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*[ 23 September, 2008 ]

totally tubular…man. [ parenting sure is fun, the old school ali ]

as a child of the 80s…and a child of divorced parents…there was absolutely NO shortage of must-have-it-right-now toys. my mother waited in a way too long line to get my sister and i our very first hard-faced cabbage patch kids. (and i made the mistake of saying “jerk alert” when she finally walked in the door with them, which meant i didn’t get to open up MINE while i had to watch my sister open hers. torture, i tell you. i mean, i was four) We had the first editions…the ones with the SOFT faces

talk about old school right there. then we had the regular ones. red heads. ones with glasses. ones with teeth! the preemies. the world travelers. the boys. the astronaut version. the olympic version. it was CPK mania at casa de ali. (only i’m not referring to California Pizza Kitchen. mmmm…)

and it didn’t stop there. Atari. Care Bears. Glo-worms, He-Man and She-Ra, Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, Pound Puppies, Teddy Ruxpin, Garbage Pail Kids cards. and those are just the toys. please don’t get me started on the clothing. please. if you know what’s good for you. although, i will tell you that Miss Heather and I have already discussed our matching black Debbie Gibson hats and if you are really, really nice to me…i may dig up a picture of me WEARING it. with my black and white biker shorts. THE HORROR!

i loved the heck out of my pogo ball, which totally beat the pants off of my neighbor’s boring old pogo stick.

rad!

the one thing i didn’t have, the one thing i remember wanting SO bad was a skip-it.

i mean, it wasn’t all that exciting, really. a piece of plastic at the end of a string. oooooooh. fancy. a $9.99 toy that i begged and pleaded for. and didn’t get.

(bitter much?)

alas, Emily doesn’t have a gazillion-and-a-half cabbage patch kids (oh, wait, she does…i take that back) (ps. i fought the urge to write eleventy billion. but, i think that song is totally overplayed. who came up with eleventy billion anyway??? or “i can haz”? because that one? needs to be put to rest. PLEASE. it was hilarious for a while…and now it’s just…OVER. but…then again, i OVERuse and abuse *weeps* and FAIL, epic fail, and fail whale and the like)

but she DOES have a skip it.

and now so do i. FINALLY

HAWT.

it was totally 80s night at the Blacks!

(funny side story about the Blacks. Shane, who i love. Shane, who may possibly be the nicest person i have ever met in my life. for serious. a shirt-off-his-back type of guy. Shane, who told me a story that i’m still laughing about, days later…. he and this other dude - whose last name is Dong - were booking ice time for hockey and sent an email around saying…’when you go in, it’s under ‘Black/Dong’…ahahahahahahahaha)

we hauled out the hula hoop!

and the jump rope!

EXCELLENT!

don’t laugh at how, um, awesome i look

i’ve got these three on my side - (charlie’s angels?)

Josh, Samara, Emily. forces to be reckoned with.

Comments [40]

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slynnro said:

I love you and this post is awesome. I had all that same stuff but no Skip It. So jealous!

slynnros last blog post..Eff Y’all, I’m from Texas. South Texas, that is.

loren said:

I remember the CPKids with the teeth! My sister had a boy named Barry Barlow, hahaha. Such a dork. Funny the things that stick with ya.

“Long Duck Dong”
lorens last blog post..I’m DOWN! Quit kicking me already!

jenboglass said:

Ahh! So much fun! I never had a skip it either. I was a witch with the hula hoop though. I attacked it slow-like. I had stamina and staying power.

I remember I had a ‘baby alive’ too. She would eat (loud with a motor) and then pee. I loved that doll.

differentkindofgirl said:

Skip It rocks! When can we schedule a play date?! I’ll bring all my CPK dolls (Oh, yeah!) and, if you want, we can bake little brownies with my Easy Bake Oven!

differentkindofgirls last blog post..the curse of ‘the curse’

LAVENDULA said:

i had an easy bake oven and i loved that thing it was awesome!!!

