Child Of the 90s

Being a child of the 90s (I was 6 in 1990) I witnessed first hand a lot of great trends. I've noticed these past few years that trends tend to come back around and they slightly modified for the current time. I often find myself thinking "hey, what happened to....." Those of you readers who grew up in my era, will appreciate this list of "Whatever happened to :

1. Skating Rinks - do you remember going to a skating rink on a Friday or Saturday night?! Back before roller blades we used those little orange rubber stoppers on the front of our skates. Back when couple skating was the cool thing to do with your elementary boyfriend. Or the races around the cones. I remember thinking the guy that set out the cones and the dj had the coolest job ever. When asked back then what I wanted to be I most definitely said "the person that sets out the cones!" Back when it was cool to backwards skate and dont even think about trying to skate in to the bathroom to go pee...it was next to impossible with out slamming in to the swinging doors on the stalls.

2. Slap Bracelets/Jellies - By far the coolest accessory to wear to the skating rink. And if you really liked someone, you'd slap your bracelet on their arms. Our skating rink had them in a giant crane machine, needless to say I never got one out of there. The Jellies have sort of been brought back in the form of crocs. But honestly the jellies were the most painful shoes ever. The thick plastic made your feet sweat and rubbed them raw on the ankles and the top of the foot. Good for the beach. (I wont lie I wore socks with them sometimes.....I was a tom-boy and appearance was not cool to me). Shirt rings were also cool too. You threaded your shirt through the top hole and then through the bottom to form a nice "shirt pony tail" off to the side at your waist. Yeah I had like a million of them.

3. POGS - oh man! I could go on about these badass cardboard/plastic/metal spheres! I dont think I know any one who actually knew the purpose of the POG but I remember begging my parents for as many as they would let me purchase. I had every "slammer" known to man. I was lucky to have the opportunity to go my dad's in the summer in California where I obtained rare POGs to show off to my Texas buddies. And remember the clear tubes that you're POGs went in to!! Ugh! I could go on forever seriously bring POGS back!!!!

4. Super Nintendo - Oh I soooo went there. I remember sitting in the living room with my sister all summer long taking turns playing Super Mario World. My sister always got to be Mario and I had to be Luigi. I literally spent the entire summer finding the hidden levels sadly though, I never got to fight Bowzer. And Donkey Kong on SNES was the amaaaaaaaaaaaazing. They need to make CDs of both those games soundtracks!!! And does anyone remember the large mat you plug in to the SNES and run really fast in place then jump (I think it was like the Olympic Long Jump or something). We used to cheat so much by slapping our hands as hard as we could and as fast as we could on the mat. 

5. Slip N Slide- Yeah I know they still have these but back when I was little it was brand new! No fancy sprinklers attached to the side or a wading pool at the end. Just a long tarp you haul ass down, and if you were anything like my siblings then you definitely ended up in the grass.

6. GAK - WOW! What a useless toy, but so fun. I remember bringing it to school and making fart noises by squishing the gak down fast in class. This slippery gelatin like fun hardly ever tore and kept its shape/ stayed cold on your hands/ but failed to maintain its texture. It always had dirt or dust stuck in to it. And leaving it out in a car....not a good idea.

7. The sketch pads with a face on it and you used a magnet pen to draw a beard on. Yeah, I dont think this is strictly 90s but I spent many a road trip drawing on this thing.

8. Mad Libs/ Brain Quest -  Noun is a adjective noun. lol I know you remember that. My parents used to have game night and we would actually beg to play this. lol And Brain Quest. I hated Brain Quest. It was supposed to be fun trivia.....but instead it made me feel dumb...and because I knew the goal was to learn which of course I refused to want to play. 

9. Popples - I dont know really if this is 80s or 90s but I remember playing in my Popple tent in the backyard with my stuffed animals. These furry little balls of stuffing goodness popped open to show a little furry critter to call your own. With little fuzz balls on their tails. Come back Popples.

10. Any Ernest Movie/Fraggle Rock/TailSpin/Darkwing Duck/Daria/Doug/Rocco's Modern Life/Rugrats/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/DuckTales/Family Matters/Step By Step/ Bill Nye the Science Guy/ Any movie with Pauly ShoreAnimaniacs/Gargoyles/Recess/Goosebumps/One Saturday Morning/Salute Your Shorts/ and lastly Are You Afraid of the Dark : were all my favorite shows/movies!! I miss them all so much. I can still sing all the theme songs. And to this day I still find myself singing "Darkwing Duck, when you're in trouble call D.W.! Darkwing Duck You better watch out you bad boys! "

And lastly the most memorable of books from back then

11. Sweet Valley High / The Babysitters Club/The Bernstein Bears/Goosebumps/Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark/Wayside School Is Falling Down/Nancy Drew (my fav by far!)/Fear Street (LOVED THESE!) I love to read, and back then it was so much fun. I can still remember reading Fear Street at night and being so into it I would stay up til I finished reading it. In Texas we had AR (accelerated reading) and we had to test on the computer over the books we read. If it was a big book you got the most points. Fear street gave like 2 points a piece. Then we'd use our points to buy stuff out of a goodie cabinet. Lol Incentive to read, bribery whatever you want to call it, it definitely stuck with me.

SO yeah, I have recapped all the things I have been missing over the years. Looking back at all of them I feel old, but I'm glad I can still remember those pieces in time. Hope this wasn't too boring I'm not sure I really have what it takes to be a riveting read, but hopefully I made you say "HEY I REMEMBER THAT!" Lastly before I go, "They call ya Mister Personality because your so UGLY. I heard when you were born, the doctor slapped your mother...." haha Gillette/20 fingers thank you for Mr. Personality. It was a great jam back in the day. "Gangsta's paradise" rocked my radio as well.

90s how I miss you! :(

NKOTB for life. Yeah, I went there. I was a Donnie lover, my sister - Joey and Jordan. Oh good times.