Boy Meets World is my favorite show. I take it really personally when someone tells me it wasn't quality television. The night that the final episode aired, I had a ballet recital. I had to tape all of TGIF because we didn't have a VCR with a timer. Backstage at the recital, all I talked about was Boy Meets World, but my friends didn't care as much as I did. Luckily, there were enough people who cared about Boy Meets World that the lives of Corey, Shawn and Topanga will live on in reruns. As a kid, and even as a teenager, I always thought Corey's life was pretty realistic. Now that I am an adult, these inaccuracies are pretty obvious. Do I care? Not even a little bit. But let's analyze them just for fun.
26 Comments
The first real movie I remember seeing in the movie theater was "The Lion King." My mom took my Bart, my neighbor Danielle and I to go see it. We were running a bit late. We didn't realize that the movie was showing on several screens, and we walked into the wrong theater just as Mufasa was dying. We thought we missed the whole movie, until we realized we just walked into the wrong room. I was a a little traumatized, but my mother doesn't actually remember this. So, obviously, I was excited when I heard The Lion King was being re-released in 3D. I was so excited about it, that I got a little angry when people younger than me were excited. You do not understand unless you did see it in theaters in 1994 (this, according to Brianna, is a qualification to date her: you have to have seen The Lion King in theaters the first time around. I'm not sure if she's joking). My friend Erica and I saw this 3D masterpiece this week, and it was worth every bit of the $13 dollar movie ticket. The only downfall was that I couldn't fast forward through Scar singing "Be Prepared" like I can on my VHS tape. It's even scarier in 3D. Seeing The Lion King in 3D made me even prouder to be a 90's kid. Sure, there's been a few good Disney movies since, but nothing like this. I know there's a lot of things in this movie that don't make any sense (such as, why do things catch on fire all the time? I used to tell myself it was because Africa was hot, but that doesn't make a lot of sense for real). However, I honestly can't wait for the day I have to teach some poor high school students Hamlet, and I'll use The Lion King as an example. You know, jealous uncle kills the king, the prince seeks revenge, moral corruption. It totally fits! So, if you don't have plans this weekend, go see this movie. Who cares if you will spend $13 dollars to see a movie you can recite word for word? It will be worth it.
-Patsy If you aren't, check out this link.
40 Things that will Make you Feel Old What makes you feel old? Comment below!! -Patsy Today, I was thinking of my favorite hobbies as a child. I was signed up for a lot of regular kid sort things, like ballet lessons or scouts and I had a lot of normal toys. I had a really big imagination, so I could usually think of something fun to do on days when I got bored with my regular toys. In hindsight, my creative hobbies were sort of weird. For instance, one summer, my neighbor and I formed the rock smashing club. There were a few cinder blocks in my back yard where we took larger rocks ("smashers") to crush up smaller rocks. We then stored the powdered remains in empty butter containers under a lilac tree. At the end of the summer, we dumped them out. We thought it was great fun, but when other friends visited, they never seemed to share our affinity for rock smashing. With all of the cool things the new millennium has brought us, the Rock Smashing Club probably wouldn't have taken off if it was formed today. If I were born 10 years later, my other childhood favorite hobby would have also been non-existent. While the invention of the compact disc has surely impacted the world positively, today's youth are missing out on a lot of fun-recording their own radio station on cassette tape. Maybe it was just my family, but we always seemed to have a few blank tapes laying around. Two of the coolest things a kid could have was a brand new blank tape and a tape recorder. We used to pretend to be DJs and record our own radio station complete with songs, commentary and commercials. Sometimes we would pretend to be celebrities and do interviews. Many times, we had to stop, rewind and record over what we were trying to say because we were laughing so hard. The really tricky part was adding the songs. I didn't own a lot of advanced technology so we had to hold another tape player up to the mic to record; it was really hard to stay quiet while doing this. We usually thought this was so fun, and replaying our own hilarious jokes triumphed over the shock of hearing your own voice ("Do I really sound like that?") I suppose kids now can make playlists and podcasts and things of that sort, but to me, the mix tape radio station will be a fine art. Is this something other 90's kids did, or is it up the same strange alley as the Rock Smashing Club?
