i remember yesterday...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."
-- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

...the world was so young...

during my last "out-of-town" trip, my friends and i recalled together over dinner the things that we grew up with in the 80's and the early 90's. i've decided to share a list of all that we managed to remember about those good ol' days in this post.

first, allow me to say this: considering that i've already read the "you were a kid in the 80's if..." email, i'm afraid that this post will just be regarded as one of those "gaya-gaya" posts. nevertheless, i'm gonna give this my best shot...

:: jolen, lastiko, and teks (marbles, rubberbands, small game cards) were the "in" things. if you had many of them in your hands and in your pockets (and whatever your storage space was), the better.

:: we played chinese garter by either jumping over it, jumping with it or doing the limbo. the other physical games were terabol slash jumping rope, patintero, bartolata, tumbang-preso, shatong, slipper game, japanese game slash paon-paon slash tag and base, langit-lupa (as in "langit, lupa, saan ka pababa?..."), shake-shake-shampoo, hide and seek, close-up seven up,... ah, too many to mention, really!

:: there was money to gain or lose in those coin games, hantak/taksi, which our parents discouraged us from playing.

:: "game and watch" and brick game were the gadgets for those whose parents could afford

:: pacman, battle city, super mario brothers, and ice breaker were the known computer games

:: we enjoyed magic straps, rainbow springs, and blowing plastic balloons.

:: haw flakes, bazooka joe and the fortune tickets, tarzan, boom-boom lollipops, big boy, cloud 9, big bang, tootsie roll, tabletas (tablet candies), tira-tira, and bobot (with freebie golden rings) were the yummy thingies. remember that "lipstick" came in the form of small red bubble gums? remember that transparent straw with very small spherical colored candies inside it and a flag on its one end?

:: chippy, chiz curls, cheez it, peewee, and richie were the popular junk foods. there were also yellow bags of "people power" curls and letter stickers, mocha pop, and hebe, too!

:: multi-colored suspenders, shoulder pads, curly hair and scary bangs were in. the basketball players had high socks and short shorts!

:: every purchase of colgate and ovaltine meant getting freebies: colgate had those robots which you could transform into alphabets with a few twists and turns, and small colorful tractors, bulldozers and dump trucks were the things to look forward to with every newly opened ovaltine pack. in addition, "pogs" went with coke. there was a "number fever" that became controversial and put a softdrink-bottling company in hot water, too.

:: saksak-puso and the lