Friday, July 25, 2008

Retro Trixie

I've been in a weird mood lately, pondering life and death and our place in the universe. Yeah, right. Actually, I was wondering what happened to all my favorite candy bars that I grew up with, and became melancholy at their absence. So this got me to looking around on the 'net and doing a search for all that was wholesome and glorious about growing up in the 70's. Feel free to share your own in the comments!

1.) Candy Lipstick/Jewelry
I don't know about you, but as a little girl, this was a cool one. Wanting to be 'grown up' enough to play with mom's makeup and jewelry, but this was even better cause you could eat it!

2.) Sugar Babies
Although these aren't exactly retro, and are still easily found, they do take me back to a simpler time. Unfortunately, it happens to be a time when I used to get drunk with my friends and for some reason always craved these when I did. I can remember distinctly riding around in the back of my friend's Ford Escort, with a 2 liter bottle of Sun Country wine cooler in one hand, and pack of Sugar Babies in the other. My poor friend Amy later got grounded for 2 weeks because her dad found ground-in sugar-coated goodness all over the back seat. Stuff's impossible to get out, especially in the teeth; which is one reason my dental bills have been so high as an adult.

3.) Holly Hobbie

I LOVED anything Holly Hobbie when I was a kid. I had the Easy Bake Oven, the lunchbox, the little doll with the gazebo. I loved her so much, I even bought the gazebo off of ebay a couple years ago. It's currently sitting in a box in my garage. I haven't done anything with it, and let's face it, Molly is not big on dolls anymore, so why do I keep it? Dunno. But it's still there, for when I need it.

4.) "Little Professor" calculator


Remember this guy? I found one at the antique mall a while back, and one look at it made me feel like I was a kid again. It's amazing how electronics have grown; my kids get to play with the Wii, I had a calculator. Wheee.

5.) Tree Tots Treehouse

Ok, who did not have one of these? With the pop-up top, and the handle that you can carry it with you to Gramma's house, this was our version of the game-boy.

6.) Free To Be You and Me

This was a movie that we used to watch every year in school on the last day before Christmas break. (You know, back when you could call it 'Christmas Break' and not "Winter Festivus" for fear of offending someone?) It featured Marlo Thomas, Roberta Flack, and Rosey Greer, to name a few, and a young Michael Jackson, back when he was still black, and a male, and not looking like (to quote my daughter) 'something from Cat in the Hat'.

It's so funny how little things can take you back to your childhood; a song, a smell, a taste. It's comforting somehow I guess. I hope my kids have little things like that to look back on fondly. I just hope it's not anything to do with Paris Hilton.

2 comments:

Mandi said...

You know, you can buy a lot of candy "from when we were kids" (including candy lipstick) at B.A. Sweeties. Just off 480 (SW of Cleveland). Ask Jen about the Banana Runts!
http://www.sweetiescandy.com/

Mandi said...

Oh, and I LOVED my Little Professor too!! I asked for one for Christmas b/c my neighbor had one that I kept borrowing!!