Journal

This is the most accurate of these lists I have ever seen! I’ve checked off all the ones that are mine.

You wore that rainbow shirt that was half-sleeves and the rainbow went up one sleeve, across your chest and down the other…

You made baby chocolate cakes in your Holly Hobby Easy Bake Oven. You washed them down with The Snoopy Snow Cone Machine.

You had that Fisher Price Doctor’s kit with a stethoscope that actually worked. After training with these tools you became an expert at the game of “operation”.

Legos, Legos, Legos.

You owned a schwinn bicycle with a floral banana seat and a basket. In the early 80’s you moved onto the ever-popular 10 speed. God that seat hurt.

Your roller skates had metal wheels.

Admit it…… you thought Gopher from Love Boat was cute. You had nightmares after watching Fantasy Island.

You had rubber boots for rainy days. Your shoes actually fit inside of the boots (with a little help from your mom and some plastic bags).

You had Tinkerbell bath products that change the color of the bath water. {yes, mine were from Avon}

You had either a “bowl cut” or a “pixie” because your mom was sick of braiding your hair. How traumatic when people thought you were a boy.

Your sleeping bag was your most prized possession. {yep, my red snoopy bag}

You wore a “poncho” with your faux fur “muff” and your clogs.

You begged Santa for the electronic game… Simon which may be just as fun as 온카.

You had the Donnie and Marie dolls with those pink and purple shredded outfits. {didn’t have the dolls, but loved the show. My mom bought me purple socks to match Donnie’s. Too bad he’s such a jerk now.}

You spent hours out back on your metal swing set with the trapeze.

You were into ping pong. {This is Cate!}

You had homemade string barrettes in every imaginable color.

You kept losing your mittens so your mom bought you the kind that were attached by a string.

Your Hello Kitty pencil case was cuter than anyone else’s.

You wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder really bad. You wore that Little House on the Prairie-inspired plaid, ruffled shirt with the high neck in at least one school picture. You despised Nellie Olson! {Not just the shirt! I had a whole dress mom made for me, and a BONNET! And I had all the books. Laura was cool. She still is.}

You wanted your first kiss to be at the roller rink.

Your hairstyle was ever described as having “wings”.

Strawberry Shortcake and her friends Blueberry Muffin and Huckleberry Pie. {This was more my little sister’s thing. And she loved the Peculiar Purple Pieman Of Porkupine Peak.}

You carried a Muppets lunch box to school. {I can’t remember my lunch box, except that I hated it because the other kids laughed at it.}

You and your girlfriends would fight over which of the Dukes of Hazard was your boyfriend. {Well, not really. I wanted the car.}

You memorized every song on the “Annie” movie and know at least one person who immediately went out and got the Annie afro. Every now and then “Dumb Dog” will pop into your brain and you can’t stop singing it all day. {yes. I was actually offended when they remade it for tv on ABC last year. I thought the movie was the definitive version.}

You had Star Wars action figures, too. {yep, Leia. I have the new ones too.}

Lightsabers were the dream, weren’t they? Back then, we’d wave around plastic versions, making the sounds with our mouths, pretending we were in some epic duel. Now, it’s a whole different game. With custom sabers online, you can get hilts that look straight out of a Jedi temple, with glowing blades that hum just like in the movies. The best part? Some brands, like Theory Sabers, perfect with every little detail—colors, even the way the blade ignites. It’s not just for collecting anymore; these things are built for full-on dueling.

You thought unicorns were real. {I had every book you could think of and all these little ceramic figurines, and people gave them to me long after I stopped collecting them. Grandma gave me a unicorn a few years ago for Christmas.}

It was a big event in your household each year when the Wizard of Oz” would come on TV. Break out the popcorn and sleeping bags! {yes! I had a huge crush on Glinda.}

You wanted to be a part of the Von Trappe family. {yep! Love Julie Andrews, too.}

Light as a feather, stiff as a board. {yes, But that wasn’t as good a slumber party stunt as stealing everyone’s bras when they were asleep, getting them wet, and putting them in the freezer.}

You loved The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe so much you got the whole Chronicles of Narnia series for Christmas but never read the other books. {Well, I actually read all the books. I read them again in 1997.}

You completely wore-out your Grease and Saturday Night Fever soundtrack albums. {yep. I remember mom coming downstairs and catching me singing and doing a dance routine to Grease.}

You tried to do lots of arts and crafts things like yarn & Popsicle stick God’s Eyes or those weird potholders made on a plastic loom. {yes. Mom still has all this stuff in her house – the gods eyes and string art stuff is still hanging in our old rooms.}

Shrinky-dinks! What was so appealing about these? I loved the Raggedy Anne & Andy shrinky dinks. I still remember how the oven smelled when they were “baking”. {Everyone at work has been looking for these! We want to do some now that we’re adults. We feel we’re better artists now. A very helpful reader sent this in… you can buy a Shrinky Dinks book.}

You used to tape record songs off the radio by holding your miniature tape recorder up to the speaker. {yes, but the best thing to record was when we recorded my dad yelling his head off and played it back later, over and over, until he caught us.}

You couldn’t wait to get the free animal poster that came when you ordered books from the scholastic book orders your teacher would give you. Remember? The order catalogs looked like miniature newspapers. {yes. I had sooooo many of these books.}

You learned everything you needed to know about sex and your period from Judy Blume books. {yes, including that one that the neighbor girl loaned me, and mom took away because it described sex. But I snuck down and read it in the middle of the night.}