over thirty Frito Bandito erasers.
JeffInDenver- Oddly enough, those were called “Wheelos”.
On IPOD right now- “Haunted When the Minutes Drag”- Love and Rockets
I luuved my Frito Bandito erasers! good times. still remember the song, too.
We (my brothers and I) had the clackers and the bruised forearms to show for our hours of practice. The neighbors would complain about the noise that summer.
I made a chewing gum paper wrapper chain about 30′ long. My older cousin from Indiana taught me how to do that so I thought it was the coolest. I spent hours and hours on that thing. My brother ripped it to pieces and broke my heart.
In NYC where I grew up right around the same time as you, “dobies” were instead called “skips”. Same as you, though: No greater shame than showing up at school in a pair of “skips”, or worse: “Pro Skips”!
Hyper-Color T-shirts, circa 90-91 ish. The only thing I remember liking about them was sneaking up behind the unsuspecting wearer of said shirt and holding your hand flipping the bird on their back long enough for the impression to take. Then that person would then unknowingly walk around with the outline of a middle finger on their back for the next 3-5 minutes. The height of hilarity.
Also from the same time period, reebok pumps. There were two kinds of people in my school that had them…the really, really cool kids (not me) and the really really dorky kids (also, not me) who thought that having them would make them cool. As a tweener, it was my sworn duty to pick on the dorky kids in order to try and reach cool status, so me and my fellow middle-of-the-roaders would try and pop the pumps of the dorky kids, either with sharpened pencils or by stomping on their feet really hard. Unbeknownest, this didn’t help in the climb up the social hierarchy, as the cool kids still didn’t pay any attention and it made the dorky kids hate us more. I’d be willing to bet I’m on the “people to kill” list of some kid whose pumps I attempted to pop 20 years ago.
Okay – not a toy, but maybe we just didn’t have $$$. making fake fingernails from glue formed in your ruler was big as well as dipping your fingers in wax. Silly putty was a great present, when you stuck it on a comic and glued it on your face.
My still being in my 20′s means that slap bracelets and Reebok pumps were the fads in my late 80′s day. Everyone had those damn slap bracelets until they got banned for putting out eyes and if you had a dick but didn’t have Reebok pumps you may as well slit your 8 year old wrist with that slap bracelet. Those fucking losers had shoes WITHOUT AIR PUMPS IN THEM… God have mercy on their socially worthless souls.
Sounds like Tank and I were sharing the same fads…
How about Leg warmers
Speaking of Pop Rocks and Mikey….I went to college with Mikey’s cousin, and actually met him once. Mikey is not dead from eating Pop Rocks while drinking a Coke, never really liked Life cereal that much, and was a huge pothead living in his parents basement in central New Jersey, the last time I heard, back in the early 90s.
JeffinDenver, it’s a Wheel-O, and I have one right here on my desk at work (along with a bunch of other kitchsy stuff).
We also had a Whirl-and-Skip (later called a Lemon Twist). It consisted of a ring that went around your ankle, with a cord running off of it and a ball at the end of it. You’d get it spinning and then skip over it.
I remember “marble season” as well — every spring, out of the blue, everyone brought a huge bag (if you lived on one side of the tracks) or a sock (if you lived on the other) full of steelies, cat-eyes, & crystals, and the recess battles would begin.
OOOO, I thought of another. The guess acid washed jeans with the zippers at the ankles. Only the really cool (please read slutty) girls had those! My mom about shit her pants when I asked for a pair and she found out how much they cost!
Superballs!! I collected them when I was a kid. I had tons of them. Don’t know where they went. Also loved Clackers. But my fave was Hot Wheels. Had the whole set. I was a tomboy.
I also had a huge collection of the Wacky Packages. Haven’t thought of them in years! I’m surprised I haven’t run across them during my fleamarket excursions. The one I remember the most was “Pabst Blue Ribbon…The Beer that made Milwalkee Burp”.
I also had “Long Locks” Dolls. When you pulled their hair it magically grew to waist length. To shorten it there was a wheel on their back you had to turn. A shame they didn’t have that for male dolls…heh.
