Spill The TEA

Growing up in the 80's

• TEA Sisters- Tracy, Kerri, Jodie, Mary, Laura • Season 3 • Episode 22

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Have a  bodacious time listening to Spill the TEA's  total blast from the past as our co-hosts reminisce about their childhood in the 80's. They share hilarious stories about everything from banana clips to their favorite hair bands. Grab a can of Jolt Cola and candy cigarettes and join us, we saved a seat for you...

Join us this fall at the 2025 Women Rise Retreat.  More information at www.growingwithtea.com.

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SPEAKER_01:

What grade were you all in in 1989?

SPEAKER_05:

Ninth grade.

SPEAKER_00:

Um you were two years ahead of me, Mary?

SPEAKER_05:

What year did you graduate?

SPEAKER_04:

92. Three years. Nine two.

SPEAKER_05:

So you were three ahead of me.

SPEAKER_00:

I was in eighth grade in 1989. And did you all have the big hair too?

SPEAKER_01:

Or was that just a high school thing? I tried.

SPEAKER_04:

But this fine this fine hair. And I'm not calling it fine hair. It's literally fine hair. It's a fine elevate.

SPEAKER_01:

Is it finer than frog's hair?

SPEAKER_04:

Is it finer than frost hair?

SPEAKER_01:

Frog's hair.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh frog's hair?

SPEAKER_01:

Have you never heard that express expression?

SPEAKER_04:

No, and if that's a ladies expression, it did not stick.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it must be a family expression. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00:

Jody, I'm looking somewhere on Facebook. I have my high school photo where badass. I'm gonna try to find it and send it to you. I have a leather jacket on and big hair in this photo if I can find it. Welcome back to spill the tea. We have just um suddenly dove down the rabbit hole like we usually do and started talking before we were really ready to start. So we are starting today. We are gonna talk about the 80s, and Jody is laughing hysterically. And I just sent her a picture of me, and I'm afraid. No, I found my picture. Oh, she's laughing.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh Jody, that is Jody. You look like facts of life.

SPEAKER_00:

You can see your picture.

SPEAKER_02:

I love it. The facts of life.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll be sharing our best photos of us from high school and the 80s. I feel like best, worst. Same guest.

SPEAKER_05:

And I would definitely look like a cast member from Facts of Life. Or who's the boss? She looks like Joe. She does look like Joe from Facts of Life. Yeah. Oh boy. Very much so.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a compliment. I thought she was beautiful.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, that is fantastic. Oh, ripped jeans. They're totally back.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Great jeans. I wouldn't wear those today.

SPEAKER_01:

I made them myself. And you know what? There's a funny story that goes with that. I was about to go get my um my senior pictures done, right? And I'm I'm leaving, and my dad stops me and starts yelling at me because I'm wearing these ripped jeans, these ripped bleached out jeans. I'm not paying for any pictures with those damn jeans. Dad, calm down. Here are all my clothes that I'm wearing. You but you get dressed when you get there. And so I was telling the photographer about it when I got there, and he said, you know, we got to do at least one picture in those jeans. If your dad doesn't like it, he doesn't have to pay for it. That was my dad's favorite picture. He carried that picture in his wallet for like 30 years.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, I love Jody knows best.

SPEAKER_01:

Right?

SPEAKER_05:

Who'd have thought they were even high-waisted pants too? I mean, they are 100% back in style. Yep, they are. Yeah. So I just Googled this really quickly because um I got on saying that, oh, I'm the baby of the bunch, so I was a little bit younger than the rest of you, but I 100% am right in Generation X. So anybody born between 1965 and 1981 is Generation X. I think that's all of us, right? Solid. Square in the middle. Yeah, we were those left home alone kids, yeah, Kool-Aid kids. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

I still love me some grape Kool-Aid. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

We used to make it by the we had the biggest. I mean, it must have been a gallon pitcher. I think it still is at my mom's. That's the orange Kool-Aid pitcher. It was a Tupperware pic pitcher. And I know just how many spooks go in with the little packets.

SPEAKER_00:

I remember I had a friend who had the actual like Kool-Aid mascot, like face on the pitcher of their Kool-Aid, and I remember being so jealous. So jealous of that picture when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_04:

Bunch of ballers affording that, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Tracy remember coming to my house and always ending up having cherry Kool-Aid.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh my gosh, whenever the kids were little, I would get to Laura's and it was cherry Kool-Aid in the pitcher.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Tracy.

SPEAKER_04:

Tracy does not tolerate cherry.

SPEAKER_02:

We do not. No.

SPEAKER_03:

Blue railsberry was the best.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Yep. God, I want to go get some Kool-Aid now. I'm craving it.

SPEAKER_04:

Still have some in my cupboard. Well, now you can put vodka in it.

SPEAKER_05:

You're old enough.

SPEAKER_00:

Kool-Aid has got better. Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Harry, I have to say, these are beautiful senior pictures. You're gorgeous.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. So just for our audience, um, what grade were you in in 1989?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh I think the one of me waiting with my notebook is in 1989 or 1988. Freshman year?

SPEAKER_05:

Oh Laura, you had such pretty hair.

