Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Swatch and Jellies

Okay, so I was only 2 when 1980 rolled around, but it’s still the decade that I identify with the most. I was a Toys R Us kid, owned a Lite Brite, a large collection of My Little Ponies, and a Pogo Ball (no one I know seems to remember what those were). I thought Cabbage Patch Kids were creepy, but loved the smell of my Strawberry Shortcake doll. I watched Rainbow Bright (which might explain my affinity towards rainbows), She-Ra, Care Bears, and Transformers.

Thanks to having older siblings I was exposed to a lot of 80s fashion. Yes, I had far too much Lacoste clothing, had permed hair (which looked awful), wore Doc Martens, and loved my LA Gears - with 3 different colored shoelaces, of course.

Grace & Lacoste

This year I was feeling nostalgic so I asked Randy for a Swatch watch and some jelly bracelets for my birthday. To my surprise, he bought me three!

Swatch Watch

Unless you were a complete loser, you had at least two or three swatch watches in the 80s. If you were really cool you wore them at the same time. Swatch watches weren’t just watches – they were a culture. Swatches were so cool, they had their own accessories: Swatch Guards. Oh yes, you needed at least one of those as well. The ultimate in cool was if you took two Swatch Guards of different colors and twisted them together across the watch face.

Jelly bracelets were also a thing in the 80’s thanks to Madonna and Cyndi Lauper. This was before Avril brought them back or before they became known as sex bracelets. Then again, I suppose they never fully went away.



Don’t worry, I’m not planning to go full retro. I will not be crimping my hair or wearing any Flashdance inspired clothing any time soon. I’ll stick to only one Swatch watch and a couple of jelly bracelets at a time for now.

By the way, I can still sing you the theme song to the Greatest American Hero if you want me to. “Believe it or not I’m walkin’ on air, I never thought I could feel so free…. Believe it or not, it’s just me!”

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