20th Century Fox / Reddit

Life | 80s

30 Things You Will Only Remember If You're Over 30 Now

20th Century Fox / Reddit

Oh, how times have changed! I look at the kids and teenagers nowadays and it's like they're growing up in a totally different world than the one I knew. Everything is so fast paced and technology-driven, unlike back in the 80s and 90s, when every new discovery and invention left us in awe.

Instead of Google, I had to look through encyclopedias to get more information on a topic, my friends and I played outside every day, Saturday mornings were reserved for cartoons, and visiting fast-food restaurants like McDonald's was a special treat.

If you also did these things, then you'll probably also remember the following:

1. The disturbing McDonald's mascot Mac Tonight that still gives you nightmares

McDonald's advertisement featuring "Mac Tonight"
McDonald's

2. Learning important life lessons from Sweet Pickles books

3. Playing Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road arcade video game

Arcade version of Super Off Road
Virgin Games

4. Reading books so you could get a free Pizza Hut personal pizza from the Book It! program

5. Watching this Pizza Hut commercial from the Land Before Time VHS

6. Then hosting your birthday party at Pizza Hut because it was the place to do it at

Jenny's 6th Birthday / September 1979

7. Dressing up in a plastic costume like this (look at that creepy mask) for Halloween and hardly being able to breathe in it

Two girls dressed up for Halloween
Shared

8. Saturday mornings weren't complete without Pee-Wee's Playhouse

Pee-wee Herman in "Pee-wee's Playhouse"
CBS

9. Having a collection of scratch 'n' sniff stickers, but never actually scratching them to keep the scent intact

10. Never getting tired of watching flowers dance every time you turned the radio on

11. Having a character cake for your birthday and it made you the happiest

12. Wasting all your quarters on the Lucky Egg Machine, but you kept going back because of the cool noise it made

13. Buying toys and other merchandise from the Warner Bros. Studios store

The stores were all shuttered in 2001.

14. Shopping for knits and denim at County Seat

15. Thinking Casey the Talking Tape Player was the coolest thing ever and wanting it for Christmas

16. Having the time of your life at McDonald's playground

17. Keeping all your favorite makeup and accessories in a Caboodles case

18. Drinking the fizzy fruit-flavored Splice soda

19. Wondering how they got the Strawberry Shortcake doll to smell like strawberries (sort of)

20. Matching your nails to your outfit using Lee Press On Nails

21. Getting your McDonald's order in Styrofoam containers

22. Watching Small Wonder and not being able to tell that Vicki was actually a robot

Vicki the Robot from Small Wonder
20th Century Fox

23. Using these heated curling rods to get your hair looking at big as possible

eBay

24. Waiting all year long for the Sears Christmas Wish Book to show up in the mail

Cover of the 1986 Sears Wish Book
Sears

25. Seeing READ posters displayed all over your school and local library

ALA READ poster featuring Phil Collins
American Library Association

26. Looking up information with the help of your parents' A to Z encyclopedia set

27. Spraying yourself with Debbie Gibson's Electric Youth perfume

FragranceX

28. Eating Smurf Berry Crunch cereal while watching Saturday morning cartoons

Pinterest

29. Playing with Fisher-Price Little People like this farm set

Confessions of an Over-Sharer - WordPress.com

30. And finally, borrowing your mother's t̶o̶r̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶v̶i̶c̶e̶  Epilady and then realizing it was a very bad idea

Epilady