Growing up in the 80's

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.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What grade were you all in in 1989?

SPEAKER_05 0:03

Ninth grade.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Um you were two years ahead of me, Mary?

SPEAKER_05 0:12

What year did you graduate?

SPEAKER_04 0:13

92. Three years. Nine two.

SPEAKER_05 0:18

So you were three ahead of me.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

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

SPEAKER_01 0:25

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

SPEAKER_04 0:28

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 0:38

Is it finer than frog's hair?

SPEAKER_04 0:41

Is it finer than frost hair?

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Frog's hair.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

Oh frog's hair?

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Have you never heard that express expression?

SPEAKER_04 0:48

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

SPEAKER_01 0:52

No, it must be a family expression. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

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 1:38

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

SPEAKER_00 1:44

You can see your picture.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

I love it. The facts of life.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

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

SPEAKER_05 2:02

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 2:18

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

SPEAKER_04 2:22

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

unknown 2:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

Great jeans. I wouldn't wear those today.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

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 3:05

Oh, I love Jody knows best.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Right?

SPEAKER_05 3:11

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 3:57

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

SPEAKER_05 4:03

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 4:19

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 4:35

Bunch of ballers affording that, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:40

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

SPEAKER_05 4:45

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 4:51

Oh, Tracy.

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Tracy does not tolerate cherry.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

We do not. No.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

Blue railsberry was the best.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

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

SPEAKER_04 5:06

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

SPEAKER_05 5:13

You're old enough.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Kool-Aid has got better. Oh.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

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

SPEAKER_05 5:27

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

SPEAKER_03 5:32

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

SPEAKER_05 5:45

Oh Laura, you had such pretty hair.

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Laura, you're beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

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

SPEAKER_04 5:57

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 6:18

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

SPEAKER_04 6:24

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 6:37

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

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Wait, Mary's eating chicken barbecue?

SPEAKER_03 6:46

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

SPEAKER_04 6:49

I was not.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Nobody picked up on the chicken barbecue thing except Steve.

SPEAKER_05 6:55

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

SPEAKER_04 7:04

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

SPEAKER_03 7:10

I did wear a lot of them back then.

SPEAKER_04 7:13

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

SPEAKER_05 7:18

What grades were you guys in in 1989?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

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

SPEAKER_00 7:29

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

SPEAKER_05 7:39

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

SPEAKER_03 7:45

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

SPEAKER_05 7:48

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 8:01

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

SPEAKER_04 8:07

An interesting word choice for the Southerners.

SPEAKER_05 8:12

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

SPEAKER_03 8:15

The only thing rising was our hairdo back then.

SPEAKER_04 8:18

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 8:27

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

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

I think mine was white.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

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

SPEAKER_03 8:42

Wasn't there a product called Rave?

SPEAKER_00 8:45

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

SPEAKER_05 8:57

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

SPEAKER_04 9:03

Or it was in a spritz bottle.

SPEAKER_05 9:05

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 9:12

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

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Remember salon selectives.

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Oh, they smelled good.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

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

SPEAKER_05 11:35

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

SPEAKER_00 11:44

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 11:57

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

SPEAKER_00 12:03

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

SPEAKER_05 12:08

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 12:16

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

SPEAKER_05 12:20

You could use it as a flamethrower.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Not that we're endorsing that.

SPEAKER_05 12:25

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

SPEAKER_04 12:29

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

SPEAKER_00 12:35

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

SPEAKER_05 12:44

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

SPEAKER_04 12:50

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 13:07

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

SPEAKER_01 13:10

I've done that recently.

SPEAKER_05 13:11

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 13:18

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

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Did you try to elevate?

SPEAKER_04 13:25

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

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

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Oh, you gave them to people, Laura?

SPEAKER_03 13:35

Oh yeah. Oh, that's one.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

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 13:46

It sure was. So good.

SPEAKER_05 13:50

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

SPEAKER_00 13:54

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 14:26

It's like ruining the curls.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Yeah, it was oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

Or confusing the curls.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

I remember confusing them.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

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

SPEAKER_05 14:43

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

SPEAKER_00 14:46

I more remember sun in.

