I am basically brain-dead right now after working all weekend and not having enough sleep. So I was trying hard to think of something worth writing, and there was very little brain activity going on. Then I saw an article on Dead Sodas. It’s a list of sodas that are no longer with us. Two very good examples are:
and
So, let’s get nostalgic here and open it up. What products that were around when you were a kid do you miss today? What was awesome to us that today’s children will never know the joy of? My first thought is Jarts (lawn darts). Completely dangerous and deadly, but really fun. Gone.
14 responses so far ↓
1 Kristen // Jun 25, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Slap bracelets: rumored to have slit a number of wrists but never witnessed by me.
Skip It: I honestly do not know if this still exists but it was pretty worthless so why am I mentioning it?
Po-Go Ball: looked like Saturn and did a number on your ankles
Bonkers: fruit chew snacks found in the fruit aisles in the grocery store. My mom always got them for us if we behaved while shopping with her. She also called us “bonker heads” when she handed them to us.
Glow Worm: a stuffed animal worm with a hard plastic body that lit up when you hugged it. Terrified me.
Jelly bracelets and shoes: the shoes were made of the same plastic the bracelets were…not comfortable in the least.
Hyper-color T-shirts: Let’s find the guy associated with allowing pre-pubescent teen-agers to wear clothing that changed colors when contacted with heat and moisture. Someone should have fired that guy.
The Banana Clip: Ok, these are still popping up all over the world in hair styles that should have been retired with Ronald Regan. Who am I to judge though?
The Snoopy Snow Cone Machine: best invention ever. I guess you can still find it on ebay but I wouldn’t recommend using the nostalgic flavor syrup included.
EZ Bake Oven: burning tiny hands all over the world.
The entire Hooked on Phonics program: Where did that go?
2 Barry Freed // Jun 25, 2007 at 2:43 pm
I think you can still find pogo balls around.
I think glo-worms are too.
Good call on the snoopy snow cone machine. That thing was awesome, but when you’re out of the stuff, where can you buy the refills?
3 jo // Jun 25, 2007 at 7:32 pm
I’m about to show my age so beware.
Purple Passion soda (http://cgi.ebay.com/PURPLE-PASSION-C-DRY-Crown-Bottle-Caps-Soda-Cap_W0QQitemZ330138437833QQihZ014QQcategoryZ35693QQcmdZViewItem)
Knockers(Clackers) - those glass beads that were connected by a string that you ‘knocked back and forth as fast as humanly possible to make that clack-clack-clack sound. Supposedly taken off the market as they ‘exploded’ and glass shards went in some kids eye. I was bitchen at those…bitchen I say!
Circus magazine
Garbage pail Kids
Mad magazine- as it used to be
Hunter S Thompson - as he used to be
Kick the can in the twilight, hiding in everyones yard…free as a bird, no one caring where you were Olly Olly All come free
Traveling carnivals - When they mattered. Cheesy prizes, parents dropped you off to spend all your ‘allowance’ on squirting the clown, tossing the dime in the center of the plate or shooting the star out of a piece of paper for an ugly bead filled toy.
I second both the easy bake and the snoopy snow cone maker and add shrinky dinks.
3-spd bike with sparkly tassles on the handlebars and a banana seat in PURPLE.
Super elastic bubble plastic
Gotta go have dinner now, my Dad is bellowing across the neighborhood.
4 Ruth // Jun 25, 2007 at 11:03 pm
In keeping with remembering products, I’ve always had a chocolate bar obsession and here are some I miss:
Marathon Bar
Hershey’s Bar None
Summit (also by Hershey’s I think, it was delicious!)
Hershey’s Golden Three
There’s more, but they aren’t coming to me right now. I miss Whatchamacallit before they added caramel (even though I love caramel) because it was beautiful. In fact, in about 1987 there was a caramel craze when they started adding caramel to everything. It was bizarre and really bummed me out.
Oh well.
If I think of more stuff I’ll comment again.
