30 Things You Will Probably Recognize If You Were A Kid In The 80s

Your daily nostalgia dose is being served hot and fresh, ready for consumption.

Damjan

• Published in Interesting
• July 23, 2022

Growing up was different for kids in the 1970s and 1980s. Three decades ago, there weren't any streaming services like YouTube, and the only option for watching TV entertainment was the TV itself.

You then purchased a TV program guide, marked the shows you wanted to see, and scheduled your week accordingly (unless you had some futuristic VHS device that could record your series for you). Then, a full ritual would be performed.

Snacks were prepared, the phone was put on speaker, the most comfortable couch place was reserved the day before, and your bathroom times were scheduled to coincide with commercial breaks. In the 1980s, even amusement needed some work, but how nostalgic it all seems now.

Daydreaming and nostalgia are the two things that lift my spirits when everything seems to be going wrong. Nothing like curling up under a warm blanket with a cup of hot tea and some nostalgic treats for kids to lift your spirits when you're feeling down (Ideally with a vintage video game, soundtrack, or other means of setting the ambiance).

If you want to relive those nostalgic moments, we've compiled a list for you. These 30 items were essential in the "surviving 80s kit," and we know they will bring a smile to your face:

1. The Twister box:

2. Your parents warned you about using the pay phone because it was filthy and infested with germs, and they were, sort of, right:

3. Garbage Pail Kids and the waxy packaging:

4. That weird Coleco Couch Potato novelty toy:

5. Cut and sew dolls

6. When Disney Channel was a premium channel and your parents didn't pay for it, the only time you truly got to watch it was during its free "sneak peek" weekends:

7. Weird-looking dustbusters

8. The Kid Stuff logo:

9. Hostess Ding Dongs wrapped in foil:

10. Time for Timer PSA: "Hanker for a Hunk o' Cheese"

11. Even back then, Small Wonder was a very low-budget production

12. "I saw it by watching you!"

13. Nestle Quik in metal tins:

14. McDonald's McKids clothing line:

15. The Tupperware pitchers that had a button on top that needed to be pressed:

16. The DIC logo...

17. Hands Across America — we all owned the T-shirt for whether or not we participated in it:

18. The Clapper was the must-have smart home gadget of its era, and you wanted one because of the catchy commercial they played nonstop:

19. That TV show, Max Headroom, was genuinely creepy:

20. Rainbow flip-flops:

21. You used to believe that tiny portable TVs were the coolest thing despite having the smallest screen ever:

22. Corning Ware glass pots and pans with a futuristic appearance:

23. The odd Mr. Munch:

24. In the Disney TV movie Not Quite Human, Alan Thicke portrayed a father who built a robot son for himself.

25. Smurfs glasses - every family seemed to own them:

26. You never completely realized that California Raisins was genuinely attempting to sell you raisins

27. McDonald's coffee spoons:

28. Novelty phones, which you thought were the coolest thing ever despite being incredibly impractical

29. Mr. Owl from the Tootsie Pop commercial

30. Beverly Clearly books:

If you’re a nostalgiaholic who loves reminiscing about how things used to be and what we used to have, then you’ve loved our list. And if you are too young to remember them, then you’ve gained essential knowledge of what things were like a couple of decades ago.

They may seem weird, but these times were awesome.

Damjan