In Honor of Children's Day, Lets Play a Game!

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It’s International Children’s Day and things are a little different for this generation of kids than they were for us. To honor our inner child I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and play a little game I’m calling Elder Millennial Bingo. Those of us born in the late to mid-’80s in America will have no trouble getting 5 in a row. Everyone else, feel free to be jealous / grateful / plain confused in turn.

Used a Card Catalog: There was a magical place called a library where you needed to riffle through a box of index cards and decipher a secret code known as The Dewey Decimal system to find your weekend reading or project source materials!

Wore a flannel shirt over a band Tee: I'll let my girl Cher explain this one. “I don't get how guys dress today. I mean, come on, it looks like they just fell out of bed and put on some baggy pants and take their greasy hair - ew - and cover it up with a backward cap and we're supposed to swoon?” ~ Clueless (1995)

Called a 1-900 hotline: Prank calls to these admittedly weird inventions were part of sleepover fun and games… until your parents got the phone bill.

Drank Crystal Pepsi: Served at only the coolest birthday parties the summer of ‘92 / fall of ‘93

Dug the toy out of the cereal box: Getting up early to beat your siblings to the new box of cereal and pushing your grubby hands all the way to the bottom to pull out that 15-cent treasure! Victory is mine!

Made "juice" from frozen canned concentrate: Just why? Why was that a thing?

Attended a Chuck E Cheese Birthday Party: Where you blew through $20 in quarters to win enough tickets to buy a 50-cent pack of jelly bracelets… we really were not good with cost-benefit analysis.

Can imitate the internet dial-up sound: We complain about slow internet connections now but back in the early days of computers you would dial in, make yourself a snack, and by the time you had finished eating it you might be connected. That crackling, bleeping white noise will haunt our dreams till death.

Be kind, rewind: Oh Blockbuster! The sweet, sweet joy of getting the last copy of Mrs. Doubtfire and Spice World for the sleepover, followed by the crushing realization you forgot to rewind your last rental and now owe the $1 fee!

Played Oregon Trail on a school computer: We got school credit to play video games… granted it was a historically-motivated game and you had to type your instructions on the screen instead of using a controller… but it was still a video game!

Knew all the Lyrics to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's opening credits: “In West Philadelphia born and raised…"

Paged your parent's beeper: You felt like a super cool secret agent typing in the family code for “please come get me.”

Called your friend’s landline: Failure to use proper phone etiquette would result in the gatekeeper (their parent) preventing your oh-so-important conversation about the note you passed in study hall today. "Hello Ms. Smith, it's Jane. May I please speak to ..."

Covered textbooks in paper grocery bags: You really wanted the cool Lisa Frank book covers but they were “too expensive and paper bags are free” so we were forced to use stickers and crayons and be creative.

Owned a pair of rollerblades: It was a brief awkward period for most of us.

Used *69 to call someone anonymously: Facebook hadn’t been invented yet so how else were you supposed to stalk your crush?

Got free CDs from Colombia House: Then rushed to cancel your subscription so you wouldn’t have to use up all your allowance… Napster was free too.

Tried to guess the Air Head Mystery Flavor: This was the subject of much intellectual lunchroom debate.

Got something pierced at the mall: Your parents were probably pissed about it but you really wanted the cute earrings you saw in the dELiAs catalog.

Watched The Price Is Right: You know you faked sick just to stay home and watch it at least a couple of times.

Your Tamagotchi Died: And you cried about it, but how were you supposed to find time between gym and math to feed it?

Got Hurt using a Slip 'n Slid, Slap bracelet, or Skip It: Seriously? How did they allow these to be sold to kids?

Saved By The Bell: You had a crush on at LEAST one member of the cast.

Went to A DARE assembly: Where you learned how to tell the difference between the real thing and oregano in a bag. That info came in handy for many during college.

Rocked out to The Macarena: Yeah, we got down, we got jiggy with it and we had the 411 on all the coolest moves.

That's it. if you think we left an iconic 80s childhood moment off the list let us know in the comments!

Images: Canva

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