80s video games: the strategy guide was a kid on the bus
Every 80s video games list is a ranking, and nobody ranked them at the time. The real strategy guide was a kid on the bus, a graph-paper map, and a password you copied wrong.
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90s food was a war on fat, and we were the first adults to read the label
Every 90s food list is somebody’s lunchbox. Ours had a label on the back: the fat-free cookie, the food pyramid, salsa beating ketchup, and lunch at the desk.
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90s board games: the toy aisle started talking, and we were already too old
90s board games had two booms: the talking toy-aisle games and the grown-up party and hobby game. Gen X was too old for one and right on time for the other.
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An 80s theme party for the people who were actually there
An 80s theme party guide for the host whose guests were actually there: theme the party, not the decade. Basement, card table, sheet cake, one song each.
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80s slang: half the list is a movie quote, and we can tell which half
Every 80s slang list has the same fifteen words. We sorted them by where they came from: the hallway, a movie, an ad agency, or another century.
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The childhood movies 80s kids loved weren’t fantasy. They were Tuesday.
Childhood movies 80s kids loved weren’t fantasy. A crew, a bike, a bad map, and no adults until the porch light came on.
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80s christmas came with a job description. We were seven.
An 80s christmas came with a job description: the school holiday shop, the gym concert, the rules about the stairs, and the thank-you notes on the 26th.
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90s christmas decorations: the tree was the least of it
The tree stood in one corner. The rest of Christmas moved into every other room, stayed six weeks, and didn’t pay rent.
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80s christmas movies had teeth. Nobody had softened them yet.
80s christmas movies were mean, and nobody had sanded them down yet: a rating that didn’t exist, grown-ups as villains, and a skyscraper movie that opened in July.
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A 90s christmas can’t be planned. That was the whole point.
A 90s christmas can’t be planned, and that was the point. No elf, no camera roll, no theme. Colored lights, one roll of film, and nobody watching.
