I remember Velamints! They had that ultra-smooth texture and metallic tang of artificial sweetners.

You know what I was just remembering? When they had book orders in grade school, and you'd pick out a few cheap paperbacks from a super cool catalogue, then they'd come like six weeks later and it was like Christmas!

And the show 3-2-1 Contact! Does anyone remember that? There was a grey kitten in the opening sequence montage.

Remember swing-dancing, and CB radio?

I mostly remember toys, especially the ones with a distinctive, petroleum rich smell, like the green slime that came in little plastic trashcans. Also, Crazy Foam, and my hands-down favorite, Creepy Crawlers—in particular, the dreamily pungent Goop.

Brylcreem.

And my brother putting so much this shit on his hair that, at recess, after sweating a bit, it was oozing down his forehead.

Does that still happen?

Yes! So does swing-dancing, which we do. And contra dancing. Disco, not so much, outside of weddings. I kind of like the idea of creating Disco Dance Societies for oldsters like us, meeting every other Friday in a Grange hall and shaking booty.

Remember Swatches, and the trend of wearing a bunch of them? And rubber bangles?

Remember folding and rolling the ankles of your jeans so they looked pegged, setting off your ankle boots nicely?

Yes, Specklet, 3-2-1 Contact, they had the Bloodhound Gang, with Dunedin/Don Eden! Awesome!

They had Mathnet!

Whenever there's trouble, we're there on the double...

Swatches and Jellies were the perfectly accessorized combo. What were those things you bought for the Swatches? It was a little colored rubber band that fit over the crystal, totally obscuring the face of the watch, but making it cooler. I think I remember that the really cool kids would twist two together.

Remember SRA kits? You knew you were a nerd if you enjoyed doing them.

Also, Little Golden Books? I totally remember the metallic taste of the spines. I guess I literally devoured books as a young child.

I remember that, too, mudpuppie. I chewed all kinds of books. Those Little Golden Books were like biting aluminum foil.

Remember SRA kits? You knew you were a nerd if you enjoyed doing them

Oh GOD yeah. I loved those things! I remember graduating from one color to the next being pretty exciting, like when you had read all the blue ones and could go into orange. I really did like those things.

Oh I loved SRA kits.

The SRA people really hit the ball out of the park. It wasn't that the work was fun, it was that they added the tactile element -- it was going through the boxes that was fun! Sneaky. Very sneaky.

Rotary dial phones
Big banks of phones in airports
Phones with cords
People being paged in airports: "Please meet your party at baggage claim" or "Pick up a white courtesy phone"


Car windows that you cranked up and down with a handle
Driving into the gas station over the cord that went "ding"
Gas station attendants offering to check under the hood
Saying "Fill it up with unleaded"

Marathon Bars
Mars Bars
Tootsie Pop Drops
Turkish Taffy
Milkshake Candy Bar
Regal Crown Sours
Giant Sweettarts

Weekly Reader
The Electric Company (tv show)
Zoom (tv show)

I am so old.

Car windows that you cranked up and down with a handle

Oh come on, some cars still have this. My spouses' 2000 Honda Civic has this - it was either power windows or a CD player so he picked CD player.

You left off the list, "10 Airheads for a dollar". I remember when the price went up to 15 cents each and all the kids threw a fit.

And rubber bangles?

Rubber bracelets! I bought some in a cheapie mall boutique, and when I came home, Dad observed that they were just rubber O-rings. He took me to a handware store, where I bought dozens of 'em for a few bucks. I got thick ones, super-thin ones, and flat gaskets. I wore them stacked from wrist to mid-arm, mixed in with my two black Swatches.

Even earlier:

I remember in ye olde days before VCRs, our parents bought Disney LPs: long-playing records with the complete audio track for a given movie.

My favorite was The Jungle Book; when I finally bought the Jungle Book soundtrack on CD in my 20s, I was unsurprised but still sad to hear that they clipped out all the dialogue --- even the brief chat between Mowgli and Ballou that occurs between stanzas in "Bare Necessities."

setting off your ankle boots nicely?

OMG, I just suddenly remembered little elf boots with folded-over tops.

What were those things you bought for the Swatches?

Swatch guard!

Swatch guard! Thank you! That was going to bug me all day.

Shrinky-Dinks

Super Elastic Bubble Plastic (what were they thinking? Here, kid, inhale this tube of volatile solvents. Jesus Christ.)

"There's something about an Aqua-Velva man."

Portable backgammon sets! (They were EVERYWHERE.)

I have eight tubes of that bubble plastic gunk in my study right now! Santa left it in my stocking! I love that stuff! I will no doubt shrivel up from some novel respiratory ailment in my early 40s.

One of my most successful first dates was enhanced by that stuff. (Not like that, you perv.)

It was only about ten years ago. I'd been out of dating for a loooooong time, and I was nervous as heck, but getting into the swing of things as the evening went on.

We'd been walking around town all evening long after the movie, pawing through the toystores and the used CD shop, and ending up at the coffeehouse.

During our wandering, I had bought a tube of bubble plastic for 25 cents. I pulled it out and blew up a toxic goo balloon, and we bounced it around a bit between the two of us before I bounced it to the next table. They passed it back, and I passed it to yet another table.

Then I inflated more bubbles.

Within a few minutes, everyone in the coffeehouse (including the staff) was volleying plastic bubbles around and chatting and laughing. My date turned to me with simple, naked adoration and asked "When can I see you again?"

Too bad he turned out to be kinda a jerk. Oh, well, it was a fun night!