The other day I was playing Four Square with my friends two kids. You know the game where you have a ball and try to make it bounce in your opponent’s square to get them “out” and the last one standing is the winner. The kid are around 8 years old and quite frankly were beating me at a game that I was actually pretty good at when I was eight. So I decided to pull out my best move, THE TYPEWRITER. You know the one where you bounce the ball really fast several times in someone else’s square and it mimics the rapid pounding of someone using a typewriter. Of course I excecuted my this move flawlessly, but the kids refused to let me win. It wasn’t because my typewriter move was illegal. It was because they had never heard of a typewriter. That’s the first time in my life I knew I was no longer a spring chicken and I’m starting to get old. More importantly, my heart goes out to the youth of today and the things they are missing out on.
1. Typewriters – My dad had, and I think still has, an Underwood typewriter. I would play on that thing for hours, even though I wasn’t allowed. And I will never forget the hours me and my mom spent filling out my college applications on a typewriter. It’s crazy to think that kids now days don’t have deal with the frustration of trying to use a typewriter. CRAZY!
2. Encyclopedias – With wikipedias and the internet, kids today don’t have to anxiously await the arrival of their collection of infomercial ordered encyclopedias. They don’t have to waste space storing volumes of books or worry that their edition is outdated. But does this mean there is no more Encyclopedia Brown? (If you don’t get that reference you obviously are not a child of the 80′s and don’t enjoy solving good ol’ fashioned mysteries.)
3. Cassette Tapes - Okay, I truly feel sorry for America’s youth on this one. Our children will never know the pure satisfaction of creating a mixed tape by recoding songs on to their tape directly from the radio. Oh Heavens to Betsy. As a kid I spent hours listening to the radio, waiting for my favorite songs to come on so that I could record it to my mix tape. And it was a perfect recording if I didn’t accidently record the DJ talking and stopped the tape before the next song came on the radio. I’m not going to confirm or deny that there may or may not be some cassette tapes floating around out in space that may or may not have recordings of me pretending to be the host of my own radio show.
4. Rotary Phones – I learned to dial the phone on a rotary phone. I dialed China once because I failed to push the rotary all the way to the little metal bumper thingy. Keep in mind though, I was trying to call Joey McIntyre on the NKOTB hotline, thank you very much.
5. Film Cameras – Digital smigital. I think I still have little plastic canisters full of undeveloped film hidden somewhere in my closets. But that’s the beauty of film rolls. It’s such a surprise when you find a roll of film, take it in to get developed, and realize that none of the photos turned out because your finger was covering the lens, little Timmy wasn’t smiling, or Fido has demon red eyes. Good times.
I know there are others I’m missing. Help me me out here folks.
When I first started working on this list I was totally pumped because I really like summer. I like eating ice cream, s’mores, and watermelon, going swimming, never being cold, sunshine. You know, all that hippy, dippy summer love stuff. But once I got into the meat and bones of the list I decided that I don’t like summer songs. They’re kind of stupid. So this list is short because there just aren’t enough songs out their with “summer” in the title that are actually good. So I’m stuck with only 5 songs on my list.
5. Cruel Summer – Bananarama ( I actually hate this song, but I’m too obsessive/compulsive to have a list of 4. But I hate this song less than I hate “Summer of ’69″ or “Boys of Summer”. And even though my cousin met Don Henley in a guitar shop in Dallas, I still won’t include his scruffy voice song. And I hope the fact that I chose Bananarama over Bryan Adams and Don Henley makes the hairs on the back of their necks stand up the same way mine does when I hear their raspy voices on the radio for the 5 seconds I’m struggling to change the radio station. )
Now let’s get into the list of summer songs actually like.
4. Summer in the City – Lovin Spoonful (Even as a kid I liked this song because this is what Oklahoma summers are like. Hot and sticky during the day, but when the cool nights come it’s time to let loose and have fun.)
3. Summer Nights – Grease Soundtrack (The movie and the song are timeless. And now I’m an adult and actually get what they are singing about, I have a entirely new appreciation for it.)
2. In the Summertime – Mungo Jerry (I love the carefree “life is for living” philosophy of the song. And if nothing else, it’s kind of funny, “If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal. If her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel”.
And the numero uno summer time song is (Drum roll please….)
1. Summertime – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (ah yes, the good ol’ days of acid wash jeans and “scrunched” crew socks. Did summertime ever sound sweeter?)
Because it’s generally a sweltering 100 degrees in Oklahoma during the summer, with little shade, and I have fair skin that gets burned if the oven is turned up too high, I stayed indoors during the summer days and watched a lot of movies. So I decided to create the quintessential list of the best 80′s summer movies. The criteria is that the movie had to be released in the 80′s and is has something to do with summer. What are some of your favorite summer 80′s movies?
10. Weekend at Bernies (1989) – Carrying a dead guy around with you for an entire weekend. Never has a more scrumtralesent plot been thought up.
9. Shag: The Movie (1989) – It’s like the Southern version of Dirty Dancing. What could be better?
8. Satisfaction (1988) – Back when Julie Roberts’ hair was big, curly, and red… just like mine.
7. The Great Outdoors (1988) – Just thinking about the “ole 96-er” and “there’s nothing left but gristle and fat” makes me laugh.
6. The Goonies (1985) – The Truffle Shuffle. Need I say more.
5. Dirty Dancing (1987) – I had the time of my life and I owe it all to you.
4. Summer School (1987) – I’d go to summer school every if Freddy Shoop was my teacher. Yawza!
3. Stand by Me (1986) – Great soundtrack, great actors, great movie
2. Summer Rental (1985) – I really think I love any movie with John Candy in it. He’s probably my favorite Canadian EVER!
1. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) – Because getting there is half the fun. You know that.
My name is Jes. I'm a web and numbers geek. I live in The Great White North. I've always dreamed of being a blues singer in a rockin' band. But I guess if you're the kind of person who uses the word "rockin", you were never meant to be in a band; so I blog instead. Thanks for visiting. Enjoy!
