Thursday 12 March 2009

80’s Nostalgia

After 24 years of living in the same house, my parents are selling my family home. It’s upsetting.

There is a silver lining to this distressing cloud though - With 24 years worth of collecting and accumulating, our loft is full of the memories of my youth. I’ve found old school books (all with graffiti inside of embarrassing conversations between high school friends, no wonder I retained so little of what I was supposed to learn), hats I can’t believe I wore in public, and various oddities. By far though, the best finds have been the toys of my childhood.

Fisherprice adjustable skates.

If you were a child between 1980 and 1990, you had a pair of these skates. Note the flashy colours, to help you fit in at the disco rink. The moulded plastic uppers cut your feet to shreds, but no good skate was successful unless returning home with blood pouring from your wounds. I am so excited that they fit me now, with a little creative toe curling. They can only be worn for a maximum of ten minutes before paralysing cramp sets in.

Various board games from my youth.

Guess Who is still going strong today, and can’t be beaten for pure, simple entertainment. Remember picking Claire and being gutted because she had glasses, a hat AND she was a woman.

Build a Better Burger was a game only I seem to remember from my circle of friends, which is a shame. Game play involved making a fast food order quicker than your opponent and involved plastic burger buns and lettuce, milkshakes with straws so easily snapped in haste and the apple or cherry pie desert option. For years I had aspirations of working at McDonalds.

Hungry Hippos has also gone through a revival of late, but I still remember the heady days of finger cramp from tapping those leavers until your hands spasmed.

The Nintendo Game Boy.

Words cannot explain the joy I felt when I eased four double A batteries into the back and tentatively slide the power switch to on. That descending Nintendo logo greeted me like the last fifteen years hadn’t happened. Thus, I have been playing Super Mario Land 2 all day and have been overtaken by rage at being unable to defeat big boss Wario. Just like old times.

Posted By: Cat

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