Things we thought were cool, but clearly were not...
Fads come and go, and let's be honest... some of them are quite ridiculous. Think back to your childhood when you thought something was totally cool, only to realize later that, well... it wasn't.
My first thought for this topic was pogs. I admit I loved collecting pogs, which totally were not cool. But I think there is something more extreme that I thought was cool, which DEFINITELY was not.
Growing up, Andrew was my idol. No, Andrew is NOT the thing I thought was cool only to find out later that he wasn’t. Don’t worry Andrew, I still think you’re cool. But because I looked up to Andrew so much, he could pretty much convince me anything was cool and I’d believe him. And so he did, many times!
But of all the crazy things he (and Adam) made me think were cool, there is one particular thing that I still can’t believe they convinced me of. All I can say is that Andrew (and Adam) must have been pretty convincing when they told me that flushing my head down a toilet was cool… because for some bizarre reason, I believed them.
People joke about getting swirlies like it doesn’t actually happen, but sadly for me swirlies were a reality. I imagine I got close to 100 of them. I was pretty young but to this day I can still remember the feeling of my hair swirling round and round as my face was splashed with water. I loved it. I had no worries about germs or hygiene. Plus, it was the easiest way to “go up a flag” in the flag club.
So Andrew (and Adam), I believe you did the impossible… you convinced me that swirlies were cool. And CLEARLY they were not. But I still love ya anyway! :)
Shame on you, Andrew! The following three things were not from my childhood, but from our early Harris family days. Sadly, somebody somewhere actually thought these things were cool: 1. Our blue full-sized van. It had velvet curtains, swivel seats, a card table, and a television complete with antenna. We thought it was soooo cool—for about five days. We soon discovered that having the windows covered and the kids face backward resulted in (no surprise) CAR SICKNESS! We also learned that the antenna only worked in certain locations and the even when the T.V. did work, not all of the kids could see the screen at the same time. Our ultra fancy van rabidly turned into a very ordinary one with all of the seats facing forward and no curtains, table, or television. 2. Waterbeds. Those big ugly things are probably the reason so many people of my generation have back problems. 3. Metallic gold wallpaper with black flocked flowers that looked a lot like creepy bearded men. Yes, I’ll admit it. We had this in our bedroom for eight years. Why didn’t we redecorate and change the wallpaper sooner? One reason: it’s a giant pain to move a waterbed.
Ha! These are hilarious! How 'bout a tail? Yes, I had a tail in 4th grade! I braided it and put barrettes on it sometimes. It made me feel like such a rebel. I think that is even worse than a mullet!!
When I was younger someone told me (probably Holly)that the lead singer of the the band "the cure" would come to school in his pajamas as a kid. I would mess up my hair when I got to school so that it looked like I just woke up. I never wore my pajamas to school. I thought it would be really cool though, but it clearly would not.
Things not cool: 1.Big wave hairdo in elementary 2.Top button buttoned and suspenders in Jr. High 3.Plaid bellbottoms in college 4.Sideburns in Dental School 5.Wide ties 6.Skinny ties 7.Any ties
Em, Swirlies are still cool and are now worth 3 flags. Once we went camping, and we decided to make s'mores. I don't really like s'mores all that much, but after sitting around and watching everybody else doing it, I decided it looked like fun so I thought I'd toast some marshmellows up and offer them to other people who actually like s'mores. I reached over to grab a toasting stick that I thought was cool, but clearly was not... Ok. Now that I've gotten that off of my chest... This has been pretty hard for me, because most of the things I thought were cool, I still think are pretty cool, including Saved By The Bell and hypercolor shirts (which still seem like something out of Back To The Future II, and are therefore cool (except for in the armpit areas where it gets warm and therefore stops being cool)). Anyway... everybody in 8th grade seemed to be wearing Gerbaud jeans, so of course I really wanted them too, but they were ridiculously overpriced. I begged and finally Mom took me to an outlet mall where they had damaged or irregular clothes for cheap. The only Gerbauds I could find were light tan, too short and tighter than any teenage boy should ever consider wearing, with a stitched up hole in the rear, but I got them anyway. Why? Because they had a little tag that said "Gerbaud" on them. I thought if I wore them people would think I was cool. Wow. That clearly was not cool.