SPEAKER_03:

Laura, you're beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

I love it. I love it. I love Laura's tie-dye shirt.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, I love that one. Where'd that one go? So in that picture, there is a phase bag, and Carl went and picked up chicken barbecue at West Sparta and they put it in a phase bag. I have not I have not seen a phase bag, phase pharmacy in decades.

SPEAKER_05:

Somebody got to the end of their bottom of their plastic bag stash, right? For real.

SPEAKER_04:

I said I showed it because my my mom and brother came over. I said, look at this. They don't have these anymore, do they? And you're and there's a phase bag in the in the picture.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. And you know what it's so durable. They're probably better than any bags you get now.

SPEAKER_02:

Wait, Mary's eating chicken barbecue?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, wait a minute, Mary. You're eating a chicken chicken barbecue.

SPEAKER_04:

I was not.

SPEAKER_03:

Nobody picked up on the chicken barbecue thing except Steve.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh yeah, we need to introduce our guest guy today. The very deep voices, Mr. Noel.

SPEAKER_04:

How appropriate that you are in a tie-dye in that one picture, Laura. Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I did wear a lot of them back then.

SPEAKER_04:

You know your tie-dyes. That's a nice t-shirt too. It's good color.

SPEAKER_05:

What grades were you guys in in 1989?

SPEAKER_01:

I graduated in 89. 89. Let's see. I have to do the math just to say that.

SPEAKER_00:

I was in eighth grade in 1990. Jody was a senior. Yep. I was a middle school baby.

SPEAKER_05:

I would have been what in sixth grade? Oh yeah. I graduated in 95? Sixth grade.

SPEAKER_03:

Going into seventh. I mean, I started in seventh grade.

SPEAKER_05:

Right. Right. Yeah. I was a rising seventh grader. Rising. That's what they would say down south. And I couldn't figure it out for a while. I was like, what are they doing?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, so I was a ri I was in eighth grade, so I was a rising high schooler. Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

An interesting word choice for the Southerners.

SPEAKER_05:

Interesting turn of phrase, but that's what they called it.

SPEAKER_03:

The only thing rising was our hairdo back then.

SPEAKER_04:

I think there were other things rising. It was. And how and what product did you use? What was the name brand that got that height?

SPEAKER_00:

Aqua. I think it was the purple can, by the way. I think it was purple.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I think mine was white.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I bet you that's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03:

Wasn't there a product called Rave?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Rave had a better smell. Uh it came out after Aquanet and it it combated the bad smell of AquaNet.

SPEAKER_05:

What if your mom did something like that you finesse that didn't work?

SPEAKER_04:

Or it was in a spritz bottle.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it like and sprayed a little. It wasn't a good spritz bottle either. It was like somebody just spit on you.

SPEAKER_04:

And then that lacks down the height. Again, fine hair here. I think I also remember not get much elevation.

SPEAKER_00:

Remember salon selectives.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, they smelled good.

SPEAKER_00:

I did. Yeah. That was if mom was being really nice. She might have bought you that because it smelled better. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

But she got sick. I mean, I bet Aquanut to our parents was like axe was to us.

SPEAKER_00:

Could be. I mean, think about if you were invested in Aquanut in the 80s. Like I had a can of Aquanut in my book bag, one at home, one in my locker.

SPEAKER_05:

Carries carries, carrying around small bombs. Because that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You know, leaving it in a hot car, all those things.

SPEAKER_05:

You remember things that you could do with AquaNet. You could shellac. You could use it to um launch potatoes out of a potato gun.

SPEAKER_00:

You could start a really big fire with them if you had a lighter.

SPEAKER_05:

You could use it as a flamethrower.

SPEAKER_01:

Not that we're endorsing that.

SPEAKER_05:

We are not, but these are all things I've seen Aquanut do.

SPEAKER_04:

These are the things we did because we were not supervised.

SPEAKER_00:

I remember spraying some on a mirror and lighting it on fire to see watch what it did.

SPEAKER_05:

Little say the mom in me was like, I was gonna put another house.

SPEAKER_04:

We're gonna light it on fire. That's awesome. Speaking of hair, when I was younger, younger, third, second grade, I used to get curls by putting rags in my hair. Did anybody ever do that?

SPEAKER_05:

That's like little house on the prairie. Totally, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I've done that recently.

SPEAKER_05:

I've seen that recently too on ways to curl your hair. I would get perms. Did anybody else get a spiral perm?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh god, yes. All the time. So my hair wouldn't hold perms again.

SPEAKER_03:

Did you try to elevate?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I've given a lot of perms. I've done a lot of perms. My mom, sisters, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, you gave them to people, Laura?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh yeah. Oh, that's one.

SPEAKER_01:

No. I don't need one anymore. My hair, I got older and my hair got curly. Was it an ogal V home perm?

SPEAKER_03:

It sure was. So good.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh gosh, they were horrible smelling. Just about as good as the Aquanet.

SPEAKER_00:

So my hair was curly. And so you can see in the pictures I shared with you, I got perms because my mom thought I needed them. And so then my hair was just like total frizz. I could never control it. And so it was perm on top of curls. Curls, yes. Whoa. Yes, I have natural curls. Like if I just let my hair dry and I, you know, scrunch it up, I have curly hair. I can have curly hair pretty easily. But no, I was perming it also.

SPEAKER_03:

It's like ruining the curls.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04:

Or confusing the curls.