Also had Kiddles. Tiny little dolls. There were tons of them. I found one at a fleamarket in it’s original package for 30 bucks. Back then they were like 2 bucks.
Any girls out there remember the flavored lip gloss that came in a huge tube at first? I use to go the store every week to see if a new flavor came out. The name is on the tip of my tongue….. OH!! LIP SMACKERS!!
HUGE earrings!! How could I have forgotten my fine collection of Edgar Berabi’s?
We’d climb trees and eat sausages. It built character and we learned a lot about sausages.
Those pencils that were filled with plastic tips with lead on the end of them, the one where you jammed one in the end to push out the new one, were all the rage.
I don’t remember what they’re called but having a cool binder book thing that closed via velcro was very important.
I remember when calculator watches were considered cool. And I seem to recall some fad involving “swatch watches”, whatever the fuck those were.
At one point we’d buy thick colorful shoelaces and lace our shoes in checkered patterns and whatnot. We wouldn’t tie the shoes, you just stuffed the ends of the laces in your shoes.
Puma used to be the shoe to have.
I think I had 4 different colored members only jackets.
Remember parachute pants? Or those ugly ass shorts that went to your knees called “JAMS” or somesuch. Yall remember that?
Parachute pants
Oh, Bikerchick, I had tons of lip smackers! I think my favorites were watermelon and rootbeer.
BC – I so remember lip smackers – I love watermelon and that was my favorite flavour. Also Bonnebelle roll on lipgloss – makes me think of when I finally got away with wearing makeup.
Goes back to a few conversations but I used to get clothes with one stripe short of the ‘what’s in’ – ie my ‘adidas’ were from k-mart but had 2 stripes….
Van’s black and white checkered shoes. Oddly enough, they are still in production and “the thing” at my daughters middle school.
The fad that come to mind that has not been mentioned is “Wheelie Bikes” with the banana seat and ape hanger handlebars and the 5 speed derailer gears.
I remember cinnamon toothpicks. Some kids tried to sell them.
UW – and the hockey cards clothespinned to the spokes?
This one Uncle Wedgie?
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bmxnonstop.com/oldschool/images/deluxe.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.bmxnonstop.com/oldschool/1966ray.htm&h=323&w=416&sz=116&tbnid=QlYI7sOit18_RM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dschwinn%2Bbanana%2Bseat%2Bbike&usg=__yWczNuiuFRoNkL7JVfeTQqFDaIA=&ei=DBRWS7LLIYm2NtX11ZMJ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=6&ct=image&ved=0CCUQ9QEwBQ
Wow, wordnerd posted, for the first time in, like, it seems like years. She goes way, way back, pre-HaloScan, I think (let alone pre- whatever this posting device is called).
Next thing ya know, we’ll be hearing from Hitchcocknut.
There is a nice Wacky Packages website that I look at from time to time.
Jeesum Crow that must be the longest link in the history of the interwebs
Makin’ out to the taste of Lip Smackers and the scent of “Love’s Baby Soft” perfume on Kim E.’s neck circa 1974 at summer camp….her bell bottom jeans pushed down to her Converse Allstars…little butt in the air….listening to the Starlight Vocal Band singing “Afternoon Delight”…all this in the back seat of a Pinto Squire wagon with an 8-track tape player Oh, man, the 70′s were great. Of course we were drinking Mad Dog…aka MD 20/20…from Dixie cups.
OHHHHH, and the “Half Shirt” was popular in my day as well. You might what to let your neighbor know the fad has long since past. LOL
For the girls (and maybe the guys:0) Love’s Baby Soft perfume and Jovan Wild Musk perfume. Windsong and Jean Nate.
I collected marbles, superballs and I loved those Frito Bandito erasers!
I remember sneakers being very important as well. I always tried to get the strangest colored sneakers and clash them with colored laces. And they were sneakers. Only people who played tennis wore tennis shoes.
