Being a kid in the late eighties to nineties was a blessing in disguise, even if we didnt know it at the time. The days started off with a thrilling game of hide and seek, some kickball, maybe even a cool game of donkey kong, sonic, or mario bros. on your nintendo, and leaving everything behind once you heard the familiar jingle of the mr. softee truck. It ended with you coming home to watch reliable 90's Nickelodeon TV, while snacking on some dunk-a-roos or the ever satisfying fruit rollup.
Shows like Figure It Out where you guess peoples wacky talents were always fun to play along with. Salute Your Shorts, Clarissa Explains It All, Alex Mack, and All That were just a remote click away. Hey Arnold! and Doug were cartoon masterpieces of their day. YOU longed to be one of the contestents on Legends of the Hidden Temple because lets face it, we all wanted to don those khaki cargo pants and be known as 1/2 of the "blue barracudas" racing to put together the shrine of the silver monkey.
R.L Stine deserves some kind of upstanding citizen award for his books turned TV extravaganza, Goosebumps. "Viewer Beware your in for a scare" didnt even begin to cut it. Creepy crawly critters, live gnomes, ventriloquist dolls, glowy eyed dogs, all that good stuff.
Remember when Are You Afraid of the Dark? gave your Saturday night an extra dose of the chill factor? The intro music alone, along with a random shot of a desolate playground and cob webbed old attic, never failed to send a shiver up your spine. Lighting a match (with parental supervision of course) would never be the same. Plus, what was with that stupid troll doll just casually placed up in that old attic? I mean come on!
Every kid wished they could join the midnight society and tell scary stories about school lockers that transport you back to the 70’s, a cold little ghost boy who just wants his warm jacket back, the ever frightening phone police, and of course, little girls who get trapped inside their dollhouse (I sure as hell steered clear of my dollhouse for a good while after seeing that).
Who didn’t
want to sit in the woods around a campfire in the dead of night, surrounded by the rustling of the evergreens and the flickering of the flames? Personally, I always wanted to throw that special dust in the nifty pouch on to the fire so it would grow and produce that white smoke. And I triple dog dare you to find a true 90's kid who'll say that they never secretly dreamed of venturing off to Orlando, Florida to be slimed by that irresistable green gooey globbity gloop.
And what about the youngsters? Just 1o years or so prior, we had Rugrats, Little Bear, Franklin, Gullah Gullah Island, The Puzzle Place and mucho more...and the oh so lovable "Face" to fill our Nick jr. days. Now young children are stuck with characters such as a commercialized "explorer" who just recently made headlines by ditching her innocent childish antics and opting for a more "teenage" image. This in part explains why kids today feel the need to grow up so fast. womp womp womp. Lets hope this changes. Or atleast lets try to show our children, little siblings, nieces, nephews etc. the things we were able to enjoy as kids.
Because of the awesome tv shows, books, and movies that were available to us children of the 80s/90s, we have tons of memories to look back on and talk about. We wouldnt trade it for anything. Except for maybe getting slimed.
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