Let's Have a Thundering Thread Throwback! What Games, Music, Trends, and Pop Culture Take You Back to Your Childhood?

[SoulFaith]

This thread brought back so many happy memories.

I never had a boombox like the one in the picture, but I loved recording my favorite songs from the radio onto cassette tapes. You had to be ready to press the record button at just the right moment! It was always a little frustrating when the DJ started talking before the song had finished.

We didn't have video games at home, so we spent much more time playing card games and board games together. I have very fond memories of those times.

My friends and I would ride our bikes for hours until the streetlights came on. We were outside almost all day and nobody had a cell phone or social media to distract us. Looking back, I think we were very fortunate to grow up that way.

I had several Barbies and a few My Little Pony toys. I really wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid doll, but I think it was simply too expensive for my family back then.

I also collected stickers and those little paper picture cards that everyone traded during school recess. It was always exciting to find a new one or make a good trade with a friend.

Oh, and I was really good at doing the Twist!

Thank you for starting this thread. It has been so much fun remembering all these little things that made childhood special.

 

[Godsgirl1983]

I had a Garfield party once where everyone had to come dressed in orange, and we had orange food - fanta, twisties,..oranges...
I had a pinata made that was Garfields head filled with lollies - actually that was a bit disturbing... I really was the biggest fan. I even wrote to Jim Davis...and he wrote back!

Ohh! What a fun party theme Lanolin!
And that is so cool that Jim Davis wrote you back

Let's see, my earliest Garfield memories were in Germany. My dad was military and we lived on a base. We didn't get very many channels on the t.v. that were broadcast in English, but I was sure glad that the channel that showed cartoons was! We watched Garfield like the Mom's would watch Soap Operas never missing an episode (or at least as much as we could help it. It was always so frustrating to have to leave the apartment when your favorite show was on because at that point I don't remember our VCR being able to record).
It was even popular to have a Garfield birthday cake:


Long before Crocs had their shoe charms:
...
We had shoe lace charms

yup, mine were the Garfield/Odie set.

And of course we had to watch the holiday specials.
It was so funny because my best friend and I always watched the Christmas special "together" (meaning it was on at a certain time, always at night, and she would be home watching it while I was at my home watching it). Well, after our dads were transferred back to the states we were living in different states but stayed in close contact. We were pen pals for a long while, and sometimes got to talk on the phone, but those had to be scheduled since we were in different time zones and this was back when phone companies charged different prices at different times of the day ( on the cord phone)
So our phone calls had to be scheduled, and that was usually for birthdays and Christmas, and sometimes surprise random times throughout the year. Well, it just so happened one year that we were on the phone and watching Garfield's Christmas special together A cable tv channel was airing it that day, but because of the time zone difference, one of us was just starting it and the other was just about to finish it

And speaking of staying in touch,

it's funny, but somehow back before instant access and internet and phones I remember staying in touch with people much more frequently than we do now. I just don't do social media and follow me here, follow me there (seriously... who has time to follow all their besties all over the internet all-the-time?) And it's kind of sad because as the technologies came more and more available and popular, the closeness and staying in touch began fading more and more. Although, I remember before facebook there was myspace We were just at the end of the teen years 17/18/19 or maybe very early 20's, and my friends would be creating all these cute digital spaces/pages and then the contacts began to show and they would have all these older men showing up as 'friends'. I would be like "Who is that guy?"
And they were like "OH, I don't know, he just saw my page and added me as a friend and asked to be my friend. He's cute though!"
And then these 'friends' would start messaging me and I was like "Ohhh Hello-no!" and stayed away from that stuff. And that's kind of when staying in touch with people started becoming a lost art.

Well, that's my trip down memory lane for now! It's been fun, thanks @seoulsearch

 

[Lanolin]

I didn't make it. I just bought it, used, at an auction.

ebay right?
Who still uses ebay?

I've never actually been to a real live in person auction, where you have those paddle things or raise your hands. I mean I haven't participated in one.

I do remember going along to a cattle auction though, the cattle would be walked across the stage and the farmers would bid on them, I guess they could tell at a glance the ones they wanted.

 

[Lanolin]

Wow the Garfield laces

I had a Garfield birthday cake too, except when my Uncle made it, he didn't have orange icing, so my Garfield was creamy white.

