You're Lost Between "Baby Boomer" and "Generation X" if...


1. You remember when Jordache jeans with a flat-handle comb in the back pocket was cool.

2. Any photograph of you shows you wearing an Izod shirt with the collar turned up.

3. You know any "Weird Al" Yankovic songs by heart.

4. You've ever rung someone's doorbell and said "Landshark!"

5. You were once bowled over by the technological excellence of such products as Atari, IntelliVision, TelStar and Coleco.

6. You remember the premier of MTV -or worse yet, you remember its predecessor, "Friday Night Videos."

7. You and your friends ever discussed having a reunion at the end of the century and playing Prince's "1999" until you passed out partying.

8. A predominant color in your childhood photos is plaid.

9. You remember when music that was labeled "alternative" really was alternative, and when "alternative comedy" was really funny.

10. You took family trips BEFORE the invention of the minivan.

11. (Related to No. 10) You rode in the back of the station wagon facing the cars behind you.

12. You've recently horrified yourself by using any one of the following phrases: "You know, back when...," "When I was your age...," or "When I was younger..."

13. Schoolhouse Rock played a HUGE part in how you learned things like grammar, math and history. (A big hint here is if the only way you can recite the Preamble to the Constitution is by singing it.)

14. You ever dressed to look like someone in a Madonna, Cyndi Lauper or Duran Duran video.

15. You remember your first kiss with someone having happened while either "Leather and Lace" or "Crazy for You" was playing.

16. You remember with pain the day the Green Machine hit the streets (or the sidewalks), instantly making your Big Wheel obsolete.

17. The age-old question "Where's the beef?" still makes you laugh.

18. You remember when film critics raved that no movie could ever possibly have more advanced special effects than "TRON."

19. You had a crush on Ted the photographer on "Love Boat," Gage from "Emergency," or Ponch from "CHIPS."

20. Your hair at some point in time in the '80s could only be described by saying "I was experimenting."

21. You've ever shopped at Benetton.

22. You're starting to believe that having the kids in school year- round wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

23. You're currently employed doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with your college major.

24. U2 is too popular and mainstream for you now.

25. You remember trying to guess which episode of "The Brady Bunch" it was by the first scene.

26. You had a front-row seat (i.e., blew off one or more classes) for Luke and Laura's wedding on "GH."

27. Your parents wanted you to attend medical school, but you decided it was pointless since Quincy got all the babes anyway.

28. You know who shot J.R.

29. You recall when Love's Baby Soft was in every girl's Christmas stocking.

30. This rings a bell: "My name is Charlie, and they work for me."!

31. You were unsure if Diet Coke would ever catch on. (Related item: you were sure that "New Coke" would NEVER catch on.)

32. You know all the words to the double-album set of the "Grease" soundtrack.

33. You've ever had a Dorothy Hamill haircut.

34. You sat with your friends on any given Friday night circa 1982 and dialed 867-5309 to see if Jenny was actually there.

35. "All skate, change directions" means something to you.

36. You've ever owned a pair of rainbow suspenders like the ones Mork used to wear.

37. You bought a pair of Vans and wanted to order a pizza in history class so you could be just like Jeff Spicolli. (Related item: if you've ever smacked yourself in the head with a shoe and exclaimed,"I'm so wasted!"

38. You owned a Preppy Handbook.

39. You were too young to see "Blue Lagoon," so you just had to settle for the second-hand reports.

40. You remember when movies were only PG and R.

41. You learned to swim at about the same time "Jaws" came out....and still carry the emotional scars to prove it.

42. You remember when your cable TV box had a sliding selector switch. and your "cable remote" was connected to the TV by a CORD!

43. Your jaw would ache by the time you finished one of those brick- sized packages of Bazooka!

44. You remember Bo and Luke Duke, Daisy, Boss Hogg, or-worst of all- what Sheriff Roscoe's full name was.

45. Your parents paid $2,000 for a top-loading VCR that was almost the size of a coffee table.

46. You found nothing strange about Bert and Ernie living together.

47. You remember having a rotary phone.

48. You actually believed that Mikey, famed kid on the Life cereal commercials, died after eating Pop Rocks and drinking a Coke.