I had a hard time with this one... But I think the thing I thought was cool, but clearly was not are overalls. I look back on pictures of me wearing overall's and just can't believe how ugly they are. Overalls are cute only if you are under the age of 4 or need them to dress up for halloween. Oh and apparently Drew had a pair of overalls that he wore as a teenager. I would love to see a picture of that!
Emily - gross. Mom - that wallpaper gave me nightmares. Holly - why would Mom allow that? Mark - there's a picture of me in my high school yearbook wearing PJ's. I thought they were cool too. Dad - I'm surprised to hear that you don't like ties. Drew - "Saved by the Bell" is still cool. Marie - Did you ever wear your overalls with only 1 shoulder buttoned?
These are some things that I wore that I thought were cool: baggy t-shirts tied in a knot, pants that were rolled tight on the bottom, B.U.M., Clothes that matched Emily's clothes,
I said a lot of stuff that I thought was cool at one time: talk to the hand, as if, it's all good, my bad, you go girl, that's hot,
I also did some things that I thought were cool: Myspace, make hemp jewlery, Snake on my cell phone, the flag club,
Ha ha, these are great. Clearly we all were SOOO cool!
Marie, I wore overalls until my freshman year of college. How sad is that? I finally stopped when my friend Neil started making fun of me. I asked, "Didn't they wear overalls back in Texas?" He said, "Um, yeah... in the third grade." Sad.
Julie, what could be cooler than clothes that match mine? ;) You go girl!
When I was a young kid the highlight of my summers was going to Ririe Idaho to spend a week with my cousins. We would go fishing and hiking or shoot magpies with b-b guns and then sleep out on the trampoline. All those outdoor adventures were a dream come true for this city kid. Then one year we showed up in Ririe to find that all my tough, outdoorsy cousins had gotten their hair permed! My mom was able to convince my brother and me that getting our hair permed would be really cool. Now by this time I was in middle school and had begun to suspect that my mom was not the author of coolness that she made herself out to be. But the fact that all my cool cousins had gotten perms had me stumped. And so we went off to the barber shop, which in this case was the mobile home of the quirky lady who styled my grandma’s hair. In one last attempt to make sure I wasn’t making a mistake I asked the lady why I had never seen this hair style before. She thought for a moment then said, “Well, most new styles start in California and kind of work their way across the country. We get new fashion and hair styles in Ririe before they hit Denver Colorado.” And with that undeniable logic, the pink curlers where in and I was a permed man. Well that wave of fashion must have hit a sink hole before it got to Denver because to this day I have never seen another white kid with permed hair. When I returned to school my new name was Jerry Curl. The name stayed for a few years.
Christian, I am embarrassed to admit this, but at one time (probably that same summer as you are talking about) I too had an Afro. When I came home from the beauty parlor, Emily took one look at me and cried! Speaking of hair, I can't resist telling just one more story. When Emily was in about first grade, her best friend got head lice. One of those nasty little critters jumped over onto Emily's head. When the school nurse discovered this, both girls were promply sent home to have their hair washed with a special shampoo. Emily was sooooo excited! She told everybody about the tiny little bugs that she and her friend had living in their hair. I had to explain to Emily that head lice were not cool. I explained that dogs are pets; cats are pets; but head lice are not pets. p.s. If I would have known about the swirlies, I may not have needed to spend so much time that afternoon scrubbing Emily's head. I could have just dumped some of that special shampoo into the toilet and called upon Andrew and Adam.
