Given that we talk on the phone multiple times each day, we tend to cover a wide variety of topics. We might start out talking about what happened on The Voice last night (Adam practically cried after De’Borah sang! Our hearts melted!), but by the end of the conversation we could be lamenting the lack of drive-thru Starbucks in our general area. (Only two…and neither of them are even that close *sob*)
Earlier this week we found ourselves taking a trip down memory lane-’80s style. Hold on to your neon leg warmers (over pegged jeans of course). It went something like this…
Lisa: What should we write about on Friday? I feel like we need something fun for the weekend.
Ashley: Totally. Nothing’s coming to mind. I’ll ask my Magic 8 Ball.
Lisa: OMG….MAGIC 8 BALL!! “Signs point to yes” that I’ll be getting Lucy one for Christmas! They were so much fun. I could get Bobby a Rubik’s Cube, too.
Ashley: Dude, I spent hours not solving the Rubik’s Cube. My sister, on the other hand, could do it in an hour. No, I’m not bitter or anything.
Lisa: Hate to break it to you, but I was a Rubik’s Cube master. I could solve it in minutes. I used to time myself to try to beat my own records.
Ashley: Of course you did.
Lisa: I was on a quest to make the Guinness Book of World Records in Rubik’s Cubing. I timed myself with my Swatch watch collection. That made it much cooler.
Ashley: If you say so. Although I did have a Swatch and loved it, it was really the plastic charm bracelet that defined ’80s accessorizing for me.
Lisa: What? Plastic charm bracelets? Was this a gumball machine prize or something? My mom would never, ever give me a nickel to get stuff out of those.
Ashley: NOOOOOOOOOOO! They were the bracelets with the clips and all the charms that were awesome. There was a phone, a lipstick, animals, and of course my favorite…the whistle!
Lisa: No, I have no idea what you are talking about.
Ashley: Oh, please. You do too. Hold on. I’ll send you a picture. The second you see it, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
Lisa: Oh, hmmmm. Yeah, I guess that looks familiar. I’ve certainly seen that tennis racket before. Wait, weren’t those the bracelets that would get stuck in your big hair when you tried to pick it (not comb…you cannot comb through Aqua Net) in the girls’ bathroom between classes?
Ashley: HA! I knew you’d know what they were. Remember how the clips would break and you’d lose your best hairdryer charm? That was the worst! For birthdays, I used to go to “Gifts N’ Decor” because they had the biggest selection of charms. They also wrapped for free, which my mom loved.
Lisa: My friends and I always gave each other Swatch Guards. Remember those twisty pieces of rubber that you’d put on the face of your Swatch to color coordinate with your outfit?
Ashley: Did they serve any actual purpose?
Lisa: You mean other than to make your watch totally awesome? No, I guess not. We used to stack up two or three Swatches on our wrists at a time. I loved my plaid Swatch. I’d totally wear it now if I still had it.
Ashley: I don’t think I was ever able to stack, because I think I only had one Swatch.
Lisa: Oh, you poor thing! I thought your parents loved you.
Ashley: They might have had more money for Swatches if they had gone with a drug store Halloween costume and didn’t have to keep replacing all of my lost charms.
Lisa: …or buy all the Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers. Did you love the 7 Up or watermelon the best?
Ashley: I’m from Texas. It was Dr. Pepper all the way for me.
We could have gone on and on all day about our love for the ’80s (we hadn’t even touched on Teddy Ruxpin, Chia Pets, or the California Raisins after all), but we still needed time for cleaning our houses grocery shopping watching hours of Hal Sparks on “I Love the ’80s”.
So slip on your jelly shoes, spritz on some Jean Naté body splash, pop that collar, and let the memories sweep you away. Weigh in with your favorite 1980′s fads in the comments!
Oh. My. Gosh. That was awesome!! And ummm, the point of the swatch guards were so you didn’t scratch the watch face, duh! Well, at least that’s the story I got from my older sister. Who, incidentally, handed down her jelly shoes to me, for which I will be eternally grateful. Thanks for the laugh on a Friday monring!