Yea at first the online chat thing was creepy. And then when I was roped into doing Any Questions (online live chat to help school kids with their homework by finding good websites) THEY were the ones asking me a/s/l or do you want to be my girlfriend? ?!
We librarians would usually counter that with 'Is this a homework question?' lol

 

[seoulsearch]

My first barbie. You could not take her crown, neither literally nor figuratively.

I was never into Barbies' but I have to admit I've always been fascinated by their clothes and accessories (probably because I'm obsessed with miniatures.)

And who wouldn't want a Barbie Dream House?!




I mean, seriously.

A water slide that glides down into a pool -- that's ABOVE the garage and is on the second floor?!

YES, PLEASE!!

 

[seoulsearch]

The first, the classic, in gaming.
View attachment 291481

I loved seeing Ms. Pac-Man in action here!! I always loved her little bow.

This made me grin from ear to ear.

Thank you so much for posting this!!

 

[Lanolin]

Baby-sitters Club books and Sweet Valley Twins.

My big sister collected them, I just read them. I had to be careful to put them back though on her bookshelf (in the right order) and not crease any of the pages.

I think she got up to #46 in the BSC series and the Sweet Valley Twins #18 or so.

She tried to get me into collecting my own series so I had Babysitters little sister books, one called Peanut Butter and Jelly, and I started a series called Penpals but I never made it to double digits.

I still preferred my Garfield books.

My sister would order the BSCs from Scholastic Books they had in school (they still do this) but I'm not sure where she got the Sweet Valley Twins from, as they weren't published under Scholastic. I remember my first Scholastic book (it was an Apple Scholastic) was a paperback edition of The Secret Garden. I was 10 just like Mary Lennox in the book. My schoolmates were awed that I could read a chapter book that was so thick.

 

[seoulsearch]

This thread brought back so many happy memories.

I never had a boombox like the one in the picture, but I loved recording my favorite songs from the radio onto cassette tapes. You had to be ready to press the record button at just the right moment! It was always a little frustrating when the DJ started talking before the song had finished.

We didn't have video games at home, so we spent much more time playing card games and board games together. I have very fond memories of those times.

My friends and I would ride our bikes for hours until the streetlights came on. We were outside almost all day and nobody had a cell phone or social media to distract us. Looking back, I think we were very fortunate to grow up that way.

I had several Barbies and a few My Little Pony toys. I really wanted a Cabbage Patch Kid doll, but I think it was simply too expensive for my family back then.

I also collected stickers and those little paper picture cards that everyone traded during school recess. It was always exciting to find a new one or make a good trade with a friend.

Oh, and I was really good at doing the Twist!

Thank you for starting this thread. It has been so much fun remembering all these little things that made childhood special.

I can totally relate to the frustration of trying to get the "perfect recording" of a favorite song off the radio!!

And how did everybody deck out their bicycles? Did you have a basket and horn?!

I remember begging my parents for streamers but I don't think I ever got those colorful spoke things (though I would have loved them!)



Stickers!! Oh my goodnes. I STILL love stickers. They just don't make 'em like they used to. I remember when they came out with all kinds of cool designs, like prisms, holographics, and oil-filled. You just can't find those today (and if you can, they're not very good.)









I remember in Lutheran school, there was a girl who was the first to get one of these and everyone kept stopping by her desk to squish it. Unfortunately, some kid apparently also tried to steal it -- though I think it was recovered, only after a teacher aggressively announced that it needed to be returned. So much for honesty in Lutheran grade school!

And The Twist!! I have two left feet so I can't master ANY dance, but it sure did look fun!

 

[Lanolin]

It's funny, remember it now, how big a deal being blonde was in the BSC books and the Sweet Valley Twins books.
I'm just noticing that Mary on the cover of The Secret Garden is depicted as a blonde, but no mention of her hair colour in the book. Mary was born in India (from Anglo-Indian British parents) and she would have stood out if she was blonde.

My hair of course was not blonde and never could be, so I always thought that I was not attractive but different. And Barbie was usually blonde too. The girls with blonde or golden hair at school always seemed to have the most boyfriends. It was like they had a halo on their head lol

 

[Lanolin]

Blonde jokes were also a thing.

How can you tell a blonde has used a computer?
There's twink on the screen.

We used twink (or liquid paper) if we'd made a mistake and we had typewriters...

