This promises to be a never-ending list. Let’s get started. Remember?:
The Mighty 690 on AM radio
94.7 KMET and Dr. Demento
KIQQ (100.3, pre-Pirate Radio)
93 KFJ and KDAY
The Three Stooges
The Little Rascals
Pippi Longstocking
The Incredible Mr. Limpet
Kung Fu Theater on Channel 9
The pre-Pure Rock 105.5 KNAC (slogan: “The Heart of Rock and Roll”)
Popeye on Channel 5 on Sunday mornings (Tom Slick and Super Chicken)
Twilight Zone Marathon on Thanksgiving and July 4th (also on KTLA Channel 5)
Members Only jackets
Le Tigre, the sellable knock-off to the exceedingly elite Izod “Alligator” shirts
Dolfin Shorts
Leg Warmers
Dittos (hurt me!)
Jordache jeans
Chemin de Fur
Gauchos
Girls with strawberry lip gloss
McDonald’s bracelets to hold your lunch money (fifty cents)
Pete Ellis Dodge commercials (“Long Beach Freeway, Firestone exit, Southgate”)
Carpeteria commercials
Phil n’ Jim’s commercials
National Lumber (Shorty!)
Lake Delores (Lake Dolores)
Cal Worthington and his dog Spot! (And no, you weren’t the only kid who thought it went “pussy cow”)
Jack LaLanne
Smog alerts, which called recess off
Earthquake Drills and “Drop Drills”
Heads Up Seven Up on rainy days at school
The Red Balloon
Steal the Bacon
Vans
O.P. shorts
Puka shell necklaces
Unbreakable combs
Switchblade combs
Bolt
Hang Ten
Stubbies
Baja Lopez ponchos
Flojos
Kroff Superstars, the show by Sid and Marty Krofft
POW!, the telephone call-in video game on the Krofft show
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
The Bugaloos
Lidsville
HR Pufnstuf
Electrowoman and Dynagirl
The White Shadow
What’s Happening!
S.W.A.T.
CHiPs
Emergency!
Speed Racer on Channel 56 (UHF!)
Wally George on Channel 56
Real People
Bowling for Dollars
The Incredible Hulk
The Love Boat
Fantasy Island
Licorice Pizza
Pup n’ Taco
Sambo’s (renamed to Denny’s for the purpose of political correction)
Disneyland’s Monsanto’s Adventure Thru Inner Space
E tickets, D tickets, C tickets, B tickets, and A tickets
The Marathon Bar
Wax Lips
Candy cigarettes
Fred Rated and the Federated Group
Montgomery Ward (i.e. “Monkey Wards”)
MV3 with Richard Blade
Blue Chip stamp redemption centers
Sears Surplus
Fedco
Gemco
Zody’s
The Treasury
Orbach’s
Kinney’s
Buster Brown
Tom McCann
Farrell’s
Marineland
Skate parks
Top Siders with no socks
Pee-Chee folders
Trapper-Keepers
The denim folder
Pencil fighting
A.Y.S.O.
Shasta soda
Aspen soda (apple flavored)
Fresca
The Nestea plunge
Alba 77
Schwinn Stingrays
Green Machines
G.I. Joes
Army Men
Slime
Speak and Spell
Stop Thief!
Connect Four
Hot Wheels with never enough tongues for the tracks
Eraser Mate
The four colored ball point pen(!!!)
Mattel Football
Rubik’s Cube
Pyraminx
Missing Link
Water Basketball (thumb cramp!)
Sea-Monkeys
V (the series)
Pintos, Gremlins, Datsun B210s, and Volkswagen Squarebacks
Roller Disco
Space Invaders
Asteroids
Asteroids Deluxe (had a shield instead of hyperspace)
Frogger
Seawolf (sucked)
Dragon’s Lair
Centipede
Millipede (with the TNT)
Pengo
Defender
Defender Stargate
Scramble
Galaga
Galaxian
Pac-Man
Super Cobra
Atari 2600
ON TV
SelecTV
Red Devil Fireworks
Cool metal lunchboxes and the lame oddball yellow plastic Snoopy one
Slip n’ Slide
Toss Across (beanbag Tic-Tac-Toe)
Lawn Darts
Stephan! Jack Stephan!