-Patsy This is the beginning of the end of the school year. Standardized testing is over for the year, so teachers everywhere are beginning to plan "fun" activities and "rewards" for their students. Maybe they'll get to watch a movie. Maybe there will be pizza. Maybe they will tie dye shirts in art class. Almost inevitably, they will do something called a reward that is actually far from fun. It actually more closely resembles child torture. Kids everywhere will fake sick and hope to stay home from school, and then cry when their parents make them attend. "Oh, Patsy. You are just exaggerating. Teachers don't like to torture kids. You should know that," is what you are probably thinking. However, there is one day a year when torture is acceptable and that day is called "field day." Alright, 90's kids, listen up. In in search of something and I'm hoping one of you may be able to help me out. In elementary school, my friend bought me this Sabrina the Teenage Witch board game for my birthday. I was never really a fan of board games when I was younger, but I really liked this one and I made my friends play it at every sleepover. We even still have the majority of the pieces, with the exception of one piece that is replaced with a rock. The game involved keeping scores in different categories on little slips of paper. For some reason, we dated our slips of paper (like at school). Most of them were dated 1999. Today, the game surfaced and I wanted play, except I couldn't remember how and the directions sheet was no longer in the box. I've found the game on ebay, but it seems a little silly to spend so much money when I have all the pieces (except for the rock-replacement). Did anyone ever play this game? Does anyone have directions they can scan or copy for me? -Patsy
A few posts back, Brianna posted about one of my biggest pet peeves. After reading her rant about 9 year olds with cell phones, I got thinking about the things I never had as a kid that kids today have. I just graduated from college, so I've filled out a lot of applications lately, and a question that pops up on a lot of them is "What makes you a qualified candidate for this position?" I wish it was reasonable to answer "I grew up in the 90's." Yesterday, the kid I baby-sit turned ten. As part of many birthday presents, I gave her the option of spending all day Friday participating in the activity of her choice. I was expecting her to pick a movie or something more mature (as she is in the double digits now). To my surprise, she chose Chuck E. Cheese. Now, don't get my wrong, I love Chuck E. Cheese. Spending twenty dollars on tokens to earn enough tickets to win something that may cost a 75 cents retail value is my idea of a good day. As much as I am looking forward to spending tomorrow eating cardboard-like pizza and listening to squealing children in a place that smells like a high school wrestling room, I am feeling unbearable pains of nostalgia for somewhere else. That other place is DZ-Discovery Zone. Discovery Zone was like Churck E Cheese on steroids. As a child, the building seemed giant. It was what I imagined Heaven was like, complete with ball-pits, bouncy rooms, roller slides, tube slides, climbing walls and sky tubes. There was even a room that was sort of like a giant water-bed. I was sure that if I spent my whole life being good, I'd get to spend eternity surrounded by plastic primary colors. My mom would take my brother, my neighbor and I to DZ and we'd spend hours there. I'm not sure what my mom did while we played, but she certainly never joined us. I suppose eventually we just all got hungry and went to beg for dinner, and that's when she trapped us to go home. I only vaguely remember there being food at DZ, like red fruit punch we'd gulp down so fast we didn't care about getting red stains on our lips. I'm guessing there was also Diet Coke and chocolate, or else I don't think my mother would have brought us there as many times as she did. Recently, I took a risk and got a haircut. I've ended up with some sort of trendy side bangs, which look pretty adorable on most days. It is the days when I feel lazy and just want to put my hair in a ponytail that are the issue. The side bangs are not quite long enough to fit in the pony-tail, so I end up with 2 skinny pieces of hair hanging in my face. Every time this happens, I am reminded of the awesome hairstyle I sported in the late 90's and early 00's. I think most girls could identify this as being the awesome way to wear your hair back in the day, but no one can seem to think of a name for it. They weren't bangs, but it wasn't the same as pulling your hair back. I tried to explain this trend to Brianna, and I'm not real sure she understood. She suggested we call them "notbangs." Melissa Joan Hart rocked the notbangs in most episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I don't think Aunt Hilda ever had to have a talk with Sabrina about "getting her hair out of her face." This was my mother's usual reaction to this hairstyle. Mary-Kate and Ashley were the coolest girls ever, and they were everything I wanted to be. They had their name on just about anything and everything you can think of. They were the kind of girls that our parents were supposed to like because they were innocent, but my parents hated them because they were annoying. The picture below is a cover of one of their books where they are both styled with not-bangs (also, notice the cardigans and choker necklaces. AMAZING!) Then, of course, there is the 90's boy hair. To the left, you'll see Corey and Topanga sandwiched between two handsome heads of 90's boy hair. Every boy I had a crush on in the 90s had this haircut, even the ones in real life. I can sort of assume that the boys that did not have such shiny, flippy hair were envious of those who did (reflected in my all time favorite episode of Boy Meets World "Corey's Alternative Friends"). Other incredibly dreamy 90's boys had this haircut including Nick Carter, J.T.T. and Erik Von Detton. Are they any 90's boy readers out there? Did you have this haircut? Girls, did you do the notbangs? What other hairstyles remind you of our