21.10.11

You Know You Grew Up Aussie in the 90s When;

Don’t ask me how I came across this list randomly last night – it is purely & simply the wonder of the internets… but I believe it’s been doing the rounds via one of those “You have to read this!” forwarded emails for years now. I had to post it here because so many of the points had me going “Oh yeah!!!”. For your interest, I have highlighted those points… I have also deleted the ones that had me scratching my head… to save time… it’s a long list. I also think it should be entitled ‘You Know You Grew Up Aussie in the 80s AND 90s’, because I was 9 in 1990 & surely remember some of this stuff from before then… even the way the list is written, as though compiled by a 10 year old, takes me back.

Let us reminisce together, children of my generation…!

  • You made worms by squeezing your Vegemite or peanut butter crackers together.
  • The best parties always had fairy bread.
  • You always used to see that dried out, white dog poo on the footpath.
    You never see that anymore. (Oddly, I was actually pondering this the other day. Go council by-laws.)

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  • SuperTed, Widget The World Watcher and Samurai Pizza Cats.
  • Doing research for school projects by going to the library or looking up an encyclopaedia rather than using the internet. (Imagine!)
  • Banana Man, Bangers and Mash and The Raggy Dolls.
  • Game Boy.
  • Waking up early everyday to watch Agro’s Cartoon Connection.
  • Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
  • Buying those 6 packs of Coco Pops, Fruit Loops, Frosties, Rice Bubbles, Nutri-Grain and Corn Flakes so you could have a different one each day and then opening the packets really carefully and removing the cereal so you'd have a mini wardrobe afterwards. You also most probably just let your parents eat the Corn Flakes.
  • Postman Pat, Fireman Sam and Lift Off (that show with the dirty, blind doll named EC).
  • The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • Don’t push me, push a push pop!
  • Nobody made not jokes... NOT!!
  • That's so funny, I forgot to laugh.
  • You decorated your room with glow-in-the-dark stickers.
  • Feeling sad when your Tamagotchi died. (And Furby – don’t forget Furby! “Bright… light…. loud… sound..”)
  • Seeing a small rack of DVDs in the video store and wondering if anyone ever rented them.
  • Dolly the sheep.
  • Getting up early to watch the Rage Top 50.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Watching South Park for the first time and being really excited by all the swearing.
  • Blowing on the Nintendo cartridge before putting it in the console to make sure it worked properly.
  • Vulcan, Tower, Flame... the Australian Gladiators.
  • Wolfenstein, Doom and Duke Nukem.
  • “And the winner is… Sydney.”

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  • Mighty Max and Polly Pocket. Max and Polly always got lost because they were so bloody small. (I always wanted a Polly Pocket… ALWAYS. I think I might have got an opped one once…)
  • Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
  • Ray Martin hosted A Current Affair.
  • Zoopa Doopa ice blocks were only 20c and if you couldn’t afford it, you asked the canteen lady to cut it in half so you could split it with a friend. (YES!!! ‘cept at ours you get a half for 10cents…)
  • Happy Meals were only $2.95 and the toys were simple but actually good.
  • Pogs and Looney Tunes Tazos.
  • You ate Smarties instead of M&M’s.
  • You tried Dr. Pepper and hated it. (LIES!!! DR PEPPER IS DELICIOUS IN IT’S COUGH MEDICINE-Y GOODNESS!)
  • Goosebumps & Babysitters Club.
  • You had to actually call your friends rather than send them an SMS.
  • Hubba Bubba.
  • Talk to the hand!
  • Johnson and Friends, Noddy and Humphrey B. Bear.

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  • Slap bracelets.
  • Jurassic Park and those toy dinosaurs where you could pull a piece of the skin out to see its insides.
  • Roger Ramjet, he’s our man, hero of our nation.
  • We had paper money.
  • Good on ya Mum! Tip Top’s the one!
  • Rocko’s Modern Life, Rugrats and Hey Arnold! (I looooooooooved Rocko’s Modern Life… did you ever watch it? I found a comic once that showed you how to draw Heffer in stages… I can still do it…)
  • Noni, Monica and that bald guy named George on Play School.
  • Watching The Lion King and feeling Simba’s pain when Mufasa died.
  • Soft serve cones were only 30c and they never tried to up-sell a Flake because they didn’t have it.
  • Wanting a Brain or Silver Bullet during the yo-yo craze.
  • Nesquik without the Nes.