SPEAKER_02:

I remember confusing them.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you remember the Aussie scrunch spray? It was a what? The Aussie scrunch spray that came in a purple bottle.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh yeah, like that would only be if I went to a friend's house.

SPEAKER_00:

I more remember sun in.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh yeah, sun in. Another woo.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, so couldn't afford that. So how about some lemon juice? Lemon juice, too. Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

My hair turned bright orange when I tried to use sun in.

SPEAKER_03:

How about how about baby oil to get a tin?

SPEAKER_05:

On a black tin roof, yeah. On a on a black roof.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Talk about sunburn.

SPEAKER_04:

So I was recently in a conversation with uh ladies that maybe I don't know how old they are, they were work ladies, and they said that they used to do baby oil and turmeric.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, to give it some color.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, to give themselves a tan.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, the turmeric would probably give them like would act probably like um bronzka, like give you some yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I I thought I have never heard of that. I thought I've heard of it all.

SPEAKER_01:

I heard of coffee oil and um iodine.

SPEAKER_05:

I've heard of the iodine before too. This should be a warning. These are all things that you should never do.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. Maybe is there a warning you can put on the podcast when it's you know, when you use strong language, you put a warning on it. These are you don't light mirrors on fire.

SPEAKER_05:

You want me to put don't be a dumbass warning on you?

SPEAKER_03:

A potato gun. Oh my gosh, so much fun.

SPEAKER_04:

Don't be a jackass.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I was gonna ask, do you guys remember all of the weird like plastic jewelry? Like I remember having like these weird colorful plastic bracelets, earrings, and bracelets that snap together and charms and the little snap bracelets, yeah, and plastic shoes called jellies.

SPEAKER_05:

Jelly shoes. Little torture devices that were slippery. So slippery blisters.

SPEAKER_03:

I wear them shoes to Mary's house.

SPEAKER_05:

On the bicycle. Like on a bike?

unknown:

Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

How badly did you get blisters?

SPEAKER_03:

Um, considering that I used my feet as brakes. I was pretty stupid when we got home.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh no. Oh my goodness, your little feet must have been raw.

SPEAKER_03:

I just recently told my mom about that trip to Mary's house. We were way too little to go that far.

SPEAKER_04:

When I think about growing up in the 80s, I think about free range parenting, that we just did not have the supervision. And I'm not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, it's a I survived, but that's one thing I remember, Laura, that you mentioned about bike riding. Uh, I remember being signed up for swim lessons in the summer in Olean. And Will and I rode our bicycles from Black Creek to catch the bus in Cuba on State Route 305.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, we walked up and down 305 and rode bikes on 305. So for those of you who aren't from around here, it's a state route and it's a it's a main thoroughway.

SPEAKER_04:

55 miles. It's five.

SPEAKER_05:

It's 55 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_04:

It's five and a half miles from Black Creek. And yeah. And we would ride the bicycle, catch the bus, ride the bicycle back.

SPEAKER_05:

We would walk from my house down to the Black Creek post office to the candy store and back.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow, that is a hike.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

There was a candy store there. Mm-hmm. Botenz's. It was the post office and uh general store.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and there was like penny candy in there.

SPEAKER_04:

Gumball machine, along with that free range parenting. When you came home when the street lights came on. Oh yeah. And my road had a street light. I mean, I grew up pretty rural, but I live in the berg of Black Creek, and street lights came on, that's when you came home. And you weren't allowed to come home before.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, you weren't allowed to come home. You could come home, but you better not be coming inside because you're letting the air out. And if you were inside for lunch, the time of lunch, God help you if you opened up the refrigerator and didn't have a succinct plan, right? Get in and get out.

SPEAKER_04:

I had we had a refrigerator that would then shut, and then the suction of it would be impossible to open, but so we would wrench on it. And I can remember my mother saying, No get off, it's too late, or something like that. So you had to wait for it to like calm down and then be able to open it up without any resistance.

SPEAKER_05:

I grew up on a farm, so if you needed a drink or something, you went down to the barn and drank out of the hose. Like I've I've been seeing all these TikToks, these funny TikToks about drinking out of the hose, and you know, the little kid making them drink first so they got the warm nasty one.

SPEAKER_04:

That's very true, and it tasted like the hose. Yeah, yeah. I've seen one like that. Oh a funny TikTok of sorts, but well, and you didn't want to dirty a glass, so you just stick your mouth under the faucet.

SPEAKER_05:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, I guess maybe because I had to do dishes. I didn't want to do more dishes than I had to. But I think we were the first generation that had two parents working predominantly.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And I don't know if it was uh what's that it was a result of that why the parenting technique was pretty loose.

SPEAKER_05:

Suck it up.

SPEAKER_00:

When you were talking about riding your bike, Mary, I used to have to ride my bike to soccer practice back then. I was riding my bicycle every morning at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. or whenever practice started to practice. And I remember the ride home was always the worst because our coach worked us out, and then I had another workout ahead of me before I got home. The other thing, uh, two parents, so both of my parents did work, and I remember one of the things that I treasure now is um I always knew if my dad was on the sidelines because unlike a lot of the other dads, my dad had kind of a professional career where he had to wear a suit and tie. And so whenever we had a game, I would scan the crowd. And if I saw a suit and tie, I knew it was my dad. That's a sweet memory.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

When I was born, my father was in his 40s, and so when I probably in 1989, he retired, and so so then I had a dad that was home. So maybe so maybe both of them didn't work for the most part. I don't know. I guess for the first years of my life, both of them were working, and then and then my dad retired in 88.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, they worked at the same place.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, they did work at the same place. Yes, they did.

