Kat
Caroline and I were sitting at a California Pizza Kitchen at LAX throwing around blog ideas, and I said, “We should do one about the things we miss from the 90s.” I’m ALL about nostalgia. Those Buzzfeed articles get me sucked in every time, so come with us on a journey. You’ll need roller blades and overalls and some Tang.
Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
They could do no wrong in my eyes. If I had a gun to my head and had to recreate the entire series of Full House from memory, honestly, I could probably do it (I can’t think of a scenario when that would be plausible, but you catch my drift). I had a Michelle doll that said, “You’ve got it, dude.” I watched all the mystery series. Literally sang the theme song to the mystery show the other night to a friend because she was doing some hardcore internet stalking.
I used to get on their website for “tweens” and one of their beauty tips was to put baby oil in your bathtub for smooth skin. My twelve year old self was almost concussed numerous times getting out of the tub after doing that, but MK and A said to, so I did.
I LOVED the movie “It Takes Two” and told a guy I dated once that it was my favorite from childhood. He found it online and ordered me a copy. I was astonished that he remembered. He’s married to a man now. Makes me kind of feel like Clarice at the end of that movie when Mary Kate steps on her dress and exposes her unmentionables to Steve Guttenberg and the church. But such is life.
TV Theme Songs
I LOVE a theme song. I refer to the lyrics to them all the time. I actually make up theme songs for the students in my class, and it is how I greet them in the morning and/or their walk-up music to the board. One time at middle school summer camp I won a “Name that Theme Song” game. I was spending time with a friend a couple of months ago and somehow we found a video on YouTube of clips of theme songs. I dominated. It wasn’t even close. The themes told a little story in and of themselves. Where would Friends be without that iconic clap? And how would we know how Will got to sit on his throne as the prince of Bel Air without that song? Have our attention spans become so short that we can’t listen to a dity for one minute? Bring. back. Mr. Belvedere and his streaks on the china that never mattered before. Who cares?
Snacks
Oh my gosh. It’s important to note that my mother was not a stickler for health growing up. She has been quoted in saying, “Water just wasn’t popular when you girls were little.” God bless. Ergo, we grew up drinking blue raspberry lemonade KoolAid that Caroline’s friend, Joelle, would put at least a cup and a half of sugar in, and we always had snack foods. Dunkaroos were the absolute best. I saw an article that they were bringing them back, and I was more excited than a child going to see Frozen II.
Also, can we talk about Surge for a moment? There was a drink machine “up town” from my parents house aka a block away that had Surge. When I needed some “me time”, I’d go get a Surge and sit in the gazebo across the street and drink it.
1. Why would my parents let my elementary school self drink Surge?
2. Why did I need “me time” at eight years old?
3. WHO was in charge of me?
Caroline
Transit
There was nothing better than wheelin’ around in style in the 90’s, and did I ever. Who didn’t love roller-blading? Answer: no one. I remember it vividly. I watched Mighty Ducks for the first time and felt so inspired that I immediately went outside and put on some blades. Some of my favorite childhood memories involve us rollerblading in the basement to TLC. “Creep oh ah, oh ah, oh ah yeah.”
My bike was another favorite. And how many times did I try to nail this move like Chrissy in Now and Then? Too many. I’m surprised I was never concussed like Kat when she got out of the bathtub.
Go-kart. Yes, we had one, and yes, I loved it. We used to ride all around Crawfordville in that thing. That’s the beauty of growing up in a small town. I always wanted to find a tree limb low enough to ride under like Icebox did in Little Giants. Clearly, I was inspired by movies in the 90’s.
I found a picture of the exact one we had, and I got a little choked up when I saw it, and also, the smell of gasoline fumes came flooding back.
My last form of 90’s transportation has nothing to really do with that decade specifically (except the look of this car), but it holds big memories for me. My friend, Joelle, lived on a dairy farm. It gave us endless opportunities for creative play. One of those opportunities was her driving us around in their Volvo station wagon through the cow pastures. It is important to note that we were like 11 years old.
TV
The 90’s was the best decade and one of the reasons was the high caliber of television.
The 90’s gave us TGIF, and there was nothing better. If a neon-colored tear doesn’t form in your eye when looking at this collage, then I don’t know if I can like you.
Two of my favorite shows to watch after school were Figure it Out and Supermarket Sweep. I recently found Supermarket Sweep reruns on TV, and if you think I don’t have them on my DVR, then you are sorely mistaken. I wanted to be on that show so badly. If I could carry a giant bonus back to the checkout stand, I would be a happy woman. Lord, please hear our prayers and bring both of these shows back.
Where would our geography skills be without Carmen SanDiego? I mean she was a “sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to Belize” who “put the Miss in misdemeanor when she stole the beans from Lima.”
If you hear the sound of a school bell, the absolute first thing you should think is of the theme song to this show.
“Cut Day,” “Snow White & the Seven Dorks,” “Rockumentary,” “Jessie’s Song,” & “Save the Max” are just a few of the episodes that come to mind. I loved them all except the episodes with Miss Bliss; please don’t make me watch those. If anyone wants to have a Saved By the Bell marathon, invite me over. I’ll bring cheeseburgers and milkshakes and pretend they’re from The Max.
I honestly could go on and on about the 90’s, but I’ll spare you. We will be doing another tribute to this decade to finish out our favorites in another post.
We hope today brought back some wonderful, bedazzled memories.
Kitty made it sound like I was a total slacker (idiot!!) who did not even try for Y’all to eat and drink nutritiously. Thanks a lot! I still think there is something healthy about Ritz crackers with protein rich peanut butter on them that you probably had 5 times a week at the pool. I blame Joelle for the Kool Aid obsession you all had. It was easy and inexpensive so I just followed her lead. Raising 4 children is the reason I don’t remember much of the eighties or nineties! Sometimes I just did what was easiest. You all turned out ok. But I Ioved the post anyway.
I stand by the fact that no one in Crawfordville could hold a candle to my kool-aid making. And it truly was an obsession. I’m surprised we don’t have diabetes. My secret was to double the sugar called for and then a little extra for taste!
That go-cart. The Volvo! The rollerblading! Memory lane…how could you forget going to Kathrines to drink Mystic’s! Take me back! We ran that town, some would say we were “2 cool 2 b 4gotten”.
Also, Kat, randomly I sang the Olsen and Olsen mystery agency song this week. 😂 Bernard sends his love!
That picture of Blossom is fantastic and the meltdown from “Jessie’s Song” is now stuck in my head =-) “I’m so …so…” And Ms. Stewart, 90s moms were the coolest. My mom bought Mountain Dew by the case and insisted that we all eat dessert first before we got too full to enjoy it. Love this post. CCC
Yay, Christy’s mom! She’s my kind of girl. I can’t stop laughing!
This post just made my day and took me back. I laughed out loud throughout. The Volvo and the baby oil were icing on the cake. #dead
Now and Then was definitely a fave, and I loved re-enacting the scenes on the playground. I had a go-cart too and ran through some cow-patties a few times. One time in fact it bombed all over me and my cousins. That was not fun.