Hello There, 80s Memories!

 I went down a Pinterest rabbit hole last night. Memories from the 80s. Ahhh, it's been a while since I relived some of the nostalgia from days gone by. Want to hear some vintage Bekah stories today?

The article I read was called "Awesome Things From the 80s Kids Today Will Never Know." To be fair, I didn't know all of them either, and I was a child of the 80s. But here were a few of my favorites.

* The magic of hitting play and record. How many blank cassettes did I fill up with nothingness in my childhood? I had no clue I would end up with a brief career in radio, but I did enjoy pretending to make my own commercials back then. (I remember one time, when a friend had come over to play, I tried to rope her into making a commercial with me. She looked at me with absolute horror when I motioned that it was her turn to talk. Ha!) 

* Making sure you're home in time for your shows - otherwise you miss them. TRUTH!!! And my mom was so kind to arrange dinner around the hour when Little House aired. (It was in syndication, but it still had to be seen when it was on. How we longed to watch on demand and had no idea it would ever become a thing!) I didn't have too many regular shows back then, but I didn't miss Little House or A.L.F.

* Getting a note passed in school with your name on it. I wasn't a big note passer in class (ahem...rule follower!!!) but I did love doing the little special fold of the 80s and 90s. You know what I mean, right? My friends and I would write to each other during class and pass the notes during the passing period. And then a couple of my friends and I just started traveling notebooks. Those are embarrassing to read now! 

* Not knowing what was on unless you had your TV Guide. Well, we didn't have cable, so we got exactly five channels via the rabbit ears. ABC, NBC, CBS, and then the WB and another local channel. Since we didn't have cable, we certainly didn't need a TV Guide, but I did refer to the newspaper TV lineup on the regular. They always printed the primetime schedule. And then (in the 90s) when I would babysit for someone who DID subscribe to TV Guide?? Oh, yes. After the kids went to bed, I would read ALL the articles.

* Reading all the song lyrics after unfurling the inside of a cassette tape. YES!! Every one the Gaither Vocal Band ever made. And Sandi Patty. And Steve Green. And then of course, CDs came out. Do you remember the first CD you ever bought? Mine was Point of Grace, and I am pretty sure my parents thought I'd gone off the deep end. (I do still love me some vintage Point of Grace! I also wanted to be IN Point of Grace. I also cannot sing.)

* The anticipation of waiting for your film to be developed so you could see how your pictures turned out. The disappointment of finding someone had blinked...or your finger slid over the lens. The joy of free double prints. ALL THESE THINGS!!!!!! Anyone? Anyone??

* Digging to the bottom of the cereal box to get to the awesome prize. Of course I couldn't wait until it naturally surfaced, so I had to dig. Cinnamon Toast Crunch made a real mess. A REAL mess. Also...reading the lame jokes on the backs of cereal boxes...

* Looking up a phone number in the phone book. Rereading it 100 times before dialing to make sure your eyes didn't switch lines across the way. (Ryan and I were just talking about phone books the other day! We needed to pile a bunch up for Jeremiah to sit on while he was visiting. Ha!)

* The excitement of not knowing who was on the other end of the phone when it rang. Or screening by letting the machine pick up and then jumping in and pretending to have been far away when the message started. Or the invention of *69 to find out who dared to NOT leave a message. And then at long last: caller ID!!!

* Getting a letter in the mail from your pen pal. Finding pen pals in magazines. Yes, I actually did that. I had not seen Dateline yet. The world was a safer place back then - or so it felt.

So how about you? Any gems from your own childhood - whether or not it was in the 80s?