My first thought for this topic was pogs. I admit I loved collecting pogs, which totally were not cool. But I think there is something more extreme that I thought was cool, which DEFINITELY was not.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, Andrew was my idol. No, Andrew is NOT the thing I thought was cool only to find out later that he wasn’t. Don’t worry Andrew, I still think you’re cool. But because I looked up to Andrew so much, he could pretty much convince me anything was cool and I’d believe him. And so he did, many times!
But of all the crazy things he (and Adam) made me think were cool, there is one particular thing that I still can’t believe they convinced me of. All I can say is that Andrew (and Adam) must have been pretty convincing when they told me that flushing my head down a toilet was cool… because for some bizarre reason, I believed them.
People joke about getting swirlies like it doesn’t actually happen, but sadly for me swirlies were a reality. I imagine I got close to 100 of them. I was pretty young but to this day I can still remember the feeling of my hair swirling round and round as my face was splashed with water. I loved it. I had no worries about germs or hygiene. Plus, it was the easiest way to “go up a flag” in the flag club.
So Andrew (and Adam), I believe you did the impossible… you convinced me that swirlies were cool. And CLEARLY they were not. But I still love ya anyway! :)
Shame on you, Andrew! The following three things were not from my childhood, but from our early Harris family days. Sadly, somebody somewhere actually thought these things were cool:
ReplyDelete1. Our blue full-sized van. It had velvet curtains, swivel seats, a card table, and a television complete with antenna. We thought it was soooo cool—for about five days. We soon discovered that having the windows covered and the kids face backward resulted in (no surprise) CAR SICKNESS! We also learned that the antenna only worked in certain locations and the even when the T.V. did work, not all of the kids could see the screen at the same time. Our ultra fancy van rabidly turned into a very ordinary one with all of the seats facing forward and no curtains, table, or television.
2. Waterbeds. Those big ugly things are probably the reason so many people of my generation have back problems.
3. Metallic gold wallpaper with black flocked flowers that looked a lot like creepy bearded men. Yes, I’ll admit it. We had this in our bedroom for eight years. Why didn’t we redecorate and change the wallpaper sooner? One reason: it’s a giant pain to move a waterbed.
Ha! These are hilarious! How 'bout a tail? Yes, I had a tail in 4th grade! I braided it and put barrettes on it sometimes. It made me feel like such a rebel. I think that is even worse than a mullet!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger someone told me (probably Holly)that the lead singer of the the band "the cure" would come to school in his pajamas as a kid. I would mess up my hair when I got to school so that it looked like I just woke up. I never wore my pajamas to school. I thought it would be really cool though, but it clearly would not.
ReplyDeleteThings not cool:
ReplyDelete1.Big wave hairdo in elementary 2.Top button buttoned and suspenders in Jr. High 3.Plaid bellbottoms in college 4.Sideburns in Dental School 5.Wide ties 6.Skinny ties 7.Any ties
Em, Swirlies are still cool and are now worth 3 flags.
ReplyDeleteOnce we went camping, and we decided to make s'mores. I don't really like s'mores all that much, but after sitting around and watching everybody else doing it, I decided it looked like fun so I thought I'd toast some marshmellows up and offer them to other people who actually like s'mores. I reached over to grab a toasting stick that I thought was cool, but clearly was not... Ok. Now that I've gotten that off of my chest...
This has been pretty hard for me, because most of the things I thought were cool, I still think are pretty cool, including Saved By The Bell and hypercolor shirts (which still seem like something out of Back To The Future II, and are therefore cool (except for in the armpit areas where it gets warm and therefore stops being cool)). Anyway... everybody in 8th grade seemed to be wearing Gerbaud jeans, so of course I really wanted them too, but they were ridiculously overpriced. I begged and finally Mom took me to an outlet mall where they had damaged or irregular clothes for cheap. The only Gerbauds I could find were light tan, too short and tighter than any teenage boy should ever consider wearing, with a stitched up hole in the rear, but I got them anyway. Why? Because they had a little tag that said "Gerbaud" on them. I thought if I wore them people would think I was cool. Wow. That clearly was not cool.
