This was such a fun theme that some of us decided to share our lists!
Favorite things about the '80s
Melissa A:
Movies: Soooo many to name...Back to the Future, Dirty Dancing, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Moving Violations, The Princess Bride, Sing!, Annie, Sixteen Candles, Spaceballs, Little Shop of Horrors, Lucas, Overboard, etc.
V.C. Andrews novels: Some may have originated in the '70s, but I started reading them in the late '80s and couldn't get enough.
Full House: It started in the '80s and went through part of the '90s. I loved having a show where there was a character around my age through whom I could live vicariously. And Uncle Jesse was definitely eye candy!
Music: Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, Wham, Billy Joel, Toto, Debbie Gibson, and, of course, New Kids on the Block!
Cabbage Patch Kids: My sister and I had a bunch of them and we would play house.
Melissa S:
Punky Brewster: I used to love this show and couldn't wait for it to come on every week. My favorite part about it was her bedroom! It was so cool and different.
John Hughes movies: Who didn't dream of being a character in one of his movies? The breakfast club always made me excited to be a teenager and get to high school.
Garbage Pail Kids: I had so much fun collecting these when I was in grade school. We would trade them with friends for the ones we still needed and line them all up and laugh at the silly (and gross) names and pictures.
Croonchy Stars cereal: I always loved the Swedish chef from the Muppets and when this cinnamon cereal came out, I would always beg my mom to get it for us!
Herself the Elf doll: I had the record that went along with this whimsical little doll. She was always my favorite and I still say that if I were to have a little girl, her room would be decorated in a Herself the Elf theme.
Jami:
Soap operas: The 1980s were the heyday of ABC soaps. Ryan’s Hope, All My Children, One Life to Live, Edge of the Night, and of course record-breaking General Hospital made it hard to leave your house in the afternoon for most of the decade.
Teen movies: Thanks to John Hughes, the '80s were best known for high-school based gems like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and Some Kind of Wonderful. Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High also came out in this decade. With no movies like these since, even today’s teenagers can quote Ferris Bueller as well as their parents can.
Madonna-inspired fashion: I couldn’t pull it off, but I admired those who could!
The Washington Redskins: They were in three Super Bowls and won two of them.
Dirty Dancing: My all-time favorite movie. No one puts Baby in a corner. Not even Emily Gilmore.
Favorite things about the '90s
Melissa A:
RENT! Need I say more? "When you're living in America, at the end of the millenium..."
Friends: No matter how much I loved TV in the '90s, Friends was an icon!
Music: Nirvana, Alanis Morissette, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Jewel, Counting Crows, No Doubt, Green Day, Natalie Imbruglia, Collective Soul, Jill Sobule, Better than Ezra, 10,000 Maniacs, Live, Barenaked Ladies, etc. Check out my blog series about the fabulous music from this decade.
Disney animated films: Since teen movies didn't start up again until I was in college, I had Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King to keep me entertained when I was in high school (and a bit beyond). I also love Hercules and I somewhat count The Little Mermaid since I didn't see it until it came out on VHS in 1990. (These two movies are similar in a lot of ways.)
Bridget Jones's Diary: My introduction to chick lit. I was laughing out loud and getting looks from people when I read it.
Melissa S:
Beverly Hills 90210: My friends and I watched this religiously every Wednesday night and would order pizza and sodas while awaiting the drama that was sure to unfold.
Michael Jordan: Growing up in Chicago, almost everyone was obsessed with him. Enough said.
Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill: This album came out when I was in high school and epitomized the 1990's teenage angst every girl has felt at least once in high school.
Gameboy: I loved playing Tetris on my Gameboy after school.
Christopher Pike's "Remember Me" trilogy: These books drew me in and I couldn't wait to start the next one in the series.
Jami:
AOL: Don’t laugh, but I still have my AOL email address. AOL helped change the internet from something only wonks and professionals used, to the consumer-driven service it is today. I met some of my best friends for the first time online, and keep in touch with everyone I know that way. Those free computer discs will forever have a place in my heart.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards: The retro-looking baseball field opened in 1992 and quickly became a model for every new baseball stadium since. Plus they have crab-topped pretzels.
Y2K mania: Who could forget the fun of living in a year where everyone thought society was going to collapse due to a few lines of computer code that were too short?
If you have about 20 minutes, take a trip back...
The Clinton Administration: Eight years of peace and prosperity, headed by a self-indulgent baby boomer, the wife who’d married beneath her, and the Vice President married to the woman who invented warning labels for record albums. Oh for the days when the biggest thing we had to worry about in politics was a stained blue dress. (Here is our reviewer Denise's post about it.)
Harry Potter: I read mostly adult fiction, but no series has captured my attention the way Harry Potter did-- especially the first three books, which were released in the '90s.
What are some of YOUR favorite things from the '80s and '90s? Did anything on this list stand out to you?
2 comments:
I enjoyed all of your memories.
All of the teen 80s movies were my favorites. I still enjoy them. The music of the late 80s and early 90s were some of my favorite. Any big hair band got my attention. I also loved the fashions of that time too (though some think it's tacky these days, I still think it was cool). I used to go out to clubs all the time and music was a big part of my life as the guys I dated back then were all into music. My first husband was a guitar player and used to love going to the clubs and meeting the musicians after they played. Or we would go to any rock concert that came to town. It seemed life was so much easier and worth living back then. These days are filled with stress, worry and grief and I just want to go back to when life was fun.
Love this post! So many good things came out of the 80s and the 90s! I remember the Golden Girls, 21 Jump Street, and Miami Vice!
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