SPEAKER_05 14:49

Oh yeah, sun in. Another woo.

SPEAKER_04 14:54

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

unknown 15:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

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

SPEAKER_03 15:05

How about how about baby oil to get a tin?

SPEAKER_05 15:09

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

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah. Talk about sunburn.

SPEAKER_04 15:19

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 15:35

Oh, to give it some color.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

Yeah, to give themselves a tan.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

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

SPEAKER_04 15:48

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

SPEAKER_01 15:53

I heard of coffee oil and um iodine.

SPEAKER_05 15:56

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

SPEAKER_04 16:05

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 16:16

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

SPEAKER_03 16:20

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

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Don't be a jackass.

unknown 16:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

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 16:54

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

SPEAKER_03 17:02

I wear them shoes to Mary's house.

SPEAKER_05 17:05

On the bicycle. Like on a bike?

unknown 17:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 17:08

How badly did you get blisters?

SPEAKER_03 17:11

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

SPEAKER_05 17:17

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

SPEAKER_03 17:22

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

SPEAKER_04 17:31

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 18:09

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 18:18

55 miles. It's five.

SPEAKER_05 18:20

It's 55 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

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 18:31

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

SPEAKER_04 18:37

Wow, that is a hike.

SPEAKER_05 18:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

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

SPEAKER_05 18:47

Yeah, and there was like penny candy in there.

SPEAKER_04 18:50

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 19:14

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 19:30

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 19:56

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 20:12

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 20:27

Right.

SPEAKER_04 20:28

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 20:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:46

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 20:56

Suck it up.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

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 21:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:53

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 22:20

So yeah, they worked at the same place.

SPEAKER_04 22:23

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

SPEAKER_03 22:26

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 22:40

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

SPEAKER_03 22:47

Oh, really? Thanks.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

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 23:03

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 23:27

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 23:47

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_04 23:48

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 24:10

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 24:18

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 25:06

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 25:19

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 25:58

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 26:24

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 26:33

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 26:47

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 26:59

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

SPEAKER_00 27:06

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 27:44

Changed my life.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

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 27:59

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 28:06

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

SPEAKER_04 28:15

It was a single cassette, really?

SPEAKER_00 28:18

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

SPEAKER_05 28:29

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 28:42

Yeah, Columbia.

SPEAKER_05 28:43

Columbia, yes.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

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 28:51

Well, for a penny.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

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 29:01

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

SPEAKER_05 29:11

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 29:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 29:56

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

SPEAKER_01 30:06

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

SPEAKER_05 30:09

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 30:18

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 30:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Magnum P.I. Love Boat.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

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

SPEAKER_03 30:54

I loved those shows.

SPEAKER_05 30:56

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

SPEAKER_03 31:03

I like Annie Tatum. How about Growing Pays?

SPEAKER_04 31:07

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

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Hazard the 80s, or was Dukes of Hazard?

SPEAKER_04 31:14

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 31:23

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 31:49

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 32:02

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 32:09

I watched it was a generational show for us too.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

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

SPEAKER_05 32:16

Laura and I talked about guiding light.

SPEAKER_04 32:18

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 32:37

We had the same TV package.

SPEAKER_04 32:39

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

SPEAKER_05 32:45

And we finally got the antenna. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

On Sundays, the only thing on was bowling.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

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

SPEAKER_05 33:04

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

SPEAKER_00 33:07

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 33:21

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 33:34

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

SPEAKER_05 33:42

Why did they give up videos?

SPEAKER_00 33:44

They were fun.

SPEAKER_05 33:45

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 33:53

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

SPEAKER_05 34:00

It's still for Gen X.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

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 34:09

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 34:22

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

SPEAKER_04 34:24

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 34:36

And that was the hierarchy for us as well.

SPEAKER_04 34:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

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

SPEAKER_04 34:44

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

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Commercial commercial.

SPEAKER_04 34:49

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

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:53

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

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Oh, in uh Animal Wild Kingdom. Animal Kingdom.

SPEAKER_05 35:01

Oh, with Jack Anna.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

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

SPEAKER_05 35:08

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

SPEAKER_01 35:13

It was so special.

