I’m a ‘80s baby. Born in 1985 to be exact. So, most of my childhood was during the 1990s. Ah, those were the days. It was before everyone had a cell phone and personal computer. It was before everyone knew what everyone was doing all the time and before you could reach someone through 10 different media channels. The ’90s were a time when kids actually loved to play outside and imaginations ran wild. Growing up in the ’90s was awesome and this blog post is dedicated to all the things that remind us of our childhood- Generation Y, this is for you!

We all love remembering things from our childhood. Back in the days of less stress and worries. Here is my tribute to the Best of the late ’80s and the 1990s.

Music:
I think the most significant contribution of ’90s music was when Nirvana came out with Smells like Teen Spirit. This single changed the face of rock music and a new genre was formed: alternative rock. I’m a lover of rock music and hits from the 1990s are my all time favorite. Bands like Counting Crows, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighers, Silverchair, Radiohead, Third Eye Blind, Bush, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against the Machine, Live, The Red Hot Chile Peppers, Weezer, Sublime, etc.  I still love to listen to rock music from this time and I think the ‘90s were when the best of the best were recorded. Living in Atlanta, there is only really one radio station that consistently plays ‘90s rock. Radio 105.7 does a great job of playing all my favorites.

Movies:
Oh the movies from the ‘80s. Who couldn’t love them? Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buhler’s Day Off, and Weird Science are all classics. Some of these movies were a little before my time. I may not have seen them at the time they came out, but I always had a love for them and grew up learning to appreciate pop culture from my generation. The ‘90s had some great teen movies come out too. When I think back of movies of this time, these come to mind: Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s All That, American Pie, Now and Then, Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Can’t Hardly Wait, My Girl, There’s Something about Mary, The Wedding Singer, Titanic, Casper, Tommy Boy, Wayne’s World, etc. If you haven’t seen any of these, you definitely should. It’s always good to reminisce of things from our childhood and teenage years.

TV shows:
I grew up watching TV with my brother. He always had the control over the remote. (And he always used to nag me during the commercials. Lol). Of what I can remember, our favorite shows were usually on Nickelodeon or on ABC’s TGIF. We watched Doug, Rugrats, Are you Afraid of the Dark?, Salute Your Shorts, Double Dare, Guts, Legends of the Hidden Temple, What Would You Do?, Wild and Crazy Kids, All That, Round House, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Hey Dude, Clarissa Explains it All, You Can’t do that on Television, etc.

TGIF was a weekly Friday night tradition with my brother and the neighborhood kids. We would always watch it, and sometimes stay over each other’s houses for a sleepover.  The lineup usually included: Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Boy Meets World, and Hanging with Mr. Cooper. It was always the perfect way to end a week of going to school.

 

Fads:
Each generation usually has a fad that is very popular at a certain time. According to Wikipedia, “A fad is any form of behavior that develops amongst a large population and is collectively followed enthusiastically for a period of time, generally as a result of the behavior being perceived as popular by one’s peers or being deemed “cool” by social media.” Here are some fads that I remember growing up: Lisa Frank stickers, folders, pencils and basically everything of that brand were very popular. I loved those colorful unicorns, rainbows, animals, stars and designs. Also, Trapper Keepers with cool designs were a great way to organize school papers in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

When I was in middle school, everyone was obsessed with Beanie Babies. Cute little animals filled with beans from Ty Company complete with a name tag and a story. I remember going on the Beanie Baby website on my America Online account and looking up different animals. Obviously, it took forever to load the pages since all we had was dial up internet access.

Pogs were also a popular game. Some kids collected them while some played with the cardboard disks and the heavier pieces called slammers that were sometimes made of metal. The slammers were thrown down to cause the pogs to turn over. There were different variations of playing this game and some kids played for keeps. I had quite a number of pogs and slammers, although I never really played the actual game, just collected them.

Another popular toy of the ‘90s was the Tamagotchi, a keychain-sized virtual pet simulation game. You could make your pet eat, sleep, and play, and if you didn’t take care of it, your virtual pet would die. I had one of these as well and it was really cool at first, then months later, mine would be dead at the bottom of my desk drawer.

Flashback of Fashion:
When thinking back on a certain decade, it’s always fun to look back on the style of fashion that was very popular. Although we had some fashion faux pas in the ’80s and ’90s, we thought it was so cool back then. Some of them are coming back in style. I will touch on that later, but first here are some major fashion trends of the ’80s and ’90s that I remember.

1980s:
Shoulder pads
Power Suits
Dancewear
Miniskirts
Doc Martins
Big permed hair
Ray-Ban sunglasses
The Miami Vice look
Stirrup leggings
T-shirts tied to the side or with a clip
Big hoop earrings

1990s:
Parachute Pants
Reebok pumps
Mini Backpacks
Crimped hair
Bandanas
Baby G watches
Overalls
Slap bracelets
Tattoo chokers
Wallet chains
Wide leg jeans
Shell necklaces
Butterfly clips
Scrunchies
Bucket hats

’80s & ’90s Fashion Coming Back in Style now:
Acid-washed jeans and vests
Half tops
High wasted shorts and pants
Jelly shoes (once sandals, now boots)
Floral print jeans
Neon colored blazers
High-top sneakers
Off the shoulder sweatshirts and tops
Printed leggings
Side ponytails
Lace
Platform shoes
Headbands
Keds
Jansport backpacks

The ’80s are also coming back in style another way, on TV. The hit show The Goldbergs comes on ABC Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. The series was created by Adam F. Goldberg who based the sitcom on his family back in the ‘80s. I do watch the show and it is really funny. I doubt that it will play for more than one season, but it is really entertaining to watch. Everything on the show is based in that time period and it’s very amusing to get reminded of it. Such as: the big hair, the blue and pink heavy eye shadow, DeLorean cars, the original Nintendo, boom boxes, over the shoulder camcorders, etc.

Here is a blog that is dedicated to the children of the ‘90s. I have spent a good amount of time reading all the posts and reliving my childhood. They haven’t posted anything new since 2012, but if you scroll down and read all the archives on the right hand side, it will be worth your time. The blog is well written and even had guest bloggers back when it was being consistently updated. They also have a Facebook page where they post things about growing up in the ‘90s including Buzzfeed lists.

Here are some Buzzfeed lists that children of the ‘90s will appreciate:

25 Ways to tell you’re a Kid of the ‘90s

Things Kids Today will never get to Experience

Things that Look Just like Childhood

Looking back on it all, the ‘80s and ‘90s were great decades and the pop culture, fashion and trends of the time should not be forgotten. I loved growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s and it is so fun to relive my childhood days. So, I hope this blog post reminded you of your good memories of your childhood and helped you re-live things from back in the day.