Chantal said:

Loved Skip It, I still grab my neighbours to play with it when I can

Chantals last blog post..Run

cristan said:

Have you been to BabyLand General, in Cleveland, GA? It’s where the Cabbage Patch babies are born. It’s awesomely creepy.
ps: I just added you as a Facebook “friend”

cristans last blog post..Lake Nantahala

Rhea said:

You guys know how to party. lol I never had a skip it. Very cool!

Rheas last blog post..Out of the Box

Janna said:

Nice reminiscent post One doll I racked my brain trying to remember was the Popples doll.

I had a pogo ball too. But no skip it. For some reason - i remember the commercial and found the counter option really funny. Even though I’m sure knowing me - that was the biggest appeal

KD @ A Bit Squirrell said:

My mom waited in line for FOUR HOURS for a cabbage patch doll for me and then she totally had to like snatchone from another lady. I wish I could have seen it. My mom was all of 5′4″ tall and like a buck five brawling with another lady. Awesome.

KD @ A Bit Squirrells last blog post..Because I am tired but promised to post something

Camels & Chocolate said:

I had all of those toys, too, but never a Skip-It, though I lusted after one! What was the deal with our parents? I also had over 60 My Little Ponies who played in my He-Man Castle Grayskull.

Miss said:

We had skip it’s at my school and I could NEVER figure them out. I could also NOT do the pogo ball. I have zero sense of balance. But I did have the rest of the toys you listed. Token only child here.
Misss last blog post..Ocean Sized Love

AJ said:

I hated dolls so much, I was a transformer kind of girl, but I had to have a dang CPK…a preemie with the big bald head, a yellow windbreaker, jeans, and sneakers. Because we all put our preemies in jeans and sneakers. Duh.

I did LOVE me some pogo ball!! I still have the scar from the gash it ripped across my shin in a botched attempt to mount the thing.

Oh jeez, did that sound dirty? haha

One thing missing from your list…the charm necklaces…the big chunky plastic chains with the giant plastic charms. The only Christmas gift I ever snooped and found. I felt so guilty it scarred me for life.

gorillabuns said:

Dude, I still have my Debbie Gibson hat.

How about you?

Sensibly Sassy said:

aww now I miss my skip it and bogo ball. I was awful at the pogo ball but I rocked the socks off the skip it!

Sensibly Sassys last blog post..Memphis: Part One

Katie said:

Oh how I miss the 80’s! I had a skip-it but I always wanted a Teddy Ruxpin and never got it. And do tell, since you were a Debbie Gibson fan, did you have the Electric Youth perfume? I loved that stuff!

Katies last blog post..Here’s Looking at You, 27

hillary said:

I totally had a Skip-It. I was the coolest kid in grade 2 because of it. Ok, I was the coolest kid for like a week.

hillarys last blog post..Plus Ca Change Plus C’est La Meme Chose

Chris said:

Like, totally rad.

Heather said:

I loved all those toys! And I totally had a skip it…don’t forget slip n slide and Jem! Wooo.

btw, “eleventy” is from Lord of the Rings and “I can haz” is from the LOL cats…nerdy much?? Why yes I am. Thanks for noticing
Heathers last blog post..Monday’s Muse - The Meme for Creative Moms

swirl girl said:

I had a skip it! Loved that thing until the cup thing literally broke from the frayed rope.

How about the Clackers? Huge glass marbles on a string that would Clack together when you motioned your arm up and down…it was fun until someone ‘put an eye out’.

Angella said:

I, too, was spoiled. But I never had a skip-it. NOW I WANT ONE.

Looks like a great night!

Angellas last blog post..Win $50 At Amazon

Shamelessly Sassy said:

I never had a skipit either. I’m pissed. My daughter is so getting one tomorrow. For my own personal use, of course.

Shamelessly Sassys last blog post..Can You Show Me Heaven On the Internet?

Maya said:

my favorite doll in the world was my cabbage patch preemie doll. it’s a little eerie- as my girls were preemies. I wrote about that in one post. i had a skip it, but since I had no coordination, i never used it.