This may have been local (Stone Mountain, GA) but I also remember everyone having leather bracelets with your name stamped on them. You swapped when you were ‘going’ with someone.
Hey…anyone remember the pink rubber shit that came in a toothpaste-type tube? You put a gob of it on the end of a straw…blew into it to get a big bubble…
Trish: My hair had an Aqua-Net halo….red can only. My bangs looked like a friggin rooster tail. And we thought we looked hot!
Forgot about the pet rock. SImple idea, made guy wealthy.
Also “mood rings”.
On IPOD right now- “La Grange”- ZZ Top
The strangest name for sneakers I ever heard — I used to know a guy from Scotland, and he called sneakers “baseball boots.” Apparently that’s what they call ‘em over there. Any Scots listening in who can comment on that?
T. Farty – I remember now – the Pumas with the flap on the tongue that folded back over the laces. Not quite cleats, not quite sneakers. And the binders were “Trapper Keepers.”
AWG – thanks – that’s exactly what I was thinking of.
Hmm…I seem to be older than most here so here is a list from the 60′s
Red Ball Jets or Converse Hi tops
Nifty Notebooks – even with the power of the intertubes I can’t find anything about them. Had to have one tho to be ‘cool’.
Superballs before the ‘Great Downsizing’ they were the size of baseballs and they really hurt when you got hit.
Penny loafers with dimes in them instead of pennies.
Soul socks – these were really tuxedo socks but all the high school guys wore them with their penny loafers.
We called the off-brand shoes “buddies” for a reason that completely escapes me. My parents thought that there was no reason to buy name brand shoes so I often had to go to school in buddies. My father threw a fit when I wanted a $40 pair of Reeboks.
As for grade school fad, other than a period of where marbles were real popular, I can’t think of any.
Penny wars! We divided up into two teams, one on each end of the hall. Everyone would bring a pocket of pennies. Then we’d fling pennies at each other. Occasionally someone would draw blood with a penny. If you wanted to be a real jerk, you would sneak in the occasional quarter!
You want to talk cheep cologne?
Jade East was big as were British Sterling and English Leather. I can still smell that crap.
AWG – yes, I meant to mention mood rings. I wonder what color yours was….
@bikerchick….Super Elastic Bubble Plastic.
The fumes could kill you.
I saw a kid break his forearm doing the clackers thing. It evidently just cracked the bone. The funniest thing I saw was when a kid doing clackers in the mall, had a string break and that acrylic cannonball went rocketing down the length of the main walkway, bouncing about two feet off the ground, barely missing everyone in sight until it was too far away to see.
Most super balls are sort of large marble size now, but when they came out there were some that were almost the size of a tennis ball. They were really heavy and dense.
We dropped one down the center shaft of a stairwell from three stories up and it almost came back to that level. So we went to the top of the stairwell which was about 6 or 7 stories and dropped it. We had someone at each level to see how high it would come back up.
I remember looking down as it dropped and seeing heads sticking out at each floor, and when it reached the bottom it exploded into what seemed like hundreds of pieces which ricocheted around the basement area like shrapnel.
I guess this sort of deal shows what age people are around here.
I have always called them tennis shoes. Just as soda is always pop to me.
That is a whole other post. I think we have talked about that here before.
I just spurted!
Wordnerd – I honestly think I carried my marbles in a Crown Royal bag. I think we lived on the tracks…
I was such a nerd!! I could have cried myself to sleep over not having a trapper keeper, as my dad refused to spend the money on it. (needed cigs and beer, duh)
I see them now and get all giddy to buy for my son. I think they are banned?? Wtf is wrong with trapper keepers, does anyone know?? I remember those dumb braided friendship bracelets, I never had any because I had no friends(see above reference). Those necklaces that said “Best Friends” and they were a heart broke in half…you gave it to your bestie…banana clips, and loafers!! I am getting all twitchy thinking about it.
Cheryl: Omg! That’s it! I knew someone here would remember.
