I Love the 80's, part 2: Fashion and Toys

I didn't mean for such a long time to go in between 80's posts.

But here I am again, finally updating my unabashed worship of the "me" decade.

I guess what prompted me to get my ass in gear was a recent trip down memory lane. I was at my dad's, unpacking a box that he probably wanted to get rid of in the garage, and I found a few things from my youth. When I opened the box, I almost burst into tears as the memories came back. I'm going through a difficult time right now, personally, and I half-joked with the husband today that I was having a mid-life crisis. I mean, why else would I start hunting Ebay and looking up all these toys from my childhood?

Anyway, one item in the box was a rather bizarre red teddy bear, who had a funny nose. After doing a quick Google search, "Nosy Bears" popped up.  Mine was red and had a popcorn nose. I really wanted to hang on to it, but after years in a musty box in a garage, his best days were behind him. I sadly had to toss him.  Check them out though:  http://www.inthe80s.com/toys/nosybears0.shtml

I swear, what would I do without that website In the 80's???

More toys that I loved to death were Dolly Pops; little flat dolls that had snap on clothes and accessories. You can still find them on ebay!  I also loved Herself the Elf, Charmkins (little charms that also smelled good!) Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Brite (the originals, not the dressed-up hussies of today), Pound Puppies and many others.  When I find myself getting nostalgic I'll usually hit Ebay and try to hunt them down.  I'm often surprised at how much people are willing to pay for used items. The one item that I often kick myself for throwing away was my mega-cool charm necklace.  Ladies: remember these?

Oh yeah. I bet I had almost all of those charms. The whistle, baseball bat, tennis racket...and I threw it away one day. Yeah. I held on to those things for years, but when my family upped and moved to CT, I didn't feel like carting all of that stuff so that it could sit in boxes for years to come. I hate myself sometimes.

The fashion of the 80's was...unique. I remember neon colors were all the rage, and hot pink and yellow push-down socks were very popular. Why? I have no idea!!!  Neon nail polish, bracelets. t-shirts.  Yeah...

There were many other styles that I loved to wear, including jelly bracelets (I probably had at least 100 of them), Jelly sandals (which made a comeback recently and I scooped up a few pair), leg warmers (another item making a weird comeback)  and the "paint-splattered" look. Everything from shirts to sunglasses had this effect in the 80's. And I wore it, proudly.  High top sneakers first came about in this decade, and my family and I went to every shoe store in the mall trying to find the elusive Reeboks, but they were harder to find then the Loch Ness monster.

I remember our  biggest toy stores to hit on Long Island were Toys R Us, Child World and Play World. Both are gone now, with two Play Worlds actually burning to the ground. These were huge toy emporiums. They had everything, and some even had child furniture. Out of the "Big 3," only Toys R Us has survived. Another store that my family used to visit every weekend was TSS, or Times Square Stores. TSS was it. The Queen Mother of all stores. It had its own record department (where the baby headbanger in me bought my first Kiss tape), a pet store, and the biggest, baddest toy department any kid would want to visit. It had a refreshment area, where we would get cashew nuts, big pretzels, and candy.  It also had the sweetest Halloween costume area, where I would get costumes such as these:

I had that Strawberry Shortcake costume! How scary was that??? Boxed costumes were the biggest sell in the 80s. I had a few others, as did my brother. I can even remember how that plastic apron would smell when you would take it out of the box.  The weirdest thing I ever wore in the 80s, hands down, is this costume:  

Yes, I had this costume, along with the "Ishy Bat" costume. You can google Kooky Spooks and look at pictures of people in them, but I didn't want to post those pictures here. How ridiculous are these costumes??? A giant inflatable head, apron, and face makeup that itched like the devil when I wore it. I became obsessed with these a few years ago, and managed to snag some on ebay. One was mint in box. Tee hee. In all fairness, Kooky Spooks came out in the late 70's, but were still around in the 80's so I included them in here.

Sometimes I get sad when I think about being a kid. Things are always so much simpler, right? And I get mad that I threw away so many items with so many memories attached, but what can I do?  I certainly can't buy out Ebay of all there classic 80's toys...can I? ;)  I'll leave you with a few videos that I hope you get a chuckle out of.