Mayas last blog post..Work BS

Moose said:

I loved my pound puppy. And my skip-stick. And my pogo ball. And my zip leg jeans with three pairs of socks worn at once.

katie ~ motherbumper said:

I had a skip-it bumblebee that you could fill with bubble stuff and it would expel bubbles while skipping. BOOYAH.

BTW - I’m impressed that you skipped-it and hula-hooped it without a drink in hand. Not that you drink a lot - it’s just if that pic was of me, I’d totally be holding something long stemmed.

katie ~ motherbumpers last blog post..from the vaseline lens

Haley-O said:

I want a skipit! Looks like FAB exercise!

Haley-Os last blog post..The Things I Can Tell Them

She Likes Purple said:

Pogo ball! Oh my gosh, I had totally forgotten about that contraption!

Hockeyman said:

He-Man, GIJoe, Transformers (when made of metal), etc… My sis had the CPK’s and Rainbow Brites and long live Jem and the Smurfs right? 80’s toys were way better. Although I am a techie and a bit jealous of today’s stuff. They’ve come a long way since my Atari and Commodore 64!

Multi-Tasking Mommy said:

Oh….that Cabbage Patch Kid looks like mine did!

Multi-Tasking Mommys last blog post..Let Us Not Speak of White Laundry Again!

Holly said:

OMG, you do NOT know how much I needed that laugh.

I about died last night when my son turned the TV to Retro Teletoon and the FRAGGLES were on! I kid you not!

thatgirlblogs said:

Well, I had a skip-it but I never had a cabbage patch doll, so there you go.

zandor said:

Although I was only alive for three years in the 80s I did have a skip it. I loved that thing. I also had a cabbage patch kid. The skip it was the best though.

zandors last blog post..Blurp

Teena in Toronto said:

We were too poor to have cool stuff. Sob! Sob!

I did have a skip it … though we didn’t call it that at the time.

Teena in Torontos last blog post..Tuesday workout

heather... said:

I don’t know if any photos of me in the Debbie Gibson hat still exist, but there IS some old-school video of me singing, “Lost In Your Eyes” in the school talent show. Wearing the Debbie outfit & hat. SEXY.

And DUDE! Me and Pogo ball were LIKETHIS. I never got a skip it either. I can’t wait until my kid is old enough for me to play with her toys.

heather…s last blog post..It Could Have Been A Rooster

Kate said:

wow you just sent me back to childhood!! How I loved cabbage patch kids..and pogo-ing all day! Thanks for the great rewind.

Kates last blog post..looky looky!

The Over-Thinker said:

HAHAHA!! I love the first action shot of you doing the skip-it! Look at you go! Pointing your index finger at the ground, giving it “the business”–whoo hoo!

And Oh how I remember the pogo-ball. Now, I don’t remember ever being able to jump more than once before falling, but at least it looked cool sitting in our garage.

The Over-Thinkers last blog post..Calling all Jane & John Doe’s II: Pee in the Pool Edition

OHmommy said:

Were you born in 1977?

Did you have a pocket rocker with Tiffany tapes too?

AWESOME post.

OHmommys last blog post..Cooking in leotards with Lola

Renee said:

I didn’t have a Skip-It. I had a lemon twist! You remember those?

Di said:

I totally get the gazillion thing and you would fit in PERFECTLY at the Cantina. We call ourselves the Hyperbole Girls. Kim’s daughter’s gymnastics costs $32,000 a year plus another $20,000 for travel. I bought a $238 dress on e-bay for $79 (knew the brand, knew I would love it.) By the time my friend Pilar had told the story a few times it was, “Diane got a $750 dress on e-bay for $20!”

We all know what we mean!

Dis last blog post..Something New Everyday

michael-anne said:

skip it was soooo awesome. i loved that darned thing and i was TOTALLY the same way. ALWAYS wanted one never got one.

i’ve been checking out 80s tshirts and stuff for nostalgia (and cuz i just went to the new kids concert!) i found a few cute ones on baloneysandwich.net they’ve got a totally tubular one, a 123 not it, child of the 80s… fun stuff.

maybe they’ll make a skip it one. should we ask them to?

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