You were so lucky!! A big sister who could hand down her jellies is awesome!! We were both oldest children so we never had the chance of that!
The Swatch Guard explanation makes perfect sense! (if you don’t think about it too hard, anyway) Whatever excuse was necessary to get those bright and lovely things on your Swatch face worked for us!!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I only ever had one Swatch, too. It was white and I loved it. I still miss that watch.
We miss ours too, Kim! *sniffle* They were really something!
I still clearly remember getting my first pair of parachute pants. They were black. I wore them with the other fad of the time, jazz shoes. My mom found gray ones on sale, so I had to wear those instead of the black ones that I really wanted. My BFF Angie (who had the black shoes I coveted) and I had iron on transfer shirts made with a pic of Duran Duran on it and wore earrings that made from alphabet beads that spelled out Duran Duran - that’s one Duran dangling from each ear in case that isn’t clear. That was the outfit I wore for my first day of school in the 5th grade. That was the coolest I’d felt in my entire life! I saw John Taylor on the Today Show earlier this week and he still looks hot. He was always my favorite.
O. M. GEEEEE! A “Duran” for each ear??!! That is truly one of the best ’80s things we’ve ever heard. Ever. You were FAR cooler than we ever were, obviously. (John Taylor always was the hottest one…so happy to hear that he still is!!)
Parachute pants with jazz shoes…totally tubular!
The Guess skinny jeans with zippers and denim bows at the ankles! Not that I owned a pair…
Oh, Ginny!! The jeans with the zippers!!! Seriously can’t believe we left those out!! They were must haves!!.
Oh man, I had totally forgotten about charms up until just now! And now I wish I had all my charms from back in the day!
I know! They were SO AWESOME!!! Wouldn’t you just love to have all of those now??!! They are still adorable. This is a fad that is screaming for a comeback!
{Melinda} LOVE! I’m such an 80′s girl. I still have my prom dress and can rock a big, taffetta side bow like nobody’s business!
I used to have a Bonne Bell LipSmacker necklace so I would always have my lips conditioned no matter where I was. But you think your parents didn’t love you? I didn’t even have a Swatch. I had the knock-off!! I know … the injustice of it all.
Happy Friday!!
A lip smacker NECKLACE??!!! It’s hard to even contemplate the awesomeness that evokes.
The knock off swatch…our teenage hearts totally break for you.
We bet swatch guards didn’t even fit on it! Heartbreaking!
Ohmygoodness, TOO FUNNY!
{I so, so loved those charm necklaces!!}
Thanks for the fun walk down memory lane! Love!
Thanks, Galit!
Once we got started reminiscing about all things ’80s, it was truly hard to stop! It’s so funny how certain objects just bring back a flood of memories!
Did you have the Sam & Libby flats with the bow? I had at least 3 different colors of them
I loved stacking my swatches too - I have this really funny pic of me on family vacation one year and I have my arm posed up to show off my swatches
The Sam & Libby flats with the bow were ESSENTIAL!!!!! Yes, indeed!!
We’re super impressed you had the presence of mind to flash your Swatches in a photograph. What we wouldn’t give for evidence of extreme ’80s coolness like that!!
Oh dear, for me, the ’80′s were all about the hair. I had the biggest hair. I remember spending hours working on it. It was very impressive. And my boyfriend at the time was in a BAND, and had almost as much hair as I did - not quite Flock of Seagulls, but close. Between us, we must have put the Aquanet children through college.
We both had totally big hair and can completely relate. It took hours to get the right height and fullness. It had to be just so.
The fact that you dated a guy IN A BAND who also had big hair…wow! That’s just too much!
I used to wear two pairs of socks of different colors to match my outfit with my white Vans! Oh, the 80′s rocked!
YES!
For us the socks were often neon colored and probably those scrunchy socks. Do you remember those?! But definitely two pairs of different colors for coordinating.
My heart is aching for my turquoise Swatch with the hot pink fish. Everything from the eighties and early nineties has come back…WHERE’S MY SWATCH?!
