Totally Tubular

Look at me:

Rocking my velcro KangaRoo sneakers with the little pocket on the side, homemade terrycloth jumper shorts that my mom made me, and my little blond mop of a haircut looking like a total 80's kid. 

Last night, my daughter and I piled up on the couch under the electric blanket to watch the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It was an adventure story about Kansas City Mickey and his quest to find an archaic tomb shaped like mouse ears. After going through a series of educational places on his map, he ends up at his final destination and breaks open to tomb door to find an "ancient machine" called a record player. Kansas City Mickey goes on to explain how this "old time" contraption was used to play music to people who are now basically fossils...

"Mommy what is that thing??!!"

Of course this got me to thinking... (because you know, what doesn't right?)

I loved playing records with my mom when I was a little girl. Our record player was attached to our 8 track player, and we had red headphones that were way too big for my head that I would hold onto while dancing around to old Beatles LPs. 

I remember my first visit to a glorious place called Tape World (!!!) just a few short years later with my big sister:

It's a shame that our kids will never know the correlation between these two things:

Did you ever drink Tang?

Did you ever write "Class of (insert your graduation year here) ROX!" on your Trapper Keeper?

Put blue eye shadow on your Pound Puppy?

Trade Lisa Frank stickers?

Read Flowers in the Attic or Sweet Valley High from your school's bookmobile and have to sign your name for it on one of these?

Then get points for it with the Book It! program to trade into a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut?

Did you learn most of what happens during puberty through Degrassi Jr High episodes, burn the tips of your fingers on your Easy Bake oven, wear L.A. Gear sneakers with your Z-Cavaricci jeans and your brown leather bomber jacket sporting your Swatch Watch while applying your Bonne Bell flavored chapstick? Did you throw Koosh balls at your siblings while fighting over your Light Bright and keep all your fingernail polish in your hot pink and purple Kaboodle?

Did you spend hours playing with a water ring toss game that you could NEVER win?

Or get super excited for the day in gym class when they busted out the giant parachute?

Or practice spelling your name on a Magic Slate?

Or hide in your closet with the lights off making your Gyro Wheel spin?

Did you drink Clearly Canadian?

Collect Weebles?

Munch on PB Max?

Constantly lose your led pieces to your Push-a-Point pencils?

Learn how to use a calculator from the Little Professor?

Did all the commercials you saw while watching You Can't Do That On Television convince you that you had to have every Wildlife Treasury card?

Did you drink Burples and then use them as bath toys?

Did you lay in your bed with your scrunch socks on flipping through YM magazine and talking to your friends on a see through phone?

Did you spray Ex'cla*ma'tion! perfume on your Cabbage Patch Kid while crimping your hair and listening to Mr. Mister?

Do you remember how hard it was to get your Popple in the right shape?

Remember how we all tried to eat Pop Rocks and drink Coke (Or Crystal Clear Pepsi) to see if we'd explode? Remember how hard it was to not trip over your Skip it? Or how difficult it was to stay on your Pogo Ball?

Did your sister ever lock you in Mayor McCheese jail as you wiped your tears on your Hypercolor t-shirt and swore you were going to flush her Snoopy Sno-Cone maker down the toilet when you got home?

Did you watch Troop Beverly Hills a thousand times during your slumber parties and fight over who had the most Troll Dolls? Or play Zork on your Commodore 64 computer? Or have to sit through film strips in school while chomping on your Big League Chew thinking of last night's Alf episode? Or watch Just The Ten Of Us while playing with your Fraggle Rock toys? Did you wear banana clips in your hair when you were playing Heads Up 7-Up during recess because it was raining outside? Did you learn how to fold notes 12 different ways to write to your best friends and sign them all "L-Y-L-A-S"? 

It really is a shame that all these things are relics stuck in an antique world...

Because man! Those were the days....