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19 totally '80s school supplies that will take you back to the Reagan era
Why can't we bring Trapper Keepers and scented markers to the office?
It's back to school season! But we're going way back… thirty years back. Any kid who grew up on Donkey Kong cereal and Heathcliff cartoons will remember these items from their school days.
1. Trapper Keepers may have been introduced in the '70s, but they exploded with graphic awesomeness in the '80s. Did you want the rainbow, the horse or the Lamborghini?
Image: Trapper Keeper
2. Scratch 'N Sniff Stickers! You know you did well on a test when your teacher stuck a pizza-scented sticker next to your "A." The cowboy boot? That was probably more for a "B."
Image: liketotally80s.com
3. Stickers weren't the only things to sniff. How about Sanford Mr. Sketch Scented Markers?
Image: BrandlandUSA
4. There was no better way to get a hold of your No. 2 than with a triangular rubber pencil grip.
Image: Polyvore
5. Of course, you needed to outfit your pencil with an eraser cap, too.
Image: gpencil
6. When the Troll and Scholastic Book Club catalogs arrived, it was a joyous day.
Image: Fourth Grade Nothing
7. Who can forget the grinding sound of these pencil sharpeners?
Image: Thinkstock
8. High tech toys like Speak & Spell and Quiz Wiz helped us learn.
Image: Retro Waste
9. Lisa Frank everything. Stickers, Trapper Keepers, Thermoses — everything.
Image: Chronically Vintage
10. Did anyone else chomp their fingers with plastic safety scissors to prove how safe they were?
Image: Thinkstock
11. Calculator watches were geek chic.
Image: Wishbookweb
12. Jelly bracelets! You either went minimalist with just a couple or all out to form a Wonder Woman–like shield with hundreds of them.
Image: Windy City Novelties
13. On field trips, our vanilla ice cream cups came with the taste of tiny wooden spoon.
Image: Karl and Kat
14. After eating all those sweets, we had to prove how well we brushed our teeth with Red Cote Disclosing Tablets. They turned your teeth pink!
Image: toothbrushexpress
15. We remember when floppy discs were actually floppy, unlike the 3½-inch generation.
Image: Thinkstock
16. Of course, the best game to play on floppy was Oregon Trail. We always died of dystentery.
Image: Archive.org
17. We were trading Garbage Pail Kids under the desk.
Image: Horrorbuzz
18. Posters on the wall were D.A.R.E.-ing us to "Just Say No."
Image: dare.org
19. Coke was more than a beverage. It was a clothing brand.
Image: liketotally80s.com
Oh, of course there were lunch boxes! Who could forget the strange plastic taste imparted to any liquid stored in the little plastic Thermos?
2 Comments
-I eBayed my precious rainbow-hearts-floating-down-a-waterfall-in-the-jungle Trapper Keeper after ages and ages of thinking I might've imagined the captivating image because I couldn't find it again. Think I originally got it at PathMark. The thing is so gorgeous and so useful. I've also got 3 Lisa Frank Trappers because my Lisa Frank collection is...um, enormous to say the very least. I'm a fanatic. Used it all through college.
-Scented stickers and markers, yeah! Loved the puffy ones (and Lisa Frank ones x-3) especially. I'm still huge on stickers. Many full albums, many thousands more on sheets. 8'D
-In elementary school we'd get to line up for our chance to shop at the "general store"--a table in the front hall where you could buy pencil grips, erasers, etc., etc., etc., all by yourself. Way to make ya feel grown-up like a smart, mature shopper. The grips helped get rid of the stupid "writing bump," but the triangular ones were pretty hard themselves. Cool-feeling/looking, but the softer ones were better. And of everything on the list I'd imagine the eraser toppers are among the *most* common now, but I can't conceive of a life worth living without...most of it. ;u;
-Scholastic book orders and fairs, ALWAYS a highlight!!!
-I had some kind of educational electronic keyboard-type thing when I was really little that had flat buttons like a fast food restaurant cash register...that's what I remember loving about it, but it's one of the things I truly have never seen again. ;; Also, VideoSmarts is pretty much the greatest thing ever...nobody ever seems to recall that educational brilliance, yet I reference it constantly when everyday things remind me of it...
-Might've had a calculator watch, come to think of it. Don't know #14 at all. LOVE the vanilla/chocolate ice cream cups (Dixie Cups) w/ the wooden spoons!!
-Jelly bracelets? Got 'em. Wear 'em at 33. Also jelly shoes, jelly anything and everything, loads of Silly Bandz...;D
-I was in the sweet spot where I got to use the floppy floppies, hard floppies, CDs, and then eventually flash drives. But I'll never get rid of the floppies, CDs, cassettes, or VHS tapes I've kept--how could I possibly? They're precious. Never played Oregon Trail myself but I remember other people doing so. Have tons of favorite awesome CD-ROM computer games. And I remember this simple design-a-scene program we used in our first computer classes (wound up playing Neopets by the end.)
-No Garbage Pail Kids (yeough...), but I suppose Pokemon cards were our equivalent.
-Didn't need to "dare" to resist anything since we were never even offered, never mind "pressured" as they insisted we'd be...`_`
-Lunchboxes? Ah yes. My best ones included a hard plastic 101 Dalmatians (still have) + soft vinyl Lisa Frank (wish I still had, but thankfully I've got a different current one...plus tin Kill Bill & My Little Pony:FiM ones.)
"Why can't we bring Trapper Keepers and scented markers to the office?" I don't know...you can't?? Thank Bob for my home office. :3 I'd still be using all my 80s/90s stuff regardless!