49. "Members Only" jackets...say no more.

50. And lastly, I'll make a song stick in your head for the rest of the day: ....you actually remember the words to the theme song of "The Greatest American Hero." ("BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I'M WALKIN' ON AIR... I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD FEEL SO FREE-EE-EE...")

Yep, I'm right there with ya, Michael!

One question though - can you explain the doorbell and landshark one to me? I've never heard of that before.

How scary! I am afraid that this is me to a 'T'! I laughed at them all, because I remember all of this!

Oh l-rd.... I'm in trouble......

Hey but I do remember The Thunderbirds and Gigantor. Does that count for anything?

It is from a Saturday Night Live skit in the mid-1970's after Jaws came out.

I'm sure we could all add to this list, but it is quite funny walking down memory lane. I just keep trying to tell my kids "but the mullet was cool when I was in high school..."

As far as landshark, it was a Saturday Night Live skit, where a shark would try to get you to answer the door so it could eat you (pizza man, flowers, candy-gram, etc...)

OHHHH!!! I remember now! Thanks!

19. You had a crush on Ted the photographer on "Love Boat," Gage from "Emergency," or Ponch from "CHIPS."


How about Lonnie Anderson from WKRP, Daisy Duke, and Wonder woman?

OH MY GOD!Friday night videos!!!!!!!! What memories, staying up until midnight so I could catch the Van Halen "Jump" video! Now those were the days!

#3 Had Wierd Al on the CD player this morning.

Can you say, "disenfranchised?"

FYI:

Guilty on
#1
#2
#3 (I also know that on the food album, if you played it backwards on the turntable, you would hear, clear as day, the "satanic message" of the time that was hidden in rock and roll. In this case it was "Satan Eats Cheese Wiz".
#4
#5 (And darn it, I miss Pong and Tank)
#6 (Can anyone name the very first video to play on MTV?
#7
#10/11
#13 (As you will recall, I still sing "I'm just a bill, just an ordinary bill, and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill)
#14 Does it count if I had the Flock of Seagulls haircut?
#15 My first kiss was to Crazy for You with a girl who was dressed like Madonna!
#17 Just reading it makes me laugh "Where's the Beef?"
#20 Like I said Flock of Seagulls baby!

etc. etc.

Oh and it was Roscoe P. Coltrain and his lazy dog's name was Flash!

As for crushes I do believe it was Daisy Duke, Ellie Mae, all of the Angels, and Ginger and Mary Ann, but we already had this thread!

Oh my...that was a fun trip down memory lane. I must admit - I'm a huge fan of VH1's "I love the 80's" and "I love the 80's strikes back."

Video killed the radiostars was the first MTV video.

This is too funny! Just a few weeks ago I was vising with my friends from childhood (and yes I am lucky enough to still have the same friends I had when I was 12 - and we see each other often ) and they were making fun of my becuase my mom wouldn't let me stay up late enough to catch Friday night videos. They said I was supposed to pretend to sleep and then get back up to watch them later.

I never knew my friends were devious until we were older. Sneaking back into the living room to watch Friday night videos is the least of the sneaky things I have found out they participated in .

Thanks for the trip down memory lane....

How about Wolfman Jack and the Midnight Special, or Don Kirshners Rock Concert? I was just a kid, but I would spend the weekend w/my "flower child" cousin Katy, and we would stay up late eating multi-colored popcorn and watching these shows. That's why I was listening to Cream, Hendrix, and the Stones in 6th grade, when all my friends were walking around singing Delta Dawn.

How about the King Biscuit Flower Hour? The best Romantics album (and one of the best live albums ever) is a Romantics King Biscuit Concert taped in San Antonio.

Oh Yeah....(emphasis on Yeah!)

The Buggles.

Oh,,, The Midnight Special!!!!!!! I thought that show was so awesome and I couldn't believe that I actually allowed to watch it!

How about those giant bell bottom pants and mutton chop side burns.