Bandini Mountain
Lolly lolly lolly get your adverbs here (anybody else think it was “f-words here”?)
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Remember Marineland (aka Marineland of the Pacific)? Remember their ’70s “Baja Reef” saltwater swim-through attraction where you could put on a snorkel or scuba gear (depending on your experience/skill level) and swim with fish, turtles and even nurse sharks? I vividly remember their full-color promotional brochure and fantasizing about swimming with nurse sharks. Too bad we never went on it. I wonder if they made you sign a disclaimer before going in. lol
I found an image of the brochure online! Check it out:
http://kasatka.com/gallery/album146/bajareef
Speaking of Lake Dolores, this guy found its ruins on his way to Vegas back in 2006. I wonder if it’s still there. Though many of the pics show its reincarnation as “Rock-A-Hoola” water park (which it became when it was sold by the original owners), they’re still somber pics of a dream gone to shambles.
http://www.timeattackforums.com/forums/photography-art/1566-lake-dolores.html
I’m still looking for that freakin’ commercial! Dang…
Calculator watches
The Spruce Goose!
KCET, KCOP, KRLA, KTTV Channel 11…
Let’s not forget thee ol’ “crack a fake egg on the head” trick.
Instructions:
1. On one hand, bring all four fingertips to your thumb. Like a spider touching its toes together.
2. Hold these fingertips atop a friends head. Like the spider’s standing on the friend’s head.
3. With your free hand, tap the top of your spider hand, achieving a slightly percussive effect against the top of your friend’s skull.
4. Slowly spread your joined fingertips apart, running them through your friend’s hair, mimicking dripping egg guts.
Ebonics.
White Front – pre Home Depot
Z Channel – the first cable channel
Mongoose, Webco, Redline – BMX bikes
Alpha-Beta tell-a-friend
Lucky
SH Kress
Beer Hats -crocheted hats with beer cans cut in panels then holepunched then sewn to make a beach/camping hat – usually Coors, Budweiser, Hamms
http://www.stitchymcyarnpants.com/tincan/beercantutorial.html
No scab beer – no Coors beer
Monterey and Rainbow card clubs in Gardena
the Horseshoe club
Ascot
Straw Hat Pizza – where you could get a strawhat made out of yellow styrofoam
Shakey’s Pizza where you could watch the dough being made on the machine through the long wall of glass, then you could for .25$ play a song that you picked from the hundreds of songs next to the player piano and then play Pong.
Webco spincast fishing set for the youndsters white rod with black reel.
Billy Beer
pull tabs on cans
Thrifty ice cream .05 .10 & .15 for a triple
the Man From Atlantis
cousin Oliver from the Brady Bunch
Police Story – too late, time for bed.
Love American Style
the Outer Limits
Room 222
the Flying Nun
the Courtship of Eddies Father – I hated that show!
Kung Fu
the Waltons
Burl Ives as the Snowman selling electric shavers (Norelco?) at Christmas time.
Sears Tough Skins – the poor kids Levis – me. iron on patches after each wearing and each washing as they were thin as paper.
Big Wheel
Schwinn Pixie for the lil’ ones.
Roller Derby – steel wheeled skates
Plastic skates that went over your shoes with plastic wheels.
Huffy ThunderRoad
Robinson’s
the May Company
Bullock’s
the Broadway
Swenson’s Ice Cream
Banana Bubble Gum
Stubbing your Big Toe and ripping the nail off and bleeding all over.
Falling off your bike and ‘skinning your knee’. I need a Band-Aid.
Mecurechrome on your owie if you were lucky if not, Mathialaide oww it burns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blow on it!
Pink Calamine lotion on your chickenpox.
original Kaopectate
seeing classmates with braces and full-on headgear you teased them, but then making your own retainer with a paperclip and sticking it in your mouth.