SPEAKER_03:

They must have all been into like investing and doing different things to be able to retire that y'all. Do you know what I mean? Because it's very odd now in this day and age to retire at that age.

SPEAKER_04:

So uh I my understanding is that he received a severance package to you know, retire.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, really? Thanks.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Yeah, like it's time for you to go kind of thing. Where you know, you you are more expensive than a a new suit would be. So wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Mary, did your mom work at Acme Electric? Do I remember? She did. Yeah, so that's where my dad worked. My mom worked there too. He was a he was a manager, he was the data processing manager. Your mom did too. No, I'll have to ask her. I if I think you have before, and she remembered my dad. You know, knew of him. I don't think that they like knew each other, but sure, sure.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I used to go there quite often to help her at work, you know, as she'd get she'd give me things to do. Hopefully I was productive. But and sometimes when when the pipes would freeze or the electric was out, that we would go and wash up at the acme bathroom.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Then I'd go to school because the school was across the way from there. Yeah. And so it was walkable. And speaking of that, I remember getting rides to school, and we would also take the neighbor, and there was not enough room in the truck, and so I sat on someone's lap.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, yeah, there was no such thing as seatbelts. We would pack all my cousins in one car. We'd be lap sitting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So scrunch everybody in. Thinking of Cuba and um where most of you went to school, and our parents, my my parent working in Cuba. One of the things I remember um probably in the 80s that was really cool about Cuba was their Dairy Week fair. And I think because my father worked over there, maybe he got some special tickets, or I don't know, but I know we always went, and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing in the world to get to go to Dairy Week fair, like almost every night, like three nights a week. And my parents would be there, you know. I think they had bands and stuff, and us kids would get I'd get a friend and we'd get to go over and get free reign of this carnival for night.

SPEAKER_05:

When I was little, it seemed so big. It seemed so big when I was, and I know it's got gotten smaller, I know it got smaller as the years went on, but my memories of it was like it's comparable to a large theme park.

SPEAKER_00:

One of the games I remember that I loved, and I still think that we have some things from it, was this I don't know if you threw balls or change or what, but you threw it on like dinner like plates and cups. Do you remember those? No, like uh like dishes, like they would be stacked and you tossed them and stacked and you tossed something, and if I don't know, something hit a certain way, you either like maybe there was a cup on top of a set of plates, you could win a plate, and maybe they were different colors, and so we I don't know. That's what I remember.

SPEAKER_05:

I remember coming. I remember always going to the the game where you could get the small mirrors. This would have been in the 80s, like with your favorite band, because I had like Guns and Roses. Yeah, that was the only one that I ever won, but yeah, or you could get the posters, you could get the glass mirror with your band's name on it, or you could get the big posters. And it had a cardboard frame, a white cardboard frame. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you get that darts? You threw darts at the posters? And if you got the poster that your dart landed on, or something?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. If you hit something special, yeah. If you hit something special, what teen beat posters did you guys have hanging in your rooms? Kirk Cameron.

SPEAKER_00:

I hate to say this, but in the early 80s, I had like wrestling folks. Do you remember? Oh, you had wrestlers. Do you remember the midnight rockers?

SPEAKER_04:

I don't, but Melissa was into wrestling and or watching wrestling. I was in proximity to that.

SPEAKER_00:

And then at some point in my 80s, I was in, I think it was in Rochester with my friend, my friend Carrie J. So if you're listening, Carrie J, I think I was with her. We were in a mall and I went into like a public bathroom, and someone had left their package like up on top of the metal toilet paper thing, something they had bought in the mall, and it was this small little plastic bag. And I was like, Oh, I wonder what that is. Somebody left something, and I grabbed it and it was a guns and roses cassette tape, and it changed my life.

SPEAKER_02:

Changed my life.

SPEAKER_01:

I was like, this is well the person who the person who left it in there is listening to the podcast going, you bitch!

SPEAKER_00:

That was fine. I will I will try to find one and send you one if you want to claim it as yours.

SPEAKER_05:

Remember, you could go to the mall and get a single. It's a single cassette.

SPEAKER_04:

It was a single cassette, really?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. So you could afford them as a young kid. At least that's what I thought.

SPEAKER_05:

There was also, remember, you get the flyers in the mail and you would pick like 30 little stamps. This might have been 90s and not 80s. You pick 30 stamps and you punch CDs in the mail, and then they would bill you for the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Columbia.

SPEAKER_05:

Columbia, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

I was allowed to do that. I was warned by my parents that if I did that, I was gonna be in deep you know what.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, for a penny.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I always wanted to though. I would put the stamps on, like these are the ones I would get if I could.