 

[seoulsearch]

Ohh! What a fun party theme Lanolin!
And that is so cool that Jim Davis wrote you back

Let's see, my earliest Garfield memories were in Germany. My dad was military and we lived on a base. We didn't get very many channels on the t.v. that were broadcast in English, but I was sure glad that the channel that showed cartoons was! We watched Garfield like the Mom's would watch Soap Operas never missing an episode (or at least as much as we could help it. It was always so frustrating to have to leave the apartment when your favorite show was on because at that point I don't remember our VCR being able to record).
It was even popular to have a Garfield birthday cake:
View attachment 291497 View attachment 291498

Long before Crocs had their shoe charms:
View attachment 291494 ...
We had shoe lace charms

View attachment 291495 yup, mine were the Garfield/Odie set.

And of course we had to watch the holiday specials.
It was so funny because my best friend and I always watched the Christmas special "together" (meaning it was on at a certain time, always at night, and she would be home watching it while I was at my home watching it). Well, after our dads were transferred back to the states we were living in different states but stayed in close contact. We were pen pals for a long while, and sometimes got to talk on the phone, but those had to be scheduled since we were in different time zones and this was back when phone companies charged different prices at different times of the day ( on the cord phone)
View attachment 291496 So our phone calls had to be scheduled, and that was usually for birthdays and Christmas, and sometimes surprise random times throughout the year. Well, it just so happened one year that we were on the phone and watching Garfield's Christmas special together A cable tv channel was airing it that day, but because of the time zone difference, one of us was just starting it and the other was just about to finish it

And speaking of staying in touch,

it's funny, but somehow back before instant access and internet and phones I remember staying in touch with people much more frequently than we do now. I just don't do social media and follow me here, follow me there (seriously... who has time to follow all their besties all over the internet all-the-time?) And it's kind of sad because as the technologies came more and more available and popular, the closeness and staying in touch began fading more and more. Although, I remember before facebook there was myspace We were just at the end of the teen years 17/18/19 or maybe very early 20's, and my friends would be creating all these cute digital spaces/pages and then the contacts began to show and they would have all these older men showing up as 'friends'. I would be like "Who is that guy?"
And they were like "OH, I don't know, he just saw my page and added me as a friend and asked to be my friend. He's cute though!"
And then these 'friends' would start messaging me and I was like "Ohhh Hello-no!" and stayed away from that stuff. And that's kind of when staying in touch with people started becoming a lost art.

Well, that's my trip down memory lane for now! It's been fun, thanks @seoulsearch

Ok, GG, I am seriously envying those Garfield and Odie shoelaces!

I have a sibling whose birthday was such that it occasionally landed on Easter, so my Mom sometimes made them a specially bunny cake, etc. -- whereas my cakes were always plain. BOO!!! (First world problems, I know.)

Being the sensible person I am, I complained to my Mom about "favoritism" -- and so one year, she made me a Garfield cake for my birthday -- when I like in my 30's! But, I got my special cake and that's what count!

I also totally understand about not being able to keep up with people because they all want to keep up on so many different sites. I was telling someone in live chat yesterday that I've met around 25 people from CC in person over the years, but have lost touch with half of them simply because I couldn't manage being on all the sites they were on.

I now have one site I use to keep up with people, so I always pray that anyone I'm supposed to keep in touch with will be willing to use that site. If not, I say a prayer over them and let it go, unless of course it's a major exception.

I hate losing people, but I have to be realistic, and one thing I'm grateful for is that it sure has kept out of a lot of personal drama!!

 

[seoulsearch]

Baby-sitters Club books and Sweet Valley Twins.

My big sister collected them, I just read them. I had to be careful to put them back though on her bookshelf (in the right order) and not crease any of the pages.

I think she got up to #46 in the BSC series and the Sweet Valley Twins #18 or so.

She tried to get me into collecting my own series so I had Babysitters little sister books, one called Peanut Butter and Jelly, and I started a series called Penpals but I never made it to double digits.

I still preferred my Garfield books.

My sister would order the BSCs from Scholastic Books they had in school (they still do this) but I'm not sure where she got the Sweet Valley Twins from, as they weren't published under Scholastic. I remember my first Scholastic book (it was an Apple Scholastic) was a paperback edition of The Secret Garden. I was 10 just like Mary Lennox in the book. My schoolmates were awed that I could read a chapter book that was so thick.

View attachment 291504

OOOHHH!!

I was never into Sweet Valley High or the Babysitters, but there WAS a time when I was trying to read all the Nancy Drew books at my local library.

These old covers were enough to scare me long before I even started reading!!

I remember the summer Bingo reading card (you got free French fries from McDonald's if you filled your card,) and the different squares made you read books in several different categories.

