Wonder Years

A friend sent me this in an email saying "You might recognize some of these..." It brought back so many memories I had to post it here.

IF YOU WERE A LITTLE GIRL IN THE 70s...
You owned a bicycle with a banana seat and a plastic basket with flowers on it.

You learned to skate with actual skates (not roller blades) that had metal wheels.
Man, my friend Rachel Tsuchitani & I lived on skates just like that.

You thought Gopher from Love Boat was cute (admit it!).

You had nightmares after watching Fantasy Island.
I have to admit, it did freak me out a little bit.

You had either a 'bowl cut' or 'pixie', not to mention the 'Dorothy Hamill' People sometimes thought you were a boy.
Mine was more of a pageboy than a bowl cut. But I did have a pixie. And dude, what about the SHAG?














You had rubber boots for rainy days and Moon boots for snowy days.

You owned a 'Slip-n-Slide' , on which you injured yourself on a sprinkler head more than once.

You owned 'Klick-Klacks' and smacked yourself in the face more than once.
I don't know what these are?

Your Holly Hobbie sleeping bag was your most prized possession.













Mine was actually a Raggedy Ann sleeping bag, but I did have a Holly Hobbie lunchbox that I thought was pretty cute.

You wore a poncho, gauchos, and knickers.
Yes, yes and yes. Sorry, no photos.

You begged Santa for the electronic game, Simon.
Never got it either. But I did get a Baby Tenderlove that drank a bottle and peed.

You had the Donnie and Marie dolls with those pink and purple satiny shredded outfits, or the sunshine family.
Oh. Emm. Gee. YES! THOSE EXACT OUTFITS!!

You spent hours in your backyard on your metal swing set with the trapeze. The swing set tipped over at least once.
Funny story: I drove past the skeleton of an old metal swing set the other day and said to Elijah, "Look at that old swing set!" He swore up & down that couldn't possibly be a swing set. Apparently he's never seen a metal swing set.

You had homemade ribbon barrettes in every imaginable color.
This was kind of more of an 80s thing...?

You had a pair of Doctor Scholl's sandals (the ones with hard sole & the buckle).
And I bought them because the ad said they would give me shapely legs.

You also had a pair of salt-water sandals.
Don't know what these are.

You wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder really bad; you wore that Little House on the Prairie-inspired plaid, ruffle shirt with the high neck in at least one school picture; and you despised Nellie Oleson!
Dude, I had a whole trunkful of LH dresses, aprons and bonnets and we insisted on calling our parents "Ma" and "Pa."

You wanted your first kiss to be at a roller rink!
I did, but alas, it was not to be so.

PONG 'video tennis')was the most remarkable futuristic game you've ever heard of.

Your hairstyle was described as having 'wings' or 'feathers' and you kept it pretty with the comb you kept in your back pocket. When you walked, the 'wings' flapped up and down, looked like you were gonna 'take off'
Valerie Bertinelli was my hair idol.

You know who Strawberry Shortcake is, as well as her friends, Blueberry Muffin and Huckleberry Pie.
Huckleberry was the boy, right?

You carried a Muppets lunch box to school and it was metal, not plastic. With the thermos inside some were glass and broke the first time you dropped them.
I actually remember when they came out with the new and improved unbreakable thermoses with no glass. It was like freaking sliced bread.

You and your girlfriends would fight over which of the Dukes of Hazzard was your boyfriend.
And also over Johnny and Roy on "Emergency!"

YOU had Star Wars action figures, too!
I didn't. But I knew some girls in my class who did.

It was a big event in your household each year when the 'Wizard of Oz' would come on TV. Your mom would break out the popcorn and sleeping bags!
Uhh, no. My mom was completely freaked out by that movie. I never even saw it until I was a Senior in high school and away on a choir trip.

You often asked your Magic-8 ball the question: 'Who will I marry: Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett, or David Cassidy?'
It was my friend Lisa Green's 8 ball, actually.

You completely wore out your Grease, Saturday Night Fever, and Fame soundtrack record albums.
Lisa & I drove our parents absolutely up the wall acting out all the song & dance numbers from Grease. We totally had no idea it was all about S-E-X.

You tried to do lots of arts and crafts, like yarn and Popsicle-stick God's eyes, decoupage, or those weird potholders made on a plastic loom.

You made Shrinky-Dinks and put iron-on kittens on your t-shirts!
I had a shrinky-dink charm bracelet. Classy, I know.

You used to tape record songs off the radio by holding your portable tape player up to the speaker.
Ha! Yeah, I did.

You had subscriptions to Dynamite and Tiger Beat.
Not subscriptions, but I did beg for them at the store. Especially if it promised a fold-out poster of Shaun Cassiday which was like, every issue.

You learned everything you needed to know about girl issues from Judy Blume books. (Are you there God? It's me, Margaret.)
And boy issues, too.

You thought Olivia Newton John's song 'Physical' was about aerobics.
Yeah, that's another 80s one. By 14, I got all the horizontal references.

You wore friendship pins on your tennis shoes, or shoelaces with heart or rainbow designs.
Nope. 80s.

You wanted to be a Solid Gold dancer.
We actually made fun of the Solid Gold dancers. And watched religiously every week.

You drowned yourself in Love's Baby Soft - which was the first 'real' perfume you ever owned.
My sister had Love's Baby Soft. I had Charlie. "There's a fragrance that's here today, and they call it - CHAR-LEEE"

You glopped your lips in Strawberry Roll-on lip-gloss till it almost dripped off. I absolutely did. I can only imagine now how gross that must have been.