SPEAKER_04:

Like going through the Sears catalog, picking out the toys you wanted for Christmas or for any reason.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. That was the biggest, heaviest book, too. The Sears catalog. And remember, I remember when a class having to learn how to use the order form in a Sears catalog. Really? Yeah. Interesting. Be homic. I don't know. I remember that was one of our assignments was having to go through a Sears catalog and making and order. Filling it out. Maybe it was English class we had to do a catalog. Yes, because we had to do catalog order, then we had to write a complaint letter because our order came back. This was Mrs. Boten's. If you're out there, Mrs. Boten's listening to this, I remember, I remember having to make the catalog order and write the complaint letter. Awesome. And request a refund.

unknown:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05:

That is a life skill I've used. Not the catalog so much, but the complaint letter.

SPEAKER_01:

What kind of shows do you watch in the 80s?

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, I love the cartoons in the 80s. I love the Smurfs. I love He-Man. I love Shera. Well, those probably were my best ones.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't remember Care Bears. I don't remember cartoons. I remember TV shows like The Facts of Life and I know that song's stuck in my head now. The Cosby Night Rider. The Cosby Show. Different Stroke.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Magnum P.I. Love Boat.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, the Love Boat. Fantasy Island. De Plain. De Plain.

SPEAKER_03:

I loved those shows.

SPEAKER_05:

Um 21 Jump Street, Laura? Is that one you liked? I never got I never saw that when I was little.

SPEAKER_03:

I like Annie Tatum. How about Growing Pays?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. And who's the boss?

SPEAKER_00:

Hazard the 80s, or was Dukes of Hazard?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh yeah, that was like that was early 80s and one of my favorites. Dukes of Hazard and Chips Patrol. Oh and Miami Vice.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, Miami Vice. Chips was on the dungeon. It was like 11, 11 o'clock. I remember in the summers watching it when I was home alone because my parents were at work. That was like one of the things I did was watch chips and maybe like um oh, what is that show that was on at noon? The game show. Price is right. Price is right. Yeah. Let's make a deal. Yeah, Bob Barker. I would watch Price.

SPEAKER_05:

Bob Barker was a babysitter if you were sick. Who watched soap operas? Yes. Yeah. Guiding light. Guiding lights. Soap operas. I watched that well in.

SPEAKER_00:

I watched it till it ended. It was it was a family thing and in my like my grandma watched it. Same watched it.

SPEAKER_05:

I watched it was a generational show for us too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, my kids watched it. We all talked about it.

SPEAKER_05:

Laura and I talked about guiding light.

SPEAKER_04:

Now I had television through an antenna. And I got channels two and four and only seven in the wintertime. So I called it two, four, and snow. Yep. Same.

SPEAKER_05:

We had the same TV package.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, that's great. Free. Free, free, free. Free, free. Yeah, free, free.

SPEAKER_05:

And we finally got the antenna. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01:

On Sundays, the only thing on was bowling.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. I remember when um I think we already had cable, maybe, but I remember the day that MTV went live. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

I did not. I only got to see MTV at friends' houses.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. And I and I think I remember when Nickelodeon went live too. Oh well. Yeah. I remember it being like, oh, this is like an exciting thing I've got to do. Watch this thing, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

I I remember when uh Michael Jackson's video thriller came out on MTV. That was huge. That was a big deal. Everybody was in front of their TVs waiting for that.

SPEAKER_00:

We remember when MTV actually had videos. Right? In VJs. In VJs, yeah. VJs.

SPEAKER_05:

Why did they give up videos?

SPEAKER_00:

They were fun.

SPEAKER_05:

They do them still sometimes. There's still some songs that have videos. Because I saw one with Darius Rucker. He filmed it by my house in South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00:

But where do they play them? Not on MTV. Like, how do you watch one now? VH1.

SPEAKER_05:

It's still for Gen X.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think I don't think BH1 plays videos either. Music. I don't. DMT I think does in the morning.

SPEAKER_01:

What was that song? Um something soup. Bowling for soup? The eight. Oh shoot. There was a line in there. Do you remember, you know, back in the day, basically? And one of the lines was when there was music still on MTV.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's funny. That's super funny.

SPEAKER_04:

I know what song you're talking about, Jody, but I don't think it's close enough in my memory to grab. I'll think of it. If my dad was watching TV, we had to watch what he was watching. There was one television.

SPEAKER_05:

And that was the hierarchy for us as well.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. He you better shut up when dad is watching TV.

SPEAKER_04:

Don't ask him any questions when the news is on.

SPEAKER_01:

Commercial commercial.

SPEAKER_04:

No help with homework. And on Sundays it was Hee-Haw.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, yeah, we watched Hee-Haw. I loved Hee-Haw.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, in uh Animal Wild Kingdom. Animal Kingdom.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, with Jack Anna.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. In my and then the Disney movie would always come on after that. Or yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

What about after school specials? Wasn't that the coolest thing when you got home and there was an after school special?

SPEAKER_01:

It was so special.

SPEAKER_05:

It was so special.

SPEAKER_01:

Always had like important message. I felt like I hit the jackpot.

SPEAKER_05:

Me too. It was like after school special.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you guys record your favorite TV shows on VHS? We didn't even have a VHS.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, then I wonder when was later.

SPEAKER_00:

We did. I used to record like 90210. We would record guided light, I would record guiding light for my mom because she was at work. So that was always programmed into our VCR so that she could watch it.

SPEAKER_05:

I don't think we had a VCR until I it was late mid-90s, until I was closer to graduating.

