Most of these come from the 1980s and 1990s because that's when I was a child and teenager
Pogs
Surge
Book It (see Pizza Hut)
Trapper Keepers
Fruitopia
Pizza Hut having sit down Restaurants that were special occassions. Your book it coupon hit differently when you were there. The red glasses, the pizza was actually fresh made
Pizza Hut's Land Before Time puppets (oh the stench of those things)
Saturday morning cartoons
Disney Afternoon (being a kid can suck, you get home from a tough day at school and there was Ducktales, Darkwing Duck, and Tailspin)
History on the History Channel
AMC showing movies like TCM & with no commercials
Educational programing on TLC
Music on MTV, and Beavis and Butthead (wasn't allowed to watch that, but I did. Only in recent years did I realize what a social commentary it was), and Aeon Flux
Beakman's World
Batman the Animated Series
The Simpsons (those first 10 seasons)
Not having internet at home until high school (1998, AOL still can hear that cross between a conch shell and stepping on a phone
Clear phones where you could see the diodes and circuit board
iMac bondie blue (my first home computer, Christmas 1998).
Being overawed in spring 1995 in Sixth grade when my Science teacher in Kansas City sent an email to a friend of his at NASA in Florida and getting a response back in the same 45 minute class period. You had to be there, trust me it felt like we had all seen the future.
A double quarter pounder extra value meal supersized at McDonald's for 6 bucks, and the way the fries used to taste
Being able to get 2 weeks of mostly healthy groceries (meats, veggies, rice, beans, pasta, fruits, and chips, pop, ice cream [like I said, mostly healthy, I was a kid) for two people for 60 bucks
Mom being in between jobs and not being hungry at dinner. I didn't piece together what that meant until years later. Its why mom lives with me after her stroke. She went without food so I'd have enough to eat. The least I can do is make sure she wants for nothing and has some dignity in her older years.
Christmas of 1993. No gifts, no fancy holiday food. Mom had just gotten a new job and her first paycheck was not in the bank yet The gifts mom could afford were the mortgage, the light, and heat and basic food on the table so we didn't go hungry. Well its Christmas eve that year, and it's getting to be about 9:30 or 10 at night and I hear the sound of someone knocking on the door. It was my uncle and aunt from Saint Louis. They had bought us a turkey, stuffing, pies, fruitcake, board games, legos, a science lab kit, and 300 hundred dollars "don't even think of paying it back. we don't want you to mother of Gibby."