SPEAKER_05 35:15

It was so special.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

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

SPEAKER_05 35:21

Me too. It was like after school special.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

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

SPEAKER_05 35:32

Well, then I wonder when was later.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

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 35:51

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

SPEAKER_01 35:57

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 36:17

Wow.

unknown 36:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:19

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_04 36:22

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 36:54

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 37:07

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 37:26

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 37:45

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 37:53

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

SPEAKER_05 37:57

Yes, it was just an open room of mirrors.

SPEAKER_04 37:59

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 38:09

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

SPEAKER_01 38:17

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

SPEAKER_00 38:25

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 38:42

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 38:51

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

SPEAKER_05 38:57

Sorry, we'll do a whole nother decade.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Hills, I remember Hills was there.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

Hills, oh yeah, Hills was in the mall.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

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 39:16

And there was some KB toys.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

KB toys, yes, I love KB.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

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 39:32

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 39:59

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

SPEAKER_04 40:02

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

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Was I drinking?

SPEAKER_04 40:14

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

SPEAKER_01 40:23

I feel terrible because I loved Hills.

SPEAKER_05 40:26

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

SPEAKER_00 40:32

Oh, blue eyeliner when I was little.

SPEAKER_05 40:35

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

SPEAKER_00 40:42

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

SPEAKER_05 40:47

Blue eyeshadow.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

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 41:03

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

SPEAKER_00 41:10

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 41:44

Well, I think it sounds cool.

SPEAKER_05 41:46

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 42:23

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 42:30

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

SPEAKER_01 42:33

All right.

SPEAKER_05 42:36

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 43:02

Yeah, it was long distance.

SPEAKER_05 43:04

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 43:19

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 43:37

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 43:48

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

SPEAKER_05 43:52

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 44:06

Fits it all in.

SPEAKER_05 44:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:08

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

SPEAKER_05 44:14

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

SPEAKER_04 44:27

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

SPEAKER_05 44:31

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

SPEAKER_00 44:37

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 45:25

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 45:40

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

SPEAKER_05 45:46

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

SPEAKER_01 45:49

No, that's true.

SPEAKER_05 45:51

Not long enough.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

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 46:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:06

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 46:22

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

SPEAKER_00 46:27

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 46:34

So you were totally engrossed.

SPEAKER_00 46:39

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 47:21

Yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

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 47:37

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

SPEAKER_00 47:43

You did.

SPEAKER_04 47:44

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

SPEAKER_05 47:47

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 48:03

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 48:33

That's crafty. No.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

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 48:56

Jody, did you have leg warmers?

SPEAKER_04 48:58

Oh god, yes.

SPEAKER_00 48:59

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 49:31

You like serious pants, Carrie?

SPEAKER_00 49:33

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 49:48

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

SPEAKER_01 49:54

Mine?

SPEAKER_05 49:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:56

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 50:08

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 50:45

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 50:48

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 51:02

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

SPEAKER_00 51:06

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

SPEAKER_02 51:11

Skid Row.

SPEAKER_00 51:12

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 51:53

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

SPEAKER_05 51:58

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

SPEAKER_04 52:05

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 52:17

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

SPEAKER_04 52:21

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

SPEAKER_05 52:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 52:25

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

SPEAKER_00 52:31

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 52:48

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 52:58

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 52:59

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

SPEAKER_04 53:04

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

SPEAKER_00 53:12

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 53:32

It would have been much more fun.

SPEAKER_00 53:34

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 53:45

Right.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

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 54:01

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

SPEAKER_00 54:10

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

SPEAKER_04 54:18

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

SPEAKER_05 54:22

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

SPEAKER_00 54:26

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

SPEAKER_04 54:33

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 54:45

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 54:55

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 55:15

The stickers are the notebooks.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

The stick stickers.

SPEAKER_05 55:18

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

SPEAKER_02 55:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:22

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 55:33

We were we were the generation they experimented on.

SPEAKER_05 55:36

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

SPEAKER_00 55:43

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 55:52

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

SPEAKER_00 55:56

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 56:18

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

unknown 56:27

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 56:28

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 56:47

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

SPEAKER_06 56:54

That's a wrap, folks.