SPEAKER_01:

We did not have a VCR, but my mom worked next to a very, very nice doctor, and he had a VCR at in his office. And on the weekends, he would let her bring it home. So she would go to the video store and she would buy videos, rent videos, and bring home a VCR. And we would, it was just the coolest thing ever.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_04:

I can't think when what age I was when we got our first VCR, but I remember I remember getting it in Olean or the rental. It was next to I think there was oh the palace. The palace theater. Yeah. There was a there was a video store next next to there. And I remember Will and I got a horror movie and it was horrible. Why would I get a horror movie? I don't like those.

SPEAKER_00:

We don't remember what it was. All of our electronic equipment like that at a store that was in Wellsville called Super Sound. The guy that owned it just lived next door. So that was our go-to spot.

SPEAKER_04:

There was a place called Brand Names, where it's kind of like Amazon, only in person, where you would go look at the catalog, say I want this item. They'd go back into the vast inventory and bring the product out, and then you could scope it out and then decide to purchase.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. I remember brand names. I remember some store being like G. GNG. Oh, yeah, I remember G. That was like where I got all my cool clothes. And there was another one that was cool in the mall, but I can't remember what that one was called. There was GNG and another one.

SPEAKER_05:

GNG, it had like it was the first time I went into a dressing room and it was all mirrors, and there was it was an open room.

SPEAKER_00:

It was not you had to get naked in front of other people.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes, it was just an open room of mirrors.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I didn't remember the name, but I remember that because it's startling. What is happening? You expect me to do this in front of people?

SPEAKER_05:

You just kind of it was like funhouse mirrors all the way around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Chess King was in the in there in the 80s too, right? For men, chess king. Yeah, chess king. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00:

Gosh, I can't remember what that other store was called. It's gonna where was it? It was there was the G and G store, and then I think there was another one like across the way that was also cool, like you know, young women's clothing, but I can't know fashion bug used to be in there.

SPEAKER_05:

Fashion bug, yes, yeah. Maurice's was in there too, wasn't it? Yeah, I feel like that's later. Was it later?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, you're in the 90s, you're not allowed to talk about that. This is about the 80s.

SPEAKER_05:

Sorry, we'll do a whole nother decade.

SPEAKER_00:

Hills, I remember Hills was there.

SPEAKER_02:

Hills, oh yeah, Hills was in the mall.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you go and get a pretzel, a soft pretzel and a uh cherry or coke slushy for like less than a dollar.

SPEAKER_00:

And there was some KB toys.

SPEAKER_01:

KB toys, yes, I love KB.

SPEAKER_00:

And there was a movie theater and McDonald's and a Ponderosa in our room. Car Mike. And you can Jody up in there in the 80s.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. I have a candle that smells like hills. It's a hills, um, so it smells like the blue slushy and pretzels. Did it I brought it to your house, Jody? You did? I did, and we lit it. We lit it on fire. Did we? With aquanut. I wanted a big flame.

SPEAKER_01:

Why don't I remember that, Mary? How long ago was it?

SPEAKER_04:

It was when we played that murder game. Oh. So it was it was a couple years ago. It was winter time.

SPEAKER_01:

Was I drinking?

SPEAKER_04:

Um, I'm guessing, yes. Okay, but maybe it just didn't stand out as um a cool experience for you.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel terrible because I loved Hills.

SPEAKER_05:

Who else used blue eyeliner? Oh, has not sent. I used blue eyeliner.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, blue eyeliner when I was little.

SPEAKER_05:

Because my mom had blue eyeliner. I remember putting it on. My mom being like, Why do you have the purchase?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think I had blue eyeliner, but I had blue eyeshadow.

SPEAKER_05:

Blue eyeshadow.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Nice. Like Mimi. Do you remember all those weird, like greasy gloss lip glossers that were like cherry flavored, Tracy? Or strawberry.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes. Oh my goodness, they hurt your lips too. Who else crimped their hair?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah. I didn't ever use a crimper. I was gonna ask, speaking of hair, if you remember these, they were these barrettes and you bought them, but you had to do work before you wore them. You weaved some um ribbon through them, and then they had these strands that hung down. So, like oh, I've never heard of that. Ribbon would be like white and blue, and you would wrap it around this barret, and then the strands would hang down in your hair. So it was really cool, or at least I thought it was in the 80s.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I think it sounds cool.

SPEAKER_05:

In the 80s, going to the carnival, you could also win feathers that came on a clip, which later in life I used the clip for something else. But at the time, I thought it was a hair clip with the feathers, and you could always tell like a couple days after the carnival because all the girls would have different feathers if they if they won them. My other favorite accessory, Kerry US favorite accessory. I love the banana clip. And in fact, if I found a banana clip, I'd probably wear it. I like them. They sell them on Amazon. Do they? They make that they make almost like a mohawk look. I love it. In the back of your head, yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

It looks like a a ponytail, but it makes your hair look really long because it connects all the way down to the base of your skull.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes. I'm gonna get on there, Jody, and get us banana clips.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, I got in trouble. This would have been in the 90s, though, Mary, but I would call friends and uh I would have to call friends in Rushford. It would make a really bad phone bill because our schools merged um in between the time I was in middle school and high school. And um, once that happened, if you needed to call somebody from the other town, you incurred a lot of extra charges.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, it was long distance.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, it was long distance. Or did you ever call home or call somewhere, collect? It'd say, call me, then hang out. No, or this is Tracy. Hang out. Did you ever do that care? Yes, come get me now.