We feel your pain, Amy! If you really want a knife in the heart, you can go to swatch.com. They have a swatch finder button and you can bring up photos of ALL of the Swatches they’ve ever released. Your hot pink fish are there!
We spent quite some time staring lovingly at all of our old favorites. (especially the beloved plaid Swatch!) Why did we ever let them out of our grasps?!
It’s gonna be weird when I replace the picture of my kids with that watch as my phone’s wallpaper. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Bwahahahahaha! I’m sure they’ll be mesmerized by the awesomeness once they see it and won’t mind a bit!
Mini skirts, white Keds, humongous hair with a big white bow in it and Love’s Baby Soft and I was ready to go out.
LOVE’S BABY SOFT (and Love’s Fresh Lemon for that matter) Oh, the memories!! SO glad you gave them the shout out they deserve!!
On year for christmas I got a swatch with three wristbands that I could alternate: periwinkle, purple, and pink. I liked to do 1/2 periwinkle 1/2 pink. I kept all the other pieces in my broken ballerina music/jewlery box.
My mom also SEWED a hammer suit (hammer pants and hammer shirt, I don’t know what to call it) that I wore to school pictures, but that might have been in 1990.
Also, I see banana clips all the time, now. But maybe that’s just here?
So, jealous right now…your mom made you the hammer pants and a shirt!! Add that to your changing Swatch bands…you were a lucky, lucky girl and certainly the best dressed that year in your school pictures!!
Banana clips can be seen here from time to time, too.
Heheh…this post is fantastic! I truly think it must have been awesome then:D Unfortunately I missed out cos I was born in ’87.
We knew it would happen sooner or later that someone would post who was too young for actual ’80s memories!
It was a completely awesome time to come of age. The big hair, the neon…it was a simpler (and very colorful) time!
Swatch guards!!! Yes! Totally had to have those. I’m cracking up. The plastic charm bracelet too! great post!
Thanks, Adrienne! Yes, it was hard to live without those plastic doo-dads back in the day! They were the best!!
Oh my goodness I have not thought about those charm bracelets in decades!! Which makes me feel so old! But I loved those things! And I LOVED my jellies.
Oh, yes! Why in the world did we all clamor for plastic shoes that made your feet sweat? (Because they were fabulous, I guess!!) We loved them, too!!
Hahaha…LOVE this post! Who doesn’t like the 80′s? Best decade EVERRR! My 21 year old son even admits that the 80′s is the best decade hands down! Lol! What a coinky-dink…I just put up a board on Pinterest with over 150 pins of items “back in the day”. Stopping by from SITS Sharefest…thanks for sharing!
Your fellow 80′s fan
http://www.prowessandpearls.blogspot.com
Oh, man!!! We simply cannot WAIT to go look at your Pinterest board!! Yay!!
You have OBVIOUSLY raised your son right! He has fantastic taste!
OMG…the memories…brings back my bad hair and blue eyeshadow…love it.
Not “bad hair”, Karen….I’m sure it was glorious BIG HAIR! While we admit that the photos seem pretty funny now, at the time that hair was divine!! (and the blue eye shadow, too!)
YAY!!!! Lip smackers were included in the post! LOL I had EVERY. SINGLE. FLAVOR. I thought I was SO cool wearing my flashdance legwarmers and sweatshirt cut up hanging over one shoulder…every single DAY to school. Hair teased and froze into place with the finest aqua net and earings that dangled for miles down my neck. Ah yes, those were the days…
There was no way we could leave out the Lip Smackers, Chris! They were the BEST and we love, love, LOVED the Flashdance look.
And you nailed it with the hair. Hair did NOT move back in the day. If it wasn’t frozen in place just so, they you had not used enough Aqua Net. Case closed!
Oh my gosh. I had all of these things. I totally remember those plastic charm bracelets. And what marketing genius for Swatch came up with the idea of wearing multiple Swatches on your arm? Funny, we don’t do that anymore.
Hahahahaha! That person was a marketing genius and we all fell hook, line, and sinker! If wearing multiple Swatches was wrong, we sure didn’t want to be right!