Drilling holes all the way through your pink eraser at school with your pencil.
Papermate pens
then, ta-da Erasermate pens
actual toys in the bottom of cereal boxes which you would dig for all the way down to the bottom immediately after opening,
usually Cap’n Crunch, Cinnamon Crunch, Trix or Cucko for CocoaPuffs. Don’t forget the Captain Jean Lafoot or the Crunch Berry Beast.
Quisp, Fruit Brute, Frankenberry, Count Chocula and Boo Berry cereals. Trix are for kids you silly rabbit.
“Drilling holes all the way through your pink eraser at school with your pencil.”
LOL
LOL…classic.
“Pink Calamine lotion on your chickenpox” …totally. But my folks used “Caladryl” or something…doesn’t it still exist? I remember it being totally soothing. We used it for mosquito/flea bites too.
What about those wacky spaceship shaped erasers? Those were awesome. They had the standalone ones and then pencil-topping ones.
Erasermate. The bane of lefties like myself. =(
My folks used to get pissed that I would angle the brand new cereal nearly sideways so I could grab the toy wrapped in that plastic wrap at the bottom of the stuff.
Thrifty’s .05/.10/.15…the cheapest I remember was .15/.30/.45. Heh, inflation. =)
Thrifty’s .15/.30/.40 was what I remember. (Not .45, dude.)
I personally never understood why people would pay .30 for a double scoop when you can take the same amount of money and double-fist two singles!
Coin collectors. The half cent coin!
Calamine Calamine Calamine lotion…
ohhh nooo nooo noo no my lotion….
plastic rockets – pumped up with air and a little water.
“going around”
Washington Dee Cee pants – White painter’s pants
the girl’s Dee Cee’s came in all flavors of the rainbow
Sear’s Best Perma-Press
Marco ———————– Polo
Vans off the Wall, Navy-Red-Navy , Navy-Gold-Navy, Navy-Royal Blue-Navy OG
Van Doren’s with the Blue Bottoms
GT skateboard, Alva, Logan wheels, Loni Ta, sp?
Grape Ape
the Superfriends
Top Cat
KRLA – Elvis every night
the original Sony Walkman – full on anodized blue metal case – Tape Player only
Fishing with a yellow/orange Bobber when that went under the water WOW I GOT ONE!
Shamrock Roller Rink in Torrance – do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself about thats what its all about!
Ramonas – green Chile Burritos w/beans, back when they made em’ so hot your nose ran, your eyes watered, your lips burned, but they tasted soooo goood!
Maple and Brown sugar Quaker Oats with the ” animal packets’ you would save them at least until grandma threw them away
the deer stands out.
Ding Dongs and Ho Hos wrapped in the foil when you were done you would fashion them into coins
playing with magnets in the dirt where the iron would stick like hair to the magnet.
Hopscotch, four square, sockball, kickball, one bounce,
Handball – tap-tap no Americans, no waterfalls, no babies, no slicies, no fakies, no carryovers and no more taps.
Carroms , carroms golf
RC Cola 16 oz. glass bottles LOOK
Tic Tac Dough w/ Wink Martindale
The Joker’s Wild – Joker Joker Joker!
Wallabees
WaffleStompers w/ the red laces
Nike – All courts
Bruce Jenner on the Wheaties box – weanies when you were young
Big Stick
original red white & blue Bomb Pop
Orange, pineapple or raspberry push ups
twin popsicles
Strawberry Sparkle Bar
a little later in the 80s-
Cavariccis – for the studs
Creepers with the Zebra print
the boot looking shoes with the silver tips and silver tabs on the heel
The much coveted White Guess? shirt goes best with a Corona w/lime at the Red Onion or Bentley’s
Black Levis with the tapered leg,
Acid washed jeans,
the Fleetwood Mac style ponytail
Neon Green swimtrunks
Neon Orange
Neon Pink
Team Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos wearing those colors
Bananas at the grocery store having football team stickers on them.
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