Gael Fashingbauer Cooper

A fun book for anyone who grew up in the 70's-80's, as we're reminded of all the crap we owned because it was so cool. Most of the things featured here- Dixie riddle cups, the plastic Halloween masks with tiny air holes, Maybelline's Kissing Potions, Rankin/Bass stop action shows, Honeycomb Hideout commercials...well, they probably aren't coming back. But it's nice to know that Dr. Demento is still around (on the web) and I got excited seeing that Hostess still makes Chocodiles on the West Coast, until I remembered, oh yeah, Hostess. Still a fun and snarky book of things I had forgotten I once needed in my life.… (más)

Are you a child of the 70s and 80s? Do you remember After School Specials? Did Jaws keep you out of even the bath tub for a month? Can you remember when Sea-Monkeys were cool…ok, neither can I. But if you wondered what happened to a lot of the culture that our generation held near and dear, Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? might just be what you are looking for.

Sure, you can look all this stuff up on the internet now, but Cooper and Bellmont spice things up by not just telling us where all our stuff went, but reminding us what those things felt like when we were just kids and it seemed like all of this would be around forever. From scratch-n-sniff stickers on our Trapper Keepers to the perils of lawn darts and metal playground equipment, there is more than enough to overload your memory banks.

There were some things I had never heard of – Blythe dolls, Bar None candy bars, Spire Christian Comics. There were plenty of other that I very fondly remember – Mattel Electronic Football, MTV playing music, Connect Four, Choose Your Own Adventure books. And there were a few things I have desperately been trying to forget about – Scott Baio, Silver Spoons, hoopskirts, eight-tracks, Scott Baio.

If your childhood didn’t form in those formative years, this will at least clue you in to what we held near and dear. I would give this book three stars on those grounds. However, if you actually participated in this era, you may find yourself laughing out loud as often as I did as you pursue the anecdotes of each of these little gems. So for me, this was an entertaining trip down memory lane.… (más)

I'm a little older than the Gen-X target demographic, but I remember many of the cultural touchstones presented herein. I wasn't particularly fond of the authors' bland assumption that all persons raised during this time frame felt the same as they did about all the products. And fatally, they misused flaunt. There were some reminders of things gone forever, like Lemon-Up, my favorite shampoo ever. And the roll-on flypaper lip gloss. And the wonderful, evanescent tiny Dawn dolls. But mostly this book, like many of the trends of yesteryear, has been rendered irrelevant by the internet.… (más)