SPEAKER_01:

Believe it or not, our school was long distance from where we lived because we lived in Cuba in Henn's Dale, it was long distance. So when we got home from a game or a guard show or whatever, we would call collect, and the parents wouldn't accept. They would just know, okay, they're they're at the school, we'll go pick them up.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I think it used to ask Jody, like, what is your name? And you'd instead of saying it's Jody, you'd say, Come pick me up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You have a call from come pick me up. Will you accept the charges?

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, there was a funny commercial a couple of years ago. It was probably during the Super Bowl where the guy calls and then it calls home collect, and it's like, oh, we just had the baby, blah, blah, blah. And it gives them all the the whole information.

SPEAKER_04:

Fits it all in.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Who made crank calls? Because at the time there was no caller ID.

SPEAKER_05:

Yes, crank calls, your refrigerator's running. Getting that feeling in your belly like you were doing the worst thing ever.

SPEAKER_04:

The worst thing. Oh my gosh. And I only ever did it with friends.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, yeah, yeah. It's not like you sit at home alone and we're making prank phone calls.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, how horrible. And it really is. I'd be so annoyed if I were an adult, right? I I remember actually it being a vicious way for girls to attack other girls in my school. Oh, yeah, that is amazing. If you knew a girl liked a boy or like that specifically, I think remember that happening too. Oh the girls would call me because you know they were trying to tear me down because I don't know, they knew I liked a boy or they thought a boy was interested in me. And I just remember it being a horrible parents getting those calls. And like you mentioned, you know, parents weren't home. So that kind of thing could just like go on all day. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, even though there was only one telephone in the house. Oh, we had a lot of siblings. When you had siblings and you needed to make a phone call. Oh, when you're on the bottom of the totem pole. Wait a minute.

SPEAKER_01:

Are you telling me that you all had your own phone lines? Oh god, no.

SPEAKER_05:

That was a drink. One phone, one phone in the whole house.

SPEAKER_01:

No, that's true.

SPEAKER_05:

Not long enough.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I'm saying you had one phone, one phone for your whole family. We were on a party line. We had two other families on our phone. Oh, well, we did in the beginning, in the in the early years.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I remember my grandmother had that, and I used to love to go over to her house and slowly pick up the receiver and put the thing down so I could listen, but they could not hear me. And I would just listen to other people's conversation.

SPEAKER_04:

That sounds really fun, even though the conversation is grown-up stuff. It was.

SPEAKER_00:

They were like, I don't think I ever heard anything that was worth anything hearing. They were talking they were talking about days of our lives.

SPEAKER_04:

So you were totally engrossed.

SPEAKER_00:

What they ate for dinner or something, you know, like nothing. Nothing steamy. No, nothing scandalous, unfortunately. I'd always hoped. But the other thing um it's this is reminding me of is that my dad, or maybe it was my brother, some point in the 80s, I think it was my dad, got a C B. Oh, a C B, yeah. Yes. When my parents were not home, my brother and his friends used to get on it and like talk to all these truckers. And then me and my my girlfriend thought, well, we're gonna talk to the truckers. Oh no. Did you create a handle?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't I don't I can tell you, I don't remember what ours was, but I remember that my brother's and his friends were jockstrap. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh god. Tracy, you said you pegged your pants.

SPEAKER_00:

You did.

SPEAKER_04:

You called it pegging. I called it the pinch and roll.

SPEAKER_05:

You could pinch and roll, but we called it pegging. Us youngsters called it pegging. Those under three or you're three years behind. Three years. But did you we came up with it on the bus, Mary, after you left?

SPEAKER_00:

You little snots. Did you guys not only peg and roll, but also tape? We did do tape. We used to because you know how you would fold you would you would roll it and like fold it so it would be tight at the bottom and then one more fold. But then that would always over the course of the day, it would always loosen a little. And but and then you pulled your socks up over that. So we used to put tape around that fold so that it would not come undone during the day.

SPEAKER_05:

That's crafty. No.

SPEAKER_00:

All of us, what I remember is playing soccer, that we would steal the that white athletic tape, or we would buy some or whatever, but that's what we all use to tape our pants. I never taped my pants. Well, we did.

SPEAKER_05:

Jody, did you have leg warmers?

SPEAKER_04:

Oh god, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. I had one hair, but I remember I didn't like them. Do you remember having, and I thought I was super cool when I had them. And I probably got them at that store we were talking about in the only in center mall. Gigi's or whatever it was. Chah remember what it's called. Um, they were black leather pants at the height of Michael Jackson's thriller. And I think it was the coolest, you know what, in those pants.

SPEAKER_05:

You like serious pants, Carrie?

SPEAKER_00:

I had a pair to dress up in serious pants. I did at that point in time. They were black pleather, and I thought they were the coolest thing. And I remember when I finally outgrew them that I was quite sad about it.

SPEAKER_05:

Jody, who is your your favorite hair band, your favorite hair metal band? Who is your favorite?

