Well, at least for today. We're going back to the time of slap bracelets and overalls, when kids passed origami notes written with gel pens and wrote "I heart JTT" on their Lisa Frank folders. Long before the Jonas Brothers were around, we had major crushes on the Lawrence brothers, ate Dunk-a-Roos after school and spent all Friday night watching TGIF. Ready? Here we go.
Top 10 Things That Made the 90s Rad!
1. Awesome catchphrases like "da bomb," "whassup," "as if," "talk to the hand," and "psyche," were all that and a bag of chips. Let's raise the roof!
2. All the time we spent looking for Waldo & Carmen San Diego. Do you remember desperately scanning pages of people at the fair or swimming at the beach, hoping to get a glimpse of that lanky fellow in the those black rimmed glasses and striped shirt? And what about watching Carmen's show on TV, where she jet setted around the world in her trench coat, daring kids to try and figure out her location? Both fun and frustrating at the same time.
3. Popping any Disney video in the VCR and singing along with every single word. Want to test if someone is really a 90s kid? Just invite them out to karaoke and request that they sing the following: Circle of Life, A Whole New World, Hakuna Matata, Beauty and the Beast. It's still fun to hear a cheesy Disney song from back in the day and break out into song, including hand motions ("over sideways and under on a magic carpet ride. A whole new wooorld!") Side note: Singing every single word can also be applied to the uber-catchy Fresh Prince theme song.
4. We wore our candy and ate it, too. Sugary, pastel bracelets and necklaces and ring pops were awesome! You could trade with friends and color coordinate with your butterfly hair clips. This is at least half of the reason why I developed an intense sugar tooth (and really sensitive teeth). Here's an advertising flashback to the gimmicks they used on us. And they worked.
5.
The library was one of our BFFs. Long before the Kindle or Smart Phones, we had to read the old-fashioned way: by renting out huge stacks of
The Babysitters Club,
Goosebumps, and
Sweet Valley Twins and reading them under our sheets with a flashlight when our parents thought we were sleeping. As if.
6. I racked up credit charges by playing
Mall Madness, figured out who I would marry in a round of
MASH, spruced up my jean jacket with my
Bedazzler, whipped up a batch of inedible brownies in my
Easy Bake Oven, fed and cleaned up after my
Tamagotchi, and practiced my Picasso skills by painting plastic horse
suncatchers. All in a 90s day's work, my friends.
7.
What I (still) know about science I learned from TV. Thank you,
Bill Nye the Science Guy and
The Magic School Bus, for helping me successfully make it through basic level science classes and for making education entertaining. Along with the Speak and Spell, Brain Quest flashcards, and Scholastic Books. We owe you one.
8.
Breakfast really was the most important meal of the day. So many cereal choices, so little time. Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms, Fruity Pebbles, Rice Crispies, Cookie Crisp - the list goes on and on. If you were a cool 90s kid, you had the best cereal choices to offer your friends the morning after a sleepover. If you weren't, well, you probably didn't have too many sleepovers ... or friends. Unless you had a trampoline or big pool, in which case, you're back on cool kids list.
9.
Boy bands + teen pop princesses + one hit wonders = a boombox full of awesome music. Hanson, Christina, N'Sync, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, Britney, the 90s would not have been the same without you. They topped the MTV charts and their posters covered our bedroom walls. We listened to "MMMBop" on repeat on our Walkmans and swooned when hearing "I Want It That Way." And who could forget about hits like "Mambo No. 5," Ace of Base's "The Sign," "Blue (Da Ba De)," and "Ice Ice Baby."
10.
TV shows were better then. C'mon - what kids these days watch can't compete with
Fresh Prince,
Saved By the Bell,
Doug,
Legends of the Hidden Temple, Boy Meets World, Recess, Full House, everything on
Nick,
Friends,
Step by Step,
All That. ABC's TGIF lineup was da bomb. The end.
Were you a 90s kid? Anything you miss like crazy? Or fads you hope won't ever return?
xoxo,
Lorin