I had a hard time with this one... But I think the thing I thought was cool, but clearly was not are overalls. I look back on pictures of me wearing overall's and just can't believe how ugly they are. Overalls are cute only if you are under the age of 4 or need them to dress up for halloween. Oh and apparently Drew had a pair of overalls that he wore as a teenager. I would love to see a picture of that!
ReplyDeleteEmily - gross.
ReplyDeleteMom - that wallpaper gave me nightmares.
Holly - why would Mom allow that?
Mark - there's a picture of me in my high school yearbook wearing PJ's. I thought they were cool too.
Dad - I'm surprised to hear that you don't like ties.
Drew - "Saved by the Bell" is still cool.
Marie - Did you ever wear your overalls with only 1 shoulder buttoned?
These are some things that I wore that I thought were cool:
baggy t-shirts tied in a knot,
pants that were rolled tight on the bottom,
B.U.M.,
Clothes that matched Emily's clothes,
I said a lot of stuff that I thought was cool at one time:
talk to the hand,
as if,
it's all good,
my bad,
you go girl,
that's hot,
I also did some things that I thought were cool:
Myspace,
make hemp jewlery,
Snake on my cell phone,
the flag club,
Ha ha, these are great. Clearly we all were SOOO cool!
ReplyDeleteMarie, I wore overalls until my freshman year of college. How sad is that? I finally stopped when my friend Neil started making fun of me. I asked, "Didn't they wear overalls back in Texas?" He said, "Um, yeah... in the third grade." Sad.
Julie, what could be cooler than clothes that match mine? ;) You go girl!
When I was a young kid the highlight of my summers was going to Ririe Idaho to spend a week with my cousins. We would go fishing and hiking or shoot magpies with b-b guns and then sleep out on the trampoline. All those outdoor adventures were a dream come true for this city kid.
ReplyDeleteThen one year we showed up in Ririe to find that all my tough, outdoorsy cousins had gotten their hair permed! My mom was able to convince my brother and me that getting our hair permed would be really cool. Now by this time I was in middle school and had begun to suspect that my mom was not the author of coolness that she made herself out to be. But the fact that all my cool cousins had gotten perms had me stumped.
And so we went off to the barber shop, which in this case was the mobile home of the quirky lady who styled my grandma’s hair. In one last attempt to make sure I wasn’t making a mistake I asked the lady why I had never seen this hair style before. She thought for a moment then said, “Well, most new styles start in California and kind of work their way across the country. We get new fashion and hair styles in Ririe before they hit Denver Colorado.” And with that undeniable logic, the pink curlers where in and I was a permed man.
Well that wave of fashion must have hit a sink hole before it got to Denver because to this day I have never seen another white kid with permed hair. When I returned to school my new name was Jerry Curl. The name stayed for a few years.
Christian, we won't believe you unless you post pictures.
ReplyDeleteChristian, I am embarrassed to admit this, but at one time (probably that same summer as you are talking about) I too had an Afro. When I came home from the beauty parlor, Emily took one look at me and cried!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of hair, I can't resist telling just one more story. When Emily was in about first grade, her best friend got head lice. One of those nasty little critters jumped over onto Emily's head. When the school nurse discovered this, both girls were promply sent home to have their hair washed with a special shampoo. Emily was sooooo excited! She told everybody about the tiny little bugs that she and her friend had living in their hair. I had to explain to Emily that head lice were not cool. I explained that dogs are pets; cats are pets; but head lice are not pets.
p.s. If I would have known about the swirlies, I may not have needed to spend so much time that afternoon scrubbing Emily's head. I could have just dumped some of that special shampoo into the toilet and called upon Andrew and Adam.
"These are my Ex-lax gloves!" - Emily was a weird kid.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! Sorry, that post is supposed to go on the next topic. :)
ReplyDelete