A few days ago I did a Fast 5 of Childhood traditions that I’m handing down to my kids but being a child of the 80s and 90s, I definitely have quite a few childhood memories that stand out as “no way no how would that happen today.” I feel pretty confident that I lived in the last generation that was helicopter parent free. We ran the streets unsupervised. We sat 4-5 in the backseat and double buckled in. We didn’t use helmets or kneepads or have a cellphone for our parents to keep tabs on us with. In short, we lived a little on the edge. We just didn’t know it! So in honor of it being Throwback Thursday, let’s do a little rewind back to a simpler time before Google, before iPhones and before we knew just how good we had it.
Case in Point 1 and my first childhood Throwback Moment:
1. We hung out with Exotic Animals. NBD.
Lions and Tigers and Bears (and cheetahs!) Oh my! I actually don’t remember this visit to the zoo at all which is a bit of a bummer but a year or so ago my parents dropped off a box of old pictures with me. I was digging through when I came across this polaroid (yes, that’s right POLAROID) of me, my dad and a very large and very alive Cheetah. Yep folks. This one has 80s written ALL over it. And my dad seems to have FEAR written all over him. This is pretty much my all time favorite childhood photo now and I will confess now to always looking for a way to share it again and again.
2. Let them Eat Cake. And SODA! (or coke or pop or cola)
Back when I was growing up we didn’t know gluten from greek yogurt. There were no carbs being counted and no kombucha being drank. We had white bread and bologna. Kraft cheese and Velveeta. Processed was in like Flynn! And even though we ate food with real sugar and real butter and topped them off with chicken nuggets made of fake chicken and corporate greed, we balanced it out with a crazy fad of the past called, “playing outside all day!” Who knew!
3. I pee, you pee we all like to TeePee!
Not only did I grow up back when cell phones were a status statement most people weren’t making. I also grew up back in a wonderful time before text messaging. Before screenshotting. Before *69. Back when you knew your friends didn’t have caller ID or security cameras. Prank wars were a great way to spend your summer vacation. I Tp’d many a house and had retaliation TP done to me more times than I can count. And our parents laughed along with it as they sent us out before the sprinklers hit to clean up the latest hit (But not before documenting of course. Thanks mom!)
4. We hung out with questionable people. No questions asked.
It seems like in the 80s the general viewpoint was that an adult was a safe person unless proven otherwise (instead of the vice versa logic today). I mean, Look at the crazy eyes on this Santa. If I saw this guy at the mall today I’d #nope my kids right out of there. My yearly joke has been to post this picture of me and Santa of the Lambs on my Social Media and wonder which state penitentiary he is likely residing at this very moment. For the record – my mom swears she never left me alone with this guy.
5. ‘Tis the Season! Commercial free Halloween!
While you *could* get a store bought costume come Halloween the majority of us were walking out as nightmarish little homegrown goblins with the help of mom’s imagination. We may not have had Netflix and Amazon Prime and had to suffer through commercials while watching our Saturday Morning Cartoons but our commercials were exclusive to tv back in the 80s. Give me a plastic pumpkin or a pillow case, a grocery store makeup kit and a costume made by mom and I’d take on any Disney Princess or Marvel Superhero of today in a who’s really doing this holiday right competition.
And now that I am back from my trip down memory lane it’s time to make my kid’s their organic dinner and try on their Disney costumes. Poor little things just don’t know what they are missing.
Do any of these memories ring true for your childhood too? I’d love to hear your #throwback memories!
Twice and a Blue Moon 
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