I’m going to have to support JCIII on the SSP. I was just describing them to my girls the other day. There’s no way those things would be sold now. In addition to the risk of hair getting caught in the flywheel, that sumbitch would burn you if you happened ti hit skin against the spinning wheel before you got it on the floor, not to mention the whipping cog cord flying straight for your eye as you yanked it with all your might. I got a shiny metallic purple on Christmas 1972-3. Loved that thing.
Anyone remember the color-in pocket folder notebooks? They were plain white paper with various patterns printed on them- some psychedelic, some bucolic- and you colored them in. I can’t imagine they were very popular with teachers.
Cassey J – me too. I can be your friend.
I the Trapper Keeper is now banned due to the fact that they tried to take over the world.
Considering most everyone went to school around the same time, theres not much, if anything to add, except magnifying glasses. We spent countless hours bringing the wrath of god down upon ants, each other, and anything else that was at hand.
One of the girls in my class, her dad worked for Opee Chee, and she would often have cards and stuff, even uncut sheets to give out. Garbage Pail Kids where by far the most popular (I still got a few around here somewhere). They where so popular they got stuck everywhere… And thus came the end. The girl (dad) was told that she was never to bring any sticker to school again. There are probably still a few errant garbage pail kids stuck in some obscure corner in that school…
never trust a man who dosn’t get a thrill from bouncing super balls. in fact, that guy’s probably a neo nazi
Canadian checking in here:
During a brief period in the Eighties, branded clothes from Pepsi, Coke, and McDonalds were all the rage. Looking back, man is that weird. I remember my big brother got a red Coke shirt for about $70 and I was totally pissed my folks didn’t spring for one for me.
Also, Reebok broke in while I was in school and a pair of white Reeboks was the shit.
Elementary school was all about these rubbery plastic bracelets. Even dudes wore them. I remember Archie comics had an add for about 500 of them for 10 bucks or something and I almost sent the little coupon thing in a bunch of times.
Pogs were briefly popular, but they came and went within about a month.
Another mention of Garbage Pail Kids stickers. They were huge and there was an uproar from *those* parents who were worried about some pictures of kids doing gross things warping our minds or whatever
I was a Red Ball Jets man. We called ‘sneakers or tennis shoes’…”Go-Fasters.” I wore steel spikes in Little League and kept the black leather uppers, shined just like the big boys. Taking your new ballglove to school for the first time and a brand new fresh out of the blue box that said, “Official”, Rawlings baseball, was better than holding Marsha Vaske’s hand.
Along with the red (and bule was around too) baloon stuff, there were these little black things that came about eight or so to a pack, called ‘Magic Snakes”. You’d light them and they would just go and grow into about a two foot long greyish balck, cheese doodle looking thing and ‘snake’ along the ground. Those balsa wood airplanes were a big hit too. Either with or without the rubber band driven propeller and the added landing gear. A definite entertainment staple. Easy to please back then I guess.
As I write this I see the ad for 50 MP3 albums flashing there at the bottom and I see an amazing amount of humor in that, having just returned from being 9, in the fourth grade in 1962.
I actually got tiny little tube of the Super Elastic Bubble Plastic in a bubble gum machine a few years ago (yes, I am in my forties and I still waste my money in bubble gum machines-what of it? At least now I have enough money to keep turning until I get what I want). It was only about an inch long with a little bitty straw but it made several pretty good bubbles. @Cheryl and bikerchick-It still smelled exactly the same.
@Swami Bologna-we used to chew on that stuff too and no leukemia to date *knocks on wood*
I remember posters and black lights, tie dyed shirts,platform shoes and bell bottoms. first time smoking a dobie.and drive in movies.
I loved Garbage Pail Kids so much and was so excited when I was invited to the set of the movie (Horrible! Horrible!) starring Mackenzie Astin. My aunts live in Coeur D’Alene, ID and are good friends with Patty Duke who lives nearby. Her sons of course are Sean and Mackenzie Astin. Every year when we would visit, there would always be a get-together and my brother and I would play with Sean & Mackenzie. It was bizarre now that I see how famous Sean has become & even knowing that he was in Goonies (we loved that film) but not putting 2 & 2 together that Sean was famous even then.
Anyhow, we all had Garbage Pail Kids cards & one year Mackenzie was telling us how he got picked to star in the movie for the cards. I just about wet myself I was so excited. His mom saw how freaked I was and invited me to come along with them while he filmed. Heaven in a puke barrel!
Imagine my disappointment and horror when we got to the set & the “kids” I thought were so hilarious were actually either teenagers, or small adults wearing hideous suits & awful makeup. It’s one thing to be ugly but it’s quite another to be scary and vile. After about an hour hiding from the little people in costume, my dad whisked me away and gave me a tour of the rest of the lot, where better things were being filmed, like a Palmolive commercial starring that old lady who also hawked denture creams. She gave me a hug and said I was “Cute”. I just stared at her mouth because in the denture commercials the teeth were always in a glass soaking in water. Her teeth were in place though and her laugh sounded like she lived full time in a coal mine.
Looking back the Garbage Pail Kids in that movie still scare the bejeezus outta me. Of course at the time I was 8 so god knows how much therapy Dr. Phil will have to provide to get the images of those Garbage kids out of my head for good.
Also I remember in middle school people wearing the ‘Button Your Fly’ jeans. How awful were those when you had to pee really bad?!
I remember my mom about killing herself to find me and my BFFbutton fly jeans…. She was sure we would never survive the horrors of 8th grade without them. Thats what we get for living out in the boonies though, 2 stores and nothing made inteh past 5 years available. (She found a pair, we shared them and life went right along.)
My hubby grew up someplace even more rural, 12 bars, no post office, library or clothing stores, and the one place to eat was off the side of a bar where his mean-ass grandma burned steaks and fries. Turns out his mom scraped and starved to get the boy name brand shoes so he wouldnt get his ass wooped in school for being a poor kid, and when he found out (at about age 12) he told her to stop since he could give a shit about name brand anything. Apparentally she had been wasting her time, since he’s just not interested in that sort of thing.
My vote has always been that since he was busy hot wireing cars, drinkin left overs at his grandmas bar and havin sex with 16 year old girls he probably didn’t have much time to consider the merits of various band and no brand shoes and the social reprocussions therein.
I seem to recall the super ball fad coming first, maybe 5th grade or so. Chuck in Belpre is correct, they were the size of a normal ball like a “Spaldeen”, not those malted-milk-ball-size things that appeared later.
The yo-yo showed up a little after that, like 7th grade. And a Duncan Imperial was indeed the shit, but in my school a Goody Filipino Twirler was also acceptable. Bic Bananas not so much, but the Flair pens were big for a while.
When I was in grade school you could have PF Flyer sneakers, or regular Keds. Pro Keds were considered a knockoff of Converse All Stars (the real deal). One did not wear Pro Keds.
Uncle_Wedgie, we called that a “banana bike”. My friend Hugh had the Nutcracker Special: a 5-speed one with a Hurst-looking “stick shift” on the tube right where your junk would hit if you stopped short.
Yo-balls — automatically came back to you.
Holly Hobby – my childhood bedroom was Holly Hobby
Lighted plastic football (with holes) for summer nights
whip-its – slide puzzle shaped like a tube
friendship pins – colored beads on safety pins
hackey sack
Zips tennis shoes (Possibly a KMart thing)
The Green Machine – a big wheel but with brakes on each side so you could skid out.
@JeffInDenver — a gyroscope?
@Melissa — I have never successfully found these
gum candy cigarettes in my adult life.
I have visited some huge candy stores, too. But, I DO
remember them.
I am still guilty of:
lip smackers
pop rocks
Love’s Baby Soft
Super Elastic Bubble Plastic
Pretty neat site…bubble gum cigs here!!1
Old-Time Candy we had as kids
oh shit… i forgot sour patch!
those candies that are sour and almost inedable!!!! before the sour patch KIDS there were sourpatch strips. those were soooo grosss… but we all ate them…
then there was crystal pepsi and anything blue in the 1980′s…
HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT FOOD AND STILL BE FATTIE20XL?!?!
So many memories from reading these posts!
Jeff, I think that is the real value in saving stuff. These items will often make the memories come flooding back, in a way that just isn’t possible otherwise. Looking at the frito-bandito commercial took me right back to the school-bus when I was in fourth grade.
I always liked to keep boxes of stuff when I was a kid, but, alas, none of them made it through. It’s great that you kept yours!
Playing in head: Pants on the Ground by Jimmy Fallon as Neil Young
In grade school, every girl wanted a pair of Ditto jeans, then as we got older, it became Gloria Vanderbilt, then Calvin Klein. By high school it was either parachute pants or Levi’s 501s, pegged of course, which I guess made them the precursor to skinny jeans. And you had to wear a bandana around your ankle, an Izod shirt, and topsiders. Or alligator skin penny loafers.
In grade school, I was more interested in Kickball, Dodgeball, Tetherball, and Four Square. I somewhat recall that next to Pop Rocks, Jolly Rancher suckers (not the bite-sized hard candies) were really popular. My friends and I would sit in my room, sucking on a Jolly Rancher, staring at my posters of Rex Smith, Shawn Cassidy, Leif Garrett, and Andy Gibb. Prepubescent uselessness.
A friend of mine insists that mastering the Clacker helped him perfect his jerk-off technique. Do any of the men out there concur?
You guys have touched on all the schoolyard fads that were big back in my day: Wacky Packs (as we called ‘em), clackers, super balls, yoyos, Super Elastic Bubble Plastic, Bic Bananas, and also the crazy folders we used to color on with them. Thanks for the reminders about Frito Bandito erasers. I coveted those as well.
One thing I didn’t see mentioned though: Whizzers. They were small spinning tops that you “revved up” by dragging the tips across a smooth surface. Then, you and your friends could have a Whizzer “battle.” I seem to remember my third grade teacher having quite a collection of Whizzers in her desk drawer.
“Toney unearthed a rich vein of artifacts from my grade school era. She held up a ball of red and blue electrical tape, and said, “Why the hell did you keep this?”
I explained to her that when I was in fifth grade the teacher created a giant diagram of a human heart on the floor of our classroom, and would have kids walk through it and announce each part of the organ as they progressed. And after she was finished with it, she asked me and Danny J. to pull up the tape.
“And there it is…” I added, dramatically.”
ROFLMAO!
A couple yrs. ago I took the opportunity to clean out(and I do mean Clean out, as in big out the shovel!)my youngest son’s bedroom while he was away at summer camp. I found a ball of Masking Tape, the size of a kickball in there.
When he returned home I asked him what the deal was with the Mega Ball of Used Tape. He said it was from some project in school….he was assigned the job w/2 other kids of picking up/cleaning up said tape. He ‘won’ the honor of bringing that Ball o’ Tape home over the other 2 youngins.
I promptly made him dispose of that hunk of trash. I may be paying for therapy for him when he is older but at least I have headed off his becoming a Jeff Kay-style hoarder.lolol
Wow. Too much to comment on here.
My hometown stores sold shitty version of Converse tennis shoes for $6 bux or so at the 5 & 10. We called them “flippers” because the sole would become detached from the actual shoe in short order and they would make a slapping sound when you were walking. I remember gluing the soles back on with rubber caulking in Dad’s garage many times for me and buddies. Puma was the real deal, they held up, but cost twice as much.
Any of you have a Whirlybird? Battery powered helicopter with a joystick that ran off of something like 8 D Cell batteries? My dad would bitch when I would go to the hardware store and buy something like 24 batteries at a time and put it in his tab. 8 batteries lasted for about an hour. The actual rotor blades were hard plastic spinning at warp speed and would hit you and require stitches and hurt like fuck.
Crossman 760 BB guns? Western Auto sold 3/16″ diameter lead pellets. The gun was designed to be “pumped” up to 10 times to increase pressure in the valve. When you pulled the trigger, the pellets could penetrate in and out the other side of a Wheeling Steel garbage can, and those cans were about 1/4″ thick steel and weighed about 80 pounds. I believe me and my buddy shot out the majority of the street lights in town one summer.
Cindy Blake used to ladle herself in Love’s Baby Soft. I believe I ate her in 1981. Have not seen her since.
Dad had a subscription to Penthouse. Arrived by mail monthly. (Yes, I was popular in the neighborhood as a result at age 12 or so).
One issue I intercepted had an ad for some blue pills that had 500 milligrams of caffeine. I remember one pill was equal to 10 cups of coffee or something and was “completely legal”. I ordered something like 1,000 of them for $12.00. These were like speed balls at pennies per dose. Sold hundreds of them for $1 each to the entire squad of cheerleaders at high school. I think the cheerleaders lost something like 700 pounds divided by 24 girls over a 3 month time frame in total. Mom found my stash. Accusations ensued that I was a drug dealer. I had to show her the ad (in Dad’s Penthouse Magazine) to prove it was only caffeine. Problem solved. Never mentioned again after 30+ years.
Much more to post, except I am loaded and this took 40 minutes to type.
There’s something about Wordnerd’s comment (casual, conversational, contextual) that suggests she’s been lurking all (or at least some of) these many months. The last time I saw a wordnerd comment, the President was confused, the US was involved in two land wars in Asia, we didn’t have national health insurance, and there was a terrible recession. Oh, I guess that was last week. Well, at least the Veep has improved.
Hi wordnerd. How’s the jambalaya?
jtb
Not Oprah- my mood ring always seemed to be blue back then, before forty years of workin’ for da man and the constant stream of disappointment life has had to offer and the feelings of aggrevation that I have had to keep stuffed way down deep. Now, the ring would probably display as black as my soul.
hardoxdan- I took those pills for a short while when running track. Real Mom and fake dad found them and acted as if I had been the brains behind a redneck heroin ring. Had to quit any extracurricular activity and was under lockdown for about six months. Oh yeah, and fake dad beat me to a pulp, but that built character.
Also, had a whirlybird. Those bitches were cool. Divebombed the cat many times with that.
On IPOD right now- “Far Behind”- Candlebox
My feet grew up in Converse Chuck Taylors. I would have been embarrassed to be in anything else, especially Keds. That was the late ’60s early ’70′s.
I re-took up yo-yoing about 6 years ago as a way to kill time at my kid’s swim practices… not a Duncan. You have to get a ball bearing spindle. Yo Yo Jam Super Spinfaktor. Sleeps for over a minute. OK, I’m a nerd…
I still have The Whizzer top I got in 1973. Mattel was remaking them a few years ago.
I had a Whirlybird. Those go for big money on Ebay now.
The only thing I have not seen mentioned that was big at our grade school is the chinese jump rope. They were tricky to find and required three people or in a pinch two people and a chair.
I think I finally got my hands on one only to be faced with the reality that I and my peers did not really relate to one another until I was about 30.
I remember the Duncan yo-yo ad on TV. Same craze where I was from. The erasers were a fad–but not out of Fritos–but rather out of the school supply store. There were five in a series of spaceships–and were MUST HAVES. So much so, I plundered my mom’s stash of silver dollars and “Kennedy Halfs” and bought the set. Yeah–that probably wasn’t wise.
I recall Pro-Keds…but there was a secondary Keds product called “Taillights” where the shoes had a big orange dot on the back made with reflective plastic–who knows why but they were cool in the 70′s. They are high gay today.
Another shoe fad from back in the day. “Track shoes became the fad featuring faux suede at some point around 3rd grade, then in the early 80′s the brand name Pony became the must have brand in the pre-Nike dominance era, and then there specifically “turf shoes” used for football on turf–but a fad among teenagers for a time, the really cool people had the elongated tongue that folded over and covered the knot. Eventually they were adapted to a high-top version–which were always worn untied with the tonge prodruding above the bottoms of your straight-leg Levis.
Shit–I feel like an episode Queer Eye.
