I arrived right at the end of the Baby Boom generation, but my parents lived the dream. Take a walk with me through 150 "best generation" memories ... and add your own if you feel so inclined!
1.
You and your friends rode EVERYWHERE on your
bikes, which you “pimped out” for special occasions with playing cards tucked
into the spokes.
2.
You paid for groceries with checks
3.
You remember the smell of mimeographed
worksheets
4.
Your English class was color-coded SRI cards
from a box
5.
You spent hours in front of MTV waiting for your
favorite videos to show
6.
You remember when Luke and Laura got married
7.
You drank Cool-aid out of character glasses from
the local gas stations, cooled by ice cubes from a metal tray
8.
You remember the sweet, sweet agony of standing
in front of 20 different jello parfaits at the Hot Shoppes, knowing you could
only pick one
9.
Your parents let you play outside. All day. Unattended
10.
You anxiously awaited the release of the next
Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book
11.
If your wanted pizza, you had to go out for it
12.
Your phone had a rotary dial and only one person
could use it at a time. (Bonus points if you remember yelling at everyone to
get off the phone so you could connect to the internet.)
13.
You had to call out-of-state relatives after 8pm
because that’s when long distance rates went down
14.
You caught fireflies in a jar and used them to
light your room at night
15.
You rode in the back of pickup trucks and no one
thought that was questionable
16.
You had a record collection
17.
You weren’t sure if Princess Leia would end up
with Han or Luke
18.
If you liked a movie, you had to hope they would
re-release it the next year
19.
You saved the TV Guide from the Sunday paper so
you knew what TV programs were on
20.
You called a phone # if you wanted to know the
time or weather
21.
You remember the agony of busy signals
22.
You ate casseroles made out of canned soup and
vegetables
23.
You sewed “peace sign” and “smiley face” patches
on your bell-bottoms
24.
You tied your ponytails with pieces of thick,
colored yarn
25.
Your favorite day in PE was “parachute day”
26.
You sang Beatles songs in chorus
27.
You rode a Big Wheel
28.
You remember gym class mostly as a series of
humiliations: dodgeball, chin-ups, rope climbing, polyester gym clothes that
reeked of BO no matter how many times they were laundered, and public showers
29.
TV dinners were the coolest thing ever – even if
the fruit compost was always at least partially frozen despite 2hrs in the oven
at 350 degrees.
30.
You remember the Hawaii episode of Brady Bunch
(yes, the one where Peter finds the cursed Tiki)
31.
You identified with one of the characters in
Breakfast Club
32.
You remember watching filmstrips in elementary
school
33.
You had an M.I.A. bracelet
34.
You remember the magical feeling of walking
through a shopping mall draped with decorations at Christmas
35.
You wore a plastic mask and stiff, scratchy
packaged costume for Halloween. (Bonus points if you remember collecting money
for UNICEF at the same time.)
36.
You had no idea how many of the songs you loved
were actually about drugs
37.
You watched variety shows on TV (Carol Burnett,
Sonny & Cher, The Captain & Teneil)
38.
You learned to read from Golden Books
39.
You ordered something from K’Tel
40.
You played ALL the politically incorrect games –
Smear the Queer, Red Rover, dodgeball - without realizing they were so very
wrong
41.
You decorated your room with posters from Teen
Beat or Woolworths
42.
You wore suntan lotion designed to make you MORE
tan, not less
43.
On special occasions, your family went out to
dinner at Tiki-tastic faux Polynesian restaurants at the local strip mall
44.
Your worksheets came from a “ditto machine”
45.
You still think of Sprite as the “Uncola”
46.
Your bologna had a first and second name. (And
sometimes your mom served it fried)
47.
Your friends collected hot wheels, comics, or
_____
48.
You didn’t always understand everything in MAD
Magazine, but you knew it was inappropriate
49.
Your TV required time to “warm up” and came with
an antennae that had to be minutely adjusted to ensure reception. (Bonus if you
remember using tinfoil to strengthen the signal)
50.
You popped popcorn on the stove, or in a popcorn
popper
51.
Your bought your pet from the Woolworths
52.
You remember the excitement of a Kmart Blue
Light Special
53.
