Monday Listicles - Mullets and More

Put your hair in your banana clip, your rear in some Jordache jeans, and your calves in their leg warmers, people.  We are talking Everything 80s for our Listicles topic this week.  Let's jump right on in. 

10.  The Limited Forenza sweaters.  My sister had one in every color, because she was fashionable like that.  Here she is in 6th grade sporting one for her school photo.

Isn't she cute, with the polo turned up, the cute hair, and, of course, the sweater?

9.  I got to sport some serious 80s fashion, too.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the coveted Forenza.  I had more of the fashionable redneck look going on.  The 80s couldn't be the 80s without

the terribly not cute mullet.  How are we even related?

8.  Too bad you can't see the jeans I was sporting in that photo.  They're pegged.

7.    The 80s was also the decade of my one and only Hollywood crush.  Bestill my heart, dearest Harrison Ford.  Oh, sweet Indy, what did Marion have that I didn't?  Shoot, I would have even played the part of Chewbacca if it meant getting to be with my Harry. 

6.  Hey, did you know that video killed the radio star?  Too bad reality TV killed the video star.   Can we start a petition for MTV to go back to its roots and play nothing but music videos?  Although, I don't know if I'd want the videos that musicians would have these days.   Nothing like Michael, Madonna, Prince, Wham, U2, Bon Jovi, Milli Vanilli, The New Kids on the Block, Cyndi Lauper, Huey Lewis, The Beastie Boys, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince...  Oh, it never ends.  I loved spending hours and hours and hours watching that channel.  Loved it.

5.  Speaking of music, our high school had sock hops after every football game.  We teens took over the gym and danced our hearts out, while the parents played cards in the cafeteria.  Don't get images of dorky kids in poodle skirts.  Even the cool kids went, and the only reason it was a sock hop is because the administration didn't want us to mess up their gym floor with shoes we wore to a football game.  Those hops will always have a place in my heart, as a sock hop is where I danced my first dance with Hubby.  One of the funniest things we remember about the sock hops was the song that got banned.  The DJ played Mony Mony by Billy Idol, and we all broke into the added unofficial lyrics (sang in a call/answer sort of way) "Hey! Hey! What? What? Get $(($*!  Get #*$*#*!"  And that was the end of that song.

4.  I did a lot of babysitting in the 80s, which meant I was up late most weekends.  Really, it's the only time in my life that I was up late and able to watch Saturday Night Live.   Which is good, because it was really funny (and popular) back then.  Between Eddie Murphy's Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood and Dana Carvey's Churchlady, there were some funny, funny skits.  Of them all, my favorite was Martin Short's Ed Grimley.  To Hubby's horror, "I must say" I was very good at mimicking that little jump Ed did. 

3.  Sure, we didn't have the Wii or XBox back in the day, but we had Pac-Man.  My siblings (and my mom, for that matter) spent hours playing that game.  The one and only time my siblings were excited about something I did was the day I flipped the score.  Everyone saw that I was getting close, so they huddled around me and my Atari joystick, watching and waiting.  When it finally happened (I don't even remember what the magic number was.  Maybe 100,000?) and the score went back to zero, cheers rang out.  I was cool.  But then we realized that all it meant was that I was back at zero again and the excitement really just petered out.  I was back to being my uncool older sister self.

2.  ABC After School Specials.  My parents had it so easy.  They didn't have to have a single difficult discussion with me.  Just flip on the after school special, and my learnin' was complete.  I learned about AIDS from transfusions, drug use, peer pressure, being kidnapped by strangers, drunk driving, and a plethora of other touchy topics.  Why did they go away?  I have to actually find natural, teachable moments to tackle these things with my own kids.  And the ones my parents didn't have to deal with on top of it.  Don't you sometimes wish there was an after school movie on the perils of sexting you could have your teenager watch?

1.  Holy cow, going through this list, it appears that I did nothing but watch TV throughout the entire decade.  But how could you not, when such good shows like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Family Ties and The Cosby Show were on?   Bill Cosby was huge back then.  Besides his show, I was first introduced to stand-up comedy with his Bill Cosby:Himself video.  (On VHS, not Beta.  Remember that?  You had to pick your alliance and pray that you were stocking up on the right kind of video.  Poor saps who chose Beta wasted a whole lotta cash.)  Can you imagine having to live like our children and not know that Will Smith had a huge career way before Men in Black was ever released and his daughter Willow ever started waving her hair?  I still know the theme song by heart. 

Yo homes, smell ya later!

Head over to the Listicle fun.  Be sure to visit the blog of the funny lady who came up with this idea.  I hear Kate is letting us all in on the many ways she failed at 80s fashion. 

Happy New Year!