5 Anonymous // Jun 26, 2007 at 7:43 am
Ok soda! Oh where, oh where did you go?
6 Jason // Jun 26, 2007 at 2:05 pm
blowing up GI Joes with ladyfingers.
tying your sister’s barbie doll to a tree and then melting the neck with a bic lighter so the neck got reeeeeeally long, but didn’t break. (that freaked people out).
slot racers
those toy robots that walked around with sparks coming out of their mouths
capsela
crystal radio kits (those are probably still knocking around at hobby stores in White Plains or Helena, Montana)
punks - the kind that were basically cheap incense but you used them for lighting firecrackers.
Charlie Chans and Lemonheads
the penny candy store in Hull which was later shut down because it turned out the owner was using it as a front to sell heroin
Paragon Park - Nantasket beach was one of those shiveringly cool places that your parents would take you if you’d been reeeeeally good, or on your birthday, and that whole boardwalk was just one big huge kid paradise.
Jeez. I’m getting a little depressed!
7 Brooke // Jun 26, 2007 at 4:13 pm
First- I agree with Ruth on the Bar None…I loved that! Second- I think EZ bakes are still around…
I miss Chinese Fortune gum (in the orange wrapper for 1 cent!) though it may be around somewhere..
Tab and Hubba Bubba- I know they still exist but are so hard to find…
Baby Alive and My Child were great dolls…Baby Alive even went to the bathroom! I haven’t seen either of these in forever.
There are tons more, but that’s what I think of right away.
8 KTina // Jun 26, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Following Ruth’s chocolate run, Nestle’s Alpine White. White Chocolate with some kind of nut in it. DELICIOUS. They also had a great jingle for it, I can sing it to this day.
9 Jason // Jun 27, 2007 at 9:30 am
One more thing, what the HELL is in that bottle of Crystal Pepsi in that picture?? We had it in our vending machine in college, and it was CLEAR. That stuff looks like a bottle of water that someone’s been dropping cigarette butts into.
10 Sara // Jun 28, 2007 at 11:42 am
Those little wax Coke bottles with colored liquid in them.
Lik-m-aid (the candy sticks you dipped in a bag full of flavored sugar).
The “Barbie” head that was literally a life-size head & shoulders you put makeup on & did its hair…also came in a “Marie Osmond” version.
(And believe it or not, jelly shoes are not yet gone…saw them at DSW last week!)
11 Who let the cows out? I did, apparently. « A Year Here / A Year There // Jun 30, 2007 at 8:16 pm
[...] out? I did, apparently. 1 07 2007 So I was browsing a few blogs tonight and came across one funny post my friend Nate wrote about things from our childhood that no longer exist, like snap bracelets and [...]
12 Who let the cows out? I did, apparently. « A Year Here / A Year There // Jun 30, 2007 at 8:22 pm
[...] out? I did, apparently. 30 06 2007 So I was browsing a few blogs tonight and came across one funny post my friend Nate wrote about things from our childhood that no longer exist, like snap bracelets and [...]
13 Ruth // Jul 6, 2007 at 11:10 pm
OHMYGOD Brooke! BabyAlive! I had one of those. Its mouth moved and you’d “feed” it and it would “poop.” Holy hell.
I agree w/Jason on the crystal pepsi looking like someone used it as an ashtray and like Sara I also miss the wax coke bottles. The wax was grrrreat.
While I’m thinking of it, Freakies Cereal. We still have two or three Freakies magnets on the dryer in the basement at home in Nashville.
I seem to have no trouble finding Hubba Bubba - Target has it. And Lemonheads are still around, too…
And I seem to recall drinking a chocolate soda in 5th grade in Maryland - does that ring a bell for anyone?
14 Derek // Nov 12, 2008 at 11:26 am
Do you know how much Freakies cereal I had to eat in late 1974 to get all those plastic figures? God, I can’t believe it. As I recall it was similar to Cap’N Crunch in taste.
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