The guy at the shoe store measured your foot
using this incredibly complex metal tool that was always cold – and yet somehow
the shoes never quite fit
54.
Birthday parties were held at houses, not
restaurants, bowling allies or indoor playgrounds. You wore party hats, played
some games, ate cake, watched the birthday boy/girl open presents, and then
waited for your parents to pick you back up. (Bonus points if you remember your
mom insisting that you dress up.)
55.
Playground equipment was made out of concrete
and metal, and no one had a problem with that
56.
College actually WAS like Animal House
57.
You sat next to the radio with your hand poised
over the “record” button of your tape recorder, hoping to catch your favorite
song
58.
You made mix tapes and gave them to your friends
59.
You owned a bottle of Aquanet
60.
Your Mom bought her makeup from the Avon Lady
61.
They played “Celebrate” by Sly & the Family
Stone at least once at your prom
62.
You had to go to the TV set to turn the channel
63.
You learned your grammar, history and
multiplication tables from Schoolhouse Rock
64.
You learned how to type on a manual typewriter
65.
On road trips, you stopped at the Stuckeys or
Howard Johnsons for meals
66.
You knew your way around a yoyo
67.
You got pinched for not wearing green on St.
Patrick’s Day
68.
You started monitoring the TV Guide weeks in
advance of each holiday so you wouldn’t miss the holiday specials – especially
Charlie Brown & The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
69.
Your aspirin tasted like oranges
70.
You owned a beeper or Palm Pilot
71.
Your diet plan included Tab, Slimfast and/or
Jazzercize
72.
The furniture in your room included a mushroom
lamp, _________, and/or shag carpeting
73.
You waited all week wondering what was going to
be on the Wonderful World of Disney TV hour next Sunday
74.
Your TV was color but many of the shows you
watched (I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, etc.) were in black and white
75.
You remember when your local arcade introduced
the first video game
76.
Your school supplies included books wrapped in
repurposed brown shopping bags, a pencil box, paste, and a metal lunchbox with
glass-lined thermos that always broke
77.
You know all the words to at least one song from
the album “Free to Be You and Me”
78.
Your mom owned at least one wig
79.
You kept the prizes from cereal boxes, because
they were actually cool
80.
You still remember how amazed you were when you
heard microwaves could bake a potato in 10mins
81.
The women in your life used clear nail polish to
stop runs in your pantyhose (Bonus if you remember that the pantyhose came in
an egg-shaped container)
82.
Your car had ashtrays, no A/C, and handles for
rolling down the windows
83.
Your mom set your hair in rollers as a kid;
later, you got it regularly permed at the local salon
84.
You remember the summer everyone in your
neighborhood installed a bug zapper
85.
At Christmas, the neighborhood dads ran those
strings of big lightbulbs all the way up to the top of the roof
86.
If you want on vacation with your family, it was
usually to your grandparents’ house
87.
You owned a pet rock
88.
Your mom did all the cooking; your dad did all
the home maintenance & outdoor chores
89.
Ouija boards, Doodle Art posters, and prank
phone calls were a staple of slumber parties
90.
On snow days, they put chains on the wheels of
the school buses
91.
You partied with Bartle and James
92.
You remember playing Pong
93.
Your elementary school celebrated May Day
94.
You rocked either shoulder pads or a wide tie
95.
Airlines gave you a free mini-suitcase of toys
if you were a kid (and the kit always included a pin with wings)
96.
Your eggs and milk were left in an insulated box
on the front porch by the milkman
97.
Your idea of a playlist was a stack of 45s on
the record player
98.
You remember seeing movies at the drive-in
99.
You remember cigarette machines
100.
Every Christmas you thumbed through the Sears
Wishbook to pick out the toys you wanted for Christmas
101.
You glued S&H stamps into booklets which you
then redeemed for such glamourous prizes as toasters, juicers, and towels.
102.
You watched Evel Knievel perform trick
motorcycle jumps
103.
You remember
these words: “The thrill of victory …. The agony of defeat”
104.
You know what Joe Namath looks like in panty
hose
105.
You used an adding machine to figure out your
taxes
106.