childhood? -Patsy Currently, I am making a living out of being a substitute teacher. The majority of my days are spent doing things like asking other teachers where the grown-up bathroom is, repeating my name over and over to kids who can't remember, and relying on 10 year olds to answer questions like "where is the art room?" and "where does your teacher keep the chalk?" What I spend the vast majority of my time doing, however, is being unreasonably jealous of the children's school supplies. August was always a depressing time of the year. In Northeast Ohio, August is hot, and schools are not built for air conditioning. August meant going back to school and sitting in a 7,000 degree classroom, sweating in your new school clothes and hoping your teacher seated you near the fan. However, like most kids, I found myself secretly excited about school starting because of one thing: new school supplies. Typically parents only sprung for new supplies in the fall, but if you were lucky enough to get something new in the middle of the year, it was the perfect school day blah's pick me up. Kids today have cool school supplies, no doubt about that. Mechanical Pencils, Post-It notes and multi-colored highlighters seem commonplace. Though everyday when I watch my students sort through their school supplies, I can't help but think that they are missing out. School supplies in the 90s had so much more character. Let's take a quick trip down memory lane... The Top 5 Things That Made School Cool and Drove Our Teachers Crazy 5. Spacemaker Pencil Boxes Everyone had one, probably because they went on sale at Office Max (and Marc's for all of you Northeast Ohio readers) for about 50 cents a piece before school started. They were 2 different colors, and it was likely every kids in the class would have the same one. They typically came in 2 sets of colors: one stereotypically "boy" and one stereotypically "girl." One year, I remember buying the blue and green box, and all the kids called me a boy. Then there was the bumps. Oh yes, the bumps. Any 90's kid would recognize the Spacemaker school box from a mile away because of it's decorative bumps. The coolest kids were the ones who had parents would would splurge on the White Out Pen, so they could color around the bumps with the White Out. The worst part was when someone dropped theirs, and class had to stop so everyone could help him pick up his crayons. The kids I see around schools today all have these wimpy little pencil pouches with zippers, which are super lame compared to the school boxes of my day. 4. Bulky, Plastic Lunchboxes If our entire generation develops back problems someday, it's pretty obvious why: everything we carried back and forth to school was so darn heavy! Kids today all have canvas pencil pouches and soft lunchboxes that can be stuffed down to the bottom of their backpack when empty. In the 90's every kid had a giant, square plastic lunchbox that could accommodate more food than our young stomachs could ever hold. Usually it had a picture of some sort of Disney character on the front, like Pocahontas or The Lion King. We filled them with Sprinklers Yogurt, Dunkaroos, and Capri-Sun juices*. When the trend shifted to soft lunchboxes, I'm sure teachers were relived, because the lunchbox basket probably got a lot lighter. *Keep checking back for a special report from Brianna on what 90's kids packed in their lunches. 3. Paper Bag Book Covers I never thought I'd be one of those adults who said "well, when I was your age..." However, I've recently caught myself thinking it when I see kids and those silly stretchy book covers. In my day, we had to cover our books with a paper bag. This was often quite a task. It began with making your mom buy something at the store and remembering to ask for paper instead of plastic. Next, teachers had to take a chunk of class-time to help everyone figure out the complicated folding/taping process. I suppose those stretchy ones don't rip as easily as paper bag covers, but the main perk of a paper bag cover was that you could write all over it. "I Love J.T.T. 4-Ever" just doesn't look as good drawn all over the stretchy covers. 2. Lisa Frank A few years back, I was shopping for a friend's daughter's birthday party. She spotted some pink stickers featuring neon yellow puppies, and she squealed "Anne Frank Stickers!!!" Clearly, Anne Frank was not the correct name for the neon, girly goodness, but I certainly shared her enthusiasm. Lisa Frank provided us with a few colorful animal friends printed on everything from our school supplies to our clothes. In 5th grade, every student was required to have a trapper keeper, and every girl had one like the one pictured to the right. I wouldn't be surprised if teachers from the 90s are now suffering some sort of eye damage due to the large amounts of neon colored school supplies owned by their female students. I have just been inspired to dig out my old trapper keeper from under my bed and use it as a future grade book or something. It would probably make me the coolest teacher ever. Agreed? 1. Gel Pens Teachers hated them, kids hoarded them, and for some reason parents kept buying them. Gel Pens are the reason college professors have to write "Black and Blue pen only!" on their syllabus each semester. These were the good ol' days when you had to actually get out a sheet of wide ruled paper and write a note to your friend, instead of texting them underneath your desk. The number of gel pens you used in their note was directly correlated to how much you liked them. Nothing spruced up a mundane homework assignment like gel pens. Writing ten spelling words three times each was actually a little fun if you could use a different color for each word (and most kids had enough different colors to make the words 30 different colors). Unfortunately, teachers didn't share our excitement and banned the pens graded assignments. What kind of awesome school supplies did you have as a kid?
-Patsy |
90s Quote of the Week"I can handle this. "Handle" is my middle name. Actually, "handle" is the middle of my first name."
-Chandler, Friends Archives
February 2016
Categories
All
|