All I wanted to read were these at the time, so boy was I ever annoyed!

 

[Lanolin]

Bikes

My sister had a chopper bike (I had a tricycle) and it had a flag or orange pennant at the back.
It was kind of like this but darker blue, and girls version which meant it had a lower bar.

 

[Lynx]

ebay right?
Who still uses ebay?

I've never actually been to a real live in person auction, where you have those paddle things or raise your hands. I mean I haven't participated in one.

I do remember going along to a cattle auction though, the cattle would be walked across the stage and the farmers would bid on them, I guess they could tell at a glance the ones they wanted.

I did not say ebay. I said auction. I have a habit of meaning what I say, and thinking about what I am saying so that it reflects exactly what I mean.

I hang out at a real auction every Saturday night, though it is more than 400 miles away from the one where I bought the Garfield clock. That auction was and the auction where I hang out every Saturday is a real live auction, in a real building, with a crowd that gathers and bids on stuff.

 

[seoulsearch]

ebay right?
Who still uses ebay?

I've never actually been to a real live in person auction, where you have those paddle things or raise your hands. I mean I haven't participated in one.

I do remember going along to a cattle auction though, the cattle would be walked across the stage and the farmers would bid on them, I guess they could tell at a glance the ones they wanted.

I actually do still use Ebay.

In fact, just bought some things there a couple months ago (mini Squishmallow critters for traveling,) though I'm usually hesitant to buy used things (you never know what people have done with them.)

I do like to window shop on Ebay for novelty things, but I don't buy very often (though I did buy a laptop there once, and it turned out to be an excellent purchase.)

I know you'd mentioned Temu for the window clings in the Lawn Decoration thread -- it's fun to look at Temu and Shein -- but I don't buy there.

I've seen too many videos of people receiving something completely different from what they ordered, or being slapped with some giant tariff or shipping fee because it came from overseas (to consumers here in the USA.)

I tend to stick to Amazon -- and of course, stores there sell plenty of items from overseas -- but if it's actually shipped from somewhere in the USA, so far, I haven't had to worry about exorbitant shipping costs or surprise tariffs charges.

 

[Lanolin]

I actually do still use Ebay.

In fact, just bought some things there a couple months ago (mini Squishmallow critters for traveling,) though I'm usually hesitant to buy used things (you never know what people have done with them.)

I do like to window shop on Ebay for novelty things, but I don't buy very often (though I did buy a laptop there once, and it turned out to be an excellent purchase.)

I know you'd mentioned Temu for the window clings in the Lawn Decoration thread -- it's fun to look at Temu and Shein -- but I don't buy there.

I've seen too many videos of people receiving something completely different from what they ordered, or being slapped with some giant tariff or shipping fee because it came from overseas (to consumers here in the USA.)

I tend to stick to Amazon -- and of course, stores there sell plenty of items from overseas -- but if it's actually shipped from somewhere in the USA, so far, I haven't had to worry about exorbitant shipping costs or surprise tariffs charges.

oh yea those tariffs.
Well thankfully in NZ we not too affected as we don't trade with the US much.

I used to browse and bought a few things off ebay but it got too pricy and then we had trademe in NZ instead. But I don't use it much. I have sold a few things on trademe.

I'm more into op-shopping for old things and you never know what you may find. We still have garage sales and carboot sales.

 

[Lanolin]

This was our first computer



The Pre Computer 1000! It had hangman, you could learn to type, and a trivia game, and it made noises. You could also learn BASIC programming on it.

 

[Lanolin]

Notice the HELP button near the top left.
LCD screens were the rage.

 

[Billyd]

Pen, scented stationary, and special love language. Laying in my bunk, reading my love's letters, knowing that I wouldn't see her for a few more months. Then writing my thoughts and love for her in an answer to letters.

The pictures and writings from my children always made those letters perfect.

 

[seoulsearch]

Pen, scented stationary, and special love language. Laying in my bunk, reading my love's letters, knowing that I wouldn't see her for a few more months. Then writing my thoughts and love for her in an answer to letters.

The pictures and writings from my children always made those letters perfect.

This was so romantic and beautiful, thank you so much for sharing this!!

My Grandpa served in WW2 and at one point, worked in the mail room. If I understood correctly, they had to personally read the letters to make sure classified information wasn't being leaked, but he talked about reading many letters such as the ones you are describing.

Pen and paper letters are truly a lost art that I wish more people would be interested in keeping alive.