You watched Howdy Doody, Romper Room, Mr.
Rogers’ Neighborhood, Captain Kangaroo, or The Mickey Mouse Club without irony.
107.
Your think of NASA every time you see a bottle
of Tang orange drink
108.
You receiving AOL CDs in the mail every week
109.
You remember people smoking in movie theaters,
restaurants, and the grocery store
110.
You remember when Salisbury steak, chicken
livers, and eggplant parmesan were cafeteria staples
111.
You remember when TV channels used to sign off
at the end of the night. (Bonus points if you remember the anguish of waking up
early on a weekend morning, only to discover the TV channels weren’t yet back
on.)
112.
Woolworths stocked everything you could imagine
ever needing – from clothes to farming supplies to pets
113.
You remember TV commercials and billboards
advertising smoking
114.
Your mom served you strange combinations of
fruits, vegetables, marshmallows and nuts suspended in layers of colored jello
115.
You looked up telephone numbers in the phone
book
116.
Party invitations came in the form of cards that
arrived in the mail
117.
Your mom brought out the “good china” for
special occasions, like dinner parties or holidays
118.
You wrote and mailed formal thank-you notes to
people who gave you gifts
119.
You have a polio vaccine scar on your arm
120.
You used a pencil to rewind your cassette tapes
121.
You died of dysentery on the Oregon Trail. Over
and over again.
122.
You remember Asking Jeeves or following
technical advice from a talking paper clip
123.
The store placed your credit card on a machine
that physically embossed the information onto a thin sheet of copy paper
124.
Your teacher used a chalkboard
125.
You suffered serious physical harm playing on
the playground equipment at the local park – shooting off the side of a
spinning merry-go-round due to centrifugal force, face-planting onto a wooden
see-saw, or tumbling off the top of towering metal climbing bars.
126.
You remember when hashtags were used for either
numbers or playing tic-tac-toe
127.
You can still say
“twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesoniononasesameseedbun”
really, really fast
128.
Doctors, dentists and banks ensured a regular
supply of lollipops. (Bonus points if you remember lollipops with
teardrop-shaped stems and/or long rows of lollipops attached by their
cellophane sleeves)
129.
Your high school had smoking halls; perhaps even
a smoking courtyard
130.
Your camera came with flashcubes. (Bonus if you
also dropped off your film at one of those parking-lot film stands.)
131.
You learned cooking from Julia Childs or the
Galloping Goumet
132.
After decorating the Christmas tree, you blanketed
the whole thing in an impenetrable layer of silver icicles.
133.
Your bathroom rocked a shag toilet lid cover and
patterned TP
134.
You remember the burn of mercurochrome as your
mom slathered it onto your open wounds
135.
You begged your mom for a quarter to ride the mechanical
horses/cars/rocket ships outside the local grocery store or gas station
136.
You got pretty good at drawing Winky
137.
You succumbed to the lure of Columbia House’s
offer of 13 records or cassette tapes for $1
138.
You slathered suntan lotion on your skin so you
could become MORE tan.(Bonus points if you also lightened your hair using lemon
juice.)
139.
You watched Soul Train and American Bandstand to
learn how to dance
140.
Your list of childhood pets includes an ant farm
and/or sea monkeys
141.
You remember when curbs overflowed with metal pop-top
rings and cigarette butts discarded by passing drivers
142.
You entrusted your deepest secrets to a diary
with a cheap metal key
143.
Your friends wrote actual messages in your
yearbook, not just signatures
144.
You competed with your friends over who could
create the longest gum wrapper chain (Bonus points if you also used a loom to
make potholders)
145.
You stocked up on canned food in the basement in
case Cuba & her Russian allies decided to launch a missile attack on the
U.S.
146.
You remember why the Native American standing
next to the Grand Canyon was crying
147.
You remember making shrinky-dinks, creepy crawlers
and dip-flowers
148.
You stored your school supplies in a pencil box
149.
You still remember the smell of Colorforms
150. Your parents owned engraved silver cigarette lighters which they refilled with lighter fluid
151.
No one ever shopped on Sunday because all the
stores were closed
152. Your family had their picture taken at Olan Mills