good-luck-troll-dolls-movie-film

  • Troll Dolls.
  • Ba-na-na-na-na! Ba-na-na-na-na! Make those bodies sing!
  • You had to get your photos developed.
  • Your family didn’t own a 4WD unless it was a real one like a Land Cruiser or Patrol. Range Rovers were tough and nobody thought BMW would make a 4WD, let alone Porsche.
  • Competing with your friends to see who could eat the most sour Warheads in one go.
  • The Channel 9 logo had dots next to it and the Channel 7 logo wasn’t a folded piece of paper.
  • No Hat, no play.
  • Dr. Dreadful Food Labs. Kids these days wouldn't be allowed that because its not healthy enough. 
  • High five! Up high, down low, too slow!
  • Watching Round the Twist and getting pissed off that the actors kept on changing. You still loved it though.
  • Cheating in Heads Down, Thumbs Up.
  • Watching that game show called Vidiot. Game shows didn't have to be educational back then, like That's Academic... that show sucks.
  • Healthy Harold day was the best because you got to miss class to sit in a tiny caravan and listen to a talking giraffe.
  • Playing handball with Ace, King, Queen and Dunce and making up stupid rules as you went along.
  • Skipping ropes and Jump Rope for Heart Day. (Do they still have Jump Rope for Heart Day?)
  • Hypercolour T-shirts.

(Of course later in the 90s came the docs, flanno shirts, ‘Fudged’ hair, ripped jeans & ‘tencel’ overalls… but that is teen angst in the 90s, not the wonder of childhood…!)

What memories of popular culture do you have from your youth? Are you a 90s kid, an 80s kid (I consider myself one of those too, being born in ‘81 – Care Bears, Smurfs, Strawberry Shortcake, Popples!), a 70s kid?

17 comments:

  1. Oh my god, I can so relate to most of this! I was 10 in 1990. Me and my brother got up at 6am every weekend to watch Rage. Loved Roger Ramjet and Super Ted. Am I a nerd that I used to look forward to the skipping (but not the door knocking sponsor thing) part?

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  2. That's my children s childhood. Mine was elastics, Marbles, barbies with pointy boobs and heavily made up eyes, The Bee Gees, Adventure Island, the first ever Play School and the first ever Sesame Street, Skippy, Mr Squiggle and Bill and Ben. Sixpence to spend at the shop. Now I'm showing my age`

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  3. YEP YEP YEP!!Can relate to all of this "push a push pop push for it for flavour , push a push pop, save some for later"
    Although I'm a wee bit disapointed there is no mention of Captain Planet!! do you remember him
    " Captain Planet he's a hero going to polution down to zero...." ok I realise how sad it is I remember all these songs.
    and I'm both too a 80s and 90s kid, being born just one year before you xoxo
    PS I really scared you there didn't I ? with all that singing- and more frightening there's more..;)

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  4. OMG I can relate, seeing as how I'm the oldest blogger in the land :) There's heaps more I can think of that mostly relate to choice ... we didn't have choices!White dog poop relates to their diet of today!
    BUT the one that plagues me is ... what happened to sparrows?
    I did see sparrows right in the heart of NYC in June this year! We don't see them in Sydney, are there sparrows down south?
    Great post as always :)

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  5. Yes healthy harold! Yes slap bands! Yes high fives! *s*

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  6. ha ha ah! how that is me, my life, my brothers and i right there, on that page!!! nutts! i'm '85 so that is my childhood summed up in a blog post :)

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  7. I was born in Aussie, also in '81, but moved to Nz when I was 4. I can still relate to most of the stuff on this list, it's amazing how much we steal from Aussie. Nz is not original at all!

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  8. I remember majority of these - if only I kept it all!!
    I was 2 in 1990 but most of these were still around when I was in school - do you remember those coloured pens that vibrated so you had scribbly writing or Yoho Diabolo

    Lisa

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  9. Yes Jump rope for heart still exists! This list is great! I loved Super Ted!...I think that game show amazing where they had the mazes and the keys and letters should be added! I always wanted to go on that show! :) Thanks for sharing!

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  10. Aww I was just yessing to all of thoseI I feel so old now! My son got to go to Healthy harold last year and I was so freaking excited. I asked his teacher if II could go along : )

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  11. Classic!! I STILL open those little cereal boxes carefully to make wardrobes FOR NO REASON!! Some things never change!

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  12. Those are my 'mothering' years! Another thing my children always add to the 90's list is Peter Combe and all his whacky songs!

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  13. Oh man do I feel old! Seems we were born in the same year, have you turned the big 3-0 yet?

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  14. I love this post Vic! You had me at the dog poo. So true and even funnier that you were recently 'pondering' this. I haven't thought about that dried white dog poo in years. Thanks for the trip down memory lane:)

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  15. I grew up in the 90s in the US and about half of this stuff still relates. It's really interesting how global certain things are.

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  16. I grew up in the 90s and remember trying Dr Pepper for the first time. I was considered weird because I was the only one who genuinely seemed to like it!

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  17. Wow, Memories!! LOL Dr Pepper is amazing!! Wasnt a big fan of the unmentioned Captain Planet ( no Offense) apparently tho a movie is being made for captain planet...weird! but yeah i love this blog!! nice work!!

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