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Saturday 20 August 2011

Let's go on a trip...or Nostalgia Part One

I didn't update yesterday because it was a rough day. Not bad just rather disappointing in regards to my students being unprepared and I had to turn into 'growly' teacher and it isn't a role that I enjoy that much. But I refuse to use this post to complain about what my students did or didn't do.

Instead, after watching a few random videos on YouTube, namely this one, I thought I would do my own post on nostalgia. So here are ten things that I remember, fondly, from my childhood.

Ten: Doug the cartoon. This came out just before I hit double digits and lasted for a lot longer than I actually remembered. With great characters such as Patty and Skeeter and, of course, Doug and Porkchop. Great cartoon.

Nine: Hiding behind my parents 'pleather' couch while watching Dr Who in the late, late 80s. I loved that show but the daleks scared the crap out of me. Seriously. But I just couldn't look away. I have the sudden feeling that this could have been one of my first geek moments and now I'm smiling as I remember the house we were living in at the time. It was an old (for New Zealand, that is) colonial house which will always hold some amazing memories from my childhood. I'm genuinely sad that we had to move away from there and I find myself thinking what would have happened if we'd stayed there.

Eight: Georgie Pie. For those of you not from New Zealand, Georgie Pie was a fast food chain similar to Mickey D's and BK except that it sold meat pies. Unfortunately, it was bought out by Maccas. But those pies were so good and such a special treat for those long trips up to Auckland.

Seven: New Kids on the Block. Mainly this song:
I have no shame at admitting this was my first introduction to the world of boy bands. I have grown out of it so I can look back fondly but excuse me for a moment while I go and listen to some Zeppelin and CCR.

Six: Side ponytails. I had really long hair when I was younger...seriously...I could sit on it. I used to wear it in a long plait but there were a couple of times where I wore it in one of those odd side ponytails that were made popular on all those feel good sitcoms of the 90s. Unfortunately, my hair was far too long and heavy so I often looked lopsided and it is also possible I walked with a strange gait because of it.

Five: Jurassic Park. Both the film and the book. I think I was eleven when it came out and my obsession with dinosaurs amped up several thousand notches. Along with my fascination with computers. Lex may have been the hacker in the film but in the books it was all about Tim.

Four: Bullrush. Another one of those New Zealand games that kids used to, and probably still do, play. The basic premise is everyone lines up at one end of the field except for the person who is 'it'; they stand in the middle of the field and have the option of calling one person at a time in an attempt to tackle them, rugby style or calling bullrush and have every kid make a made dash across the field. We always played it at the start of the school year and by week two it was normally banned due to excessive nose bleeds, sprains and various bruising.

Three: Christmas at the beach. As a pretend adult I look back on Christmas as a kid with so many fond memories. Of course, our Christmas is in summertime and the beach was the place to go but not before waking at the arse crack of dawn (though is it really waking if you haven't been to sleep?) to see what Santa left. Our Santa, by the way, wore board shorts and loved his beer. And, for some strange reason, Rudolph would always do his 'business' behind the tree. Except for that one year when we accidentally gave him the runs...well, that's what Santa told us.

Two: Snap bands or snap bracelets. Man, they were pretty stupid but so much fun. I'm not sure but I think they also got banned from school cause we'd keep snapping them in class much to the annoyance of the teachers.

One: Saturday morning cartoons. Not the piss poor efforts that are currently on our television but the real cartoons. Mind you, this was the late 80s and early 90s so we had things like Thundercats, My Little Pony, Transformers, Racoons, GloFriends, MoonDreamers, Rainbow Brite, He Man, Gummi Bears, Captain N, X Men and the list just goes on. I could, honestly, talk about the great Saturday mornings I had when the cartoons started at about six and went till at least ten. None of that Religious, you're going to hell if you don't repent, stuff that seems to be on every channel now-a-days.

I hope you enjoyed this random trip down memory lane and I have to admit, it's made me feel a lot happier on this cold Saturday morning.

Until next time.


7 comments:

  1. i used to have a tape of the x-men theme song that i'd play to myself throughout the day!

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  2. I always enjoy these trips, though I'm afraid my childhood ran a bit farther back. The bigger thing even tha the first day of school was the Friday night before the new season started and each network would do a half-hour show on the new cartoons coming out that season. Almost as big as Christmas among the kids at our house.

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  3. @-E- Me too. I also had one of the songs from Ghostbusters 2. Not sure I should have admitted that.

    @CWMartin - new season cartoon promos! I can understand that being as big as Christmas.

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  4. Wow, that video really got me.

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  5. @Jessica Thompson - thanks. It was a nice way to spend a cold Saturday morning.

    @Admin - heh heh. Sometimes things seem better in the past. ;)

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  6. Awesome video! Keep up the great work with the blog! Followed!

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