It was like you were speaking a totally different lauguage. I mean I totally remember the Magic 8 Ball from when I was a kid (think 60s) and the Cube, but I was a 70s kind of girl…big bells, and straight hair parted in the middle, Levis and Dr. Scholls…
Oh, we had the Dr. Scholls too, Laurie!
The ’70s hair and jeans! Fantastic. (and we have to admit that the 80s music hasn’t stood the test of time in the same way that 70s music has!) That was a pretty great decade to come of age, too!
Black plastic Madonna bangles, MTV (period), neon everything, FAT belts - I had it all - and pulled the whole thing together with my BIG OLE hair!!!
OMG…THE FAT BELTS!!! YES! I can’t believe we didn’t mention them. Oh, the bangles and MTV! Yes, yes, yes!!! (and did you have one of those Frankie Goes To Hollywood white t-shirts with the black letters that said “Frankie Says Relax” ? Oh, yeah!) The big hair completed the look perfectly.
OH I am totally cracking up! My favorite 80s fad was the big hair and I used to wear 2 different colored socks on each foot. I turned folded them down so that each layer could be seen. By the end of the day I remember my feet were so hot I could hardly wait to get home and get those things off!
Exactly, Erin! In the ’80s we knew that looking colorful and stylish was more crucial than feeling comfortable and sweat free! (or maybe the Aqua Net clouded our judgment!)
Good column, I sure like reading these, they’re enjoyable.
You mentioned a bunch of things I’d forgotten (or never knew about).
Anyway, it was fun, thanks.
Thanks, Bill!
Oh, the memories!! Fess up…did you pop your collar back in the day?
Now I have to go hunt for that bracelt (I had the same one) at some point those plastic ‘chain links’ just didn’t seem to be the height in fashion. I also miss my sea wee plastic mermaids and especially that little pet with a fish tail they came with!
Sea Wees!!!!! OMG!!! Haven’t thought of those in ages but we LOVED those!!! Ours had that foam ring or star that they’d sit on in the bathtub! Fantastic!!
This is so funny. Do you remember the big shoulder pads from the Dynasty era?
LOL I so remember the shoulder pads! I used to use packing tape to stick them in the shoulders of my shirts that didn’t have them. Ha! Ha! Too funny!
Oh, yes! Shoulder pads were the BEST!!! I had some I transferred from outfit to outfit if I needed them, too!
ROFL! Ahh…The 80s. Where we pegged our jeans and (because we were not cool enough to have leg warmers) wore like 9 pairs of socks in varying colors and sizes to get the right “effect”, not to mention the big hair that could nearly touch the ceiling and gave you at least 6 inches in height. Yes, we looked …stiff and rather sweaty, but hey! It was the 80s…and they were…neon and plagued with singing raisins! Of COURSE we had to look the misfit part.
Do you think our children will ever understand the love of Aqua Net? *sighs* The good ole days… 
Sadly, I don’t think they will ever get what a good aerosol can of Aqua Net can do for you!
And pegged jeans were the greatest, especially with the scrunched socks!
So glad you read and commented Julie!
Of course! Brought back some awesome memories. Like the time my sister jumped into the pool and her hair refused to lose it’s sky-high quality…even after going under water SEVEN times. True story! They don’t call it Aqua Net for nothing!
Oh my! Thanks for the trip down memory lane! The music from the 80′s is the best part…crank the radio up and sing along! Visiting from the Ladies Only Blog Share…of course!
I don’t think I had one of those charm bracelets…I feel a bit deprived now! I never ever solved a Rubix cube. That might tell you a little something about my math skills. Loved my Bonnie Bell though.
Just had to post as I saw the pic of the swatch watches via ‘ladies only blog’ over at mommifried. I had that exact (plaid) swatch. In fact, I recently took it to a swatch store to see if they could replace the battery (which they did for free on another ‘vintage’ swatch watch) but, alas, this one was just too old! funny how we can associate memories be certain things from a certain era. do hope you can come pay a visit over at http://www.ritewhileucan.com we talk vintage stuff there too!