SPEAKER_01:

Mine?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I'd have to say Molly Crew. Love Molly Crew. Poison and Cinderella were pretty awesome too, but it was all oh yeah, for me, baby.

SPEAKER_04:

I would agree with that. I had something interesting happen. My sister and her husband, so there was a big age difference. So she was married and when I was I was in her wedding, so I was little in high school. They took me to a white snake concert. Oh, white snake. Now, what was interesting is a couple weekends ago we were headed heading down to Black Creek to the grave site and where my sister's ashes are, and the white snake song came on on our way down there.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we were going down there to do the the flowers because we didn't make it for memorial weekend, and uh and so this white snake song came on, and I thought, holy crap, she was saying hello.

SPEAKER_02:

She was yeah, it was really cool. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00:

How about you too? I remember loving Skid Row, it was one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_02:

Skid Row.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I also really liked the band Warrant, but I too they played at St. Bonaventure, and Eddie Money opened up for them, and there was a bomb threat, and they had to evacuate the center where the concert was being held. And me and my girlfriends were like, We're gonna go meet the band. And so we went around out back and we did meet the band. We got their autographs, and my mom even met that's so fun. My mom met some of the band too, so we got it was fun.

SPEAKER_04:

Bon Jovi. I love Bon Jovi. Who didn't?

SPEAKER_05:

Death Leopard. Love Death Leopard. I love Guns N' Roses, but that might have been more 90.

SPEAKER_04:

Z Z Tap. I liked oh it just it had just come to me. Um Boy George. Oh yeah. Wait, Culture Club. That's that it was called Culture Club.

SPEAKER_00:

When I was really young, I remember really loving Joan Jet.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, yeah, she's a she's you dressed like her.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

With those pleather pants. I know it was Michael Jackson that you were channeling, but come on, Joan Jett.

SPEAKER_00:

You love rock and roll, right? Yeah. How about? I'm sure you guys remember this too, but do you guys remember getting to go skating in the 80s? Roller skating. Roller skating, yeah. Yeah. The roller rink.

SPEAKER_04:

Did you come over to Cuba to do that? I did not. Couple skate. Um couple skates was a lonely time for me. Me too.

SPEAKER_02:

Me too.

SPEAKER_01:

All my friends would get picked up, and I would be the only one sitting there with nobody.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, that's why we're all friends now. We're all the skate rejects. We are the yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, isn't it so sad that we all think that? That that's how we all felt at that time because we were all fine young ladies. You bet. We were probably too strong-minded for yes. We should have just picked each other up and been like, skate with me. This would be more fun. Right.

SPEAKER_05:

It would have been much more fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it should have been called friends skate. We were like, how old were we instead of couples? Like, why are we teaching those young kids to couple up?

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Back in the day, you were. You did. That was your objective. Yeah. No. But now that I think about that, that's how young were we? And we were we were telling kids to couple skate.

SPEAKER_04:

So relieved for all skate. But just say no to drugs.

SPEAKER_00:

Just say no to couple skate. Um amazing. Can you put that on a plate? Just say no to couple skate.

SPEAKER_04:

It's going on on a um on a teacup. Yes.

SPEAKER_05:

Try to get a little Nancy Reagan face next to it.

SPEAKER_00:

This is your brain on drugs. We need some fry pads. Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh my gosh, I remember that so well. I bet if I went to my mom's house and to the toy box that I will I would find toys that I played with.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, they sucked their thumb. Uh-huh. Oh, okay. I remember them now. Yes. How about sticker books? Did you guys have sticker books?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my goodness. We had the scented stickers. Yes. We had um our notebooks in school, and they had ones that smelled like band-aids and fresh cut grass and popcorn and chocolate and jelly and yes. Skunk. Skunk. Yep.

SPEAKER_04:

The stickers are the notebooks.

SPEAKER_02:

The stick stickers.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay, take them off your papers that you got from school.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Okay. And the smelly markers. I'm just thinking as we're doing this podcast, all of these like toxic chemicals we were rubbing on ourselves and smelling and putting in our toes.

SPEAKER_04:

We were we were the generation they experimented on.

SPEAKER_05:

How about you're dangerous? No wonder I can't find my coffee.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, how about this? Do you guys remember writing notes to your BFF and then like folding them in a special like folded pattern?

SPEAKER_05:

Yes, I have I have a little pin full of them from high school.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh. I wish I did. I know I don't. And I hope nobody has one that I wrote ever. I hope that they have all things. I don't even know. I remember sometimes they would be pages long. What the hell did I write after seeing people all day long and then seeing them the next day? Like, what did I have to share with them?

SPEAKER_05:

Important things. And then you would stay on the phone for hours. Like you would be on the phone for hours.

unknown:

Oh.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, really. Do you want to tell us how to make tea? Sure, Kara. I'd love to tell you how to make tea. We want to see your pictures of the of you in the 80s if you were around and alive in the 80s. If not, we want to see a picture of your mama's hair in the 80s. So go find them, post them. We'll share ours if you share yours.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my gosh, I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

SPEAKER_06:

That's a wrap, folks.

Contributor

Brooke

Co-host
Contributor

Eryn

Co-host
Head Shot

Jodie

Co-host
Head Shot

Mary

Co-host
Head Shot

Tracy Bradshaw

Co-host