Phone Home
When I see pre-teen/teenage girls walking around today with their phones glued to their heads or see them texting in restaurants, movie theatres, concerts, busses, malls, grocery stores, wedding ceremonies, etc. I think to myself, wow, that is super annoying. I also think to myself that would have toootally been me, and thank God cell phones did not exist during my teenage years. I would have gotten in SO MUCH TROUBLE back in the day...
Choose Your Own Adventure Books
By Thomas Zizzo The 80s was an era of many changes in music, movies, fashion and technology. One such innovation was a series of books originally conceived by Edward Packard as the Adventures of You series. It was under the name Choose Your Own Adventure, published by Bantam Books, that the concept really took off. As a kid I can recall rainy days at home and what we used to do for fun. Unlike today, we didn’t have iPads, computers,...
Interview with The Eighties: A Bitchen Time to Be a Teenager! author, Tom Harvey
We recently had the pleasure of reading Tom Harvey’s The Eighties: A Bitchin Time to be a Teenager. The book tells the story of Tom’s adventures through the 80s, starting in 1980 when Tom was in the sixth grade and ending as the decade closes out and Tom makes his way through college and into adulthood. At times both hilarious and cringe-inducing (his experiences hit mighty close to home), this is the honest tale of growing up amid...
Holly Hobbie
By Julie Anderson Eighties girls will totally recognize this bonnet-clad little girl and the way-back-when lifestyle she conjured up: http://youtu.be/XnNlbl0EYhU It’s Holly Hobbie, the artistic creation of author/artist Holly Hobbie. (I know, right? I was fascinated to learn that she named her character after herself.) Denise Holly Ulinskas marred Douglas Hobbie in 1964. In the late 60s, she created the Holly Hobbie character and sold...
Waterbeds in the 80s
By Julie Anderson Once you’ve slept on a waterbed, you’ll never forget that wa-a-a-avy motion of the mattress. I can totally see why some people get motion sickness on them, although I never did. My friend Monica in elementary school had one and when I spent the night we slept on it. Swishy, sloshy and anything BUT firm, waterbeds lifted away your pressure points on an undulating pillow of squish that would make The Little Mermaid...
Monchhichis
My husband, like me, is a child of the 80s. I asked him if he remembered Monchhichis, thinking that surely he’d have no idea what I was talking about. But NO! He immediately burst into that commercial jingle. You totally know the first couple of lines at least: Monchhichi, Monchhichi, Oh so soft and cuddly! With a thumb in her mouth she’s really neat. Fun to wiggle his little feet. Yah yah yah yah yah Happy happy monchhichi! I love...
Test Your Eighties Entertainment Knowledge – The Animal Edition
By Julie Anderson That’s right, LT80s readers. This eighties quiz is totally wild. Put on your thinking caps and, like, turn them up to eleven, because you’re about to get challenged with some serious 80s trivia. Pets, pests, and guardian gators: how much do you remember about animals on TV and in the movies? 1. The Dukes of Hazzard (1979-1985) showed us how those hot Duke boys managed to evade Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane. What was the...
Cassette Tapes in the 80s
By Julie Anderson Woo-hoo – cassette tapes have been with us since 1962! Happy fiftieth birthday, cassettes! For those of you who have played music exclusively on shiny silver discs and on MP3 players, cassettes were little plastic boxes filled with musical joy. Cassettes were not new in the eighties, but they became wildly popular for two big reasons. Starting in the early seventies, 3M Corporation started to make cassettes that were...
Christmas Vacation, 1989
By Ryan Zimmerman There’s one word that instantly brings to mind the joys and holiday spirit we all look forward to each Christmas season. Just one word personifies family, fun and feasts. That word isn’t “Santa” or “gifts” or “snow.” That word my friends, is “Griswold.” In National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, released on December 1, 1989, mistake-prone patriarch Clark W. Griswold throws caution (and previous family disasters aside)...
Latch Hook Rugs in the 80s
By Julie Anderson Latch hooking rugs was an awesome activity for eighties kids. The yarn craft was simple and inexpensive, yet super satisfying. With a single easy-to-master move, we made plush, colorful rug squares. Of course, we didn’t use them as actual rugs… but they were perfect for wall hangings and pillows. The nice thing about latch hooking was that you were pretty much guaranteed a great looking and feeling product....
Chat with Spy Hunter Game Designer
By Dave Ellis One of the most awesome things about video games in the early 80s was that, just about every time you went to the arcade, there was a new game vying for your attention (and your quarters). As far I was concerned, some games instantly faded into the woodwork, while others made an indelible impression. I don’t remember exactly when or where I first played it, but Spy Hunter was a game that hooked me instantly back in 1983....
Coleco Mini-Arcade Tabletop Games
By Thomas Zizzo Birthday parties as a kid usually meant a day at the arcade. I can remember not being able to sleep the night before a friend’s party; the anticipation was too much. The old Atari 2600, sorry to say, just wasn’t the same as that dark, black-lit room, buzzing with lights and beeps and the bright marquees of our favorite video games. Unless you were as cool as Ricky Schroder (I’ve been dying to make a Silver Spoons...
VHS versus Betamax: The Great Format War of Our Time
By Brad Williams Picture yourself at your local video rental shop in 1984 – you know the one, in the local strip mall between the convenience store and the dry cleaners, drab grey carpet and rows of wire shelves filled with propped up cardboard boxes. You head for the new releases to grab something for the weekend and are shocked to see a copy of The Empire Strikes Back, sitting all alone. You instinctively reach for it but stop...
Remembering the Sony Walkman
By Thomas Zizzo I still remember that birthday in the summer of 1982, getting this new device that was all the rage at the time, and how excited my parents were to give it to me. It was a portable stereo cassette player—the infamous Sony Walkman. My Dad was very excited and impressed about the fact that it was stereo sound, and that no one else could hear it thanks to the headphones. I remember too that my parents almost didn’t buy me...
Note Passing in the Eighties
In the 80s, we didn’t have texts or emails to send to our friends during school. Puh-leeze. When our history teachers were droning away about the Battle of Hastings and our minds were focused on anything BUT William the Conqueror, we had just ONE way to let get our message across that expanse of linoleum flooring. We passed notes in class. Here’s the J. Geils Band with their 1981 megahit, “Centerfold,” to help you remember the drill:...