Buck Out
I remember every time my mom would wear the mood ring it would turn jet black. Every single time, straight to black. Good times.
Jeff, next time wifey complains about your ball of red and blue electrical tape, or anything of a similar ilk, just tell her it’s your “Rosebud.” It’s an icon of your youth, and reminds you of simpler and pleasanter times before your life was saddled with the despair that comes with being an adult. So, just like Charles Foster Kane looked at that snow-globe and was immediately transported back to his youthful and carefree days sledding on “Rosebud,” your ball of red and blue tape takes you back to elementary school in Dunbar, WV, when you had not a care in the world. I think she’ll understand.
i also frikkin forgot POGS!
Last again!
“Dobies” were called “bo-bos” in our school. Just as bad as “highwaters” — jeans that were too short because they were hand-me-downs or you had outgrown them.
3rd/4th grade: those friendship pins (made by females, of course)
5th/6th grade: Chinese throwing stars and switchblades were popular. As you might guess, I didn’t go to an upscale elementary school. By 6th grade, half the class was smoking pot. This was in the mid 80s. Anyone remember Spanjam shorts? Who the fuck thought those were a good idea? Those were a short lived fad back then too.
I still have my Wacky Packages collectors album (’83 I think) as well as a framed, uncut sheet of stickers that I bought in NYC when I lived there. Apparently there was a stash of them in Brooklyn:
http://www.wackypackages.org/sheets/1st_rerun.html
That’s a short list, gotta hit the road…
@hardoxdan — my cousin and I both had a Crossman 760, and you’re right: those fuckers were powerful. Killed a lot of birds and beercans/beer quarts with those things. The side of my Grandfather’s garage had a million pellets embedded in it because we used it as a backstop.
Lucas- whatdafuck are PODS?
On IPOD right now- “How Many More Times?”- Led Zep
Sorry- “POGS”!!!
I have read that the Japanese will pay a lot of money for old track shoes from the 70s.
I believe all the pellet guns I had were destroyed by my father.
Is there a way we can PayPal that woman in the bunkercam a five dollar foot long?
On IPOD right now- “That’s Not My Name”- Ting Tings ( I really like that chick that sings!!)
Sorry, but I gotta let one more thing fly before the update. Hey Tiger, so yer a fucking sex addict now? Take that Wade Boggs approach, once you get caught, and throw that out there and see if it sticks. “Sex Addict” is the last resort before the impending divorce. I hope you never win another dollar as long as you live. I might even put you in my death pool. Fuck you, Tiger. You had it all asshole.
OK, I’m done.
On IPOD right now- “Heaven Beside You”- Alice in Chains
Remember when Spencer Gifts opened in the mall? I had to have everything in the store – blacklights, posters, those candles with the twisted shaped on the sides, the strobe light, the “dirty” cards (tame by today’s standards) – a must stop at every visit to the mall in the 70′s
The girl’s must have sneakers here in suburban Baltimore in the late 70s/early 80s were Tretorns. We also wore OP shorts, deck shoes with the laces tied in spirals, and Forenza shaker knit sweaters backwards with the V-neck in the back. God we were stupid girls. And yes, totally doused in Love’s Baby Soft with our Dr Pepper Lip Smackers glossing our lips.
Speeding through my forties, I can so relate to all these fads. Jeff is right. At the time, it was Duncan yo-yo’s or GTFO! The only fad I haven’t seen mentioned here (and probably shouldn’t be) was Kalso Earth shoes. For some reason, those ugly-azz things really took off in my small town, southern jr. high school. There we were…in our helmet shaped hair-cuts, wide leg jeans (or Liberty Bells, for the terminally cool) and Earth shoes. It really was a ‘sunshine day’ back then.
I saw some kids wearing checkered deck shoes last summer. I guess those are back in style.
Roots sweatshirts, marbles, converse all-stars, home-made woven bracelets made by the girls, tapered leg pants held together with pins, Hot Wheels (I still buy these but Mustangs and Ford musclecars only), GI Joe, Transformers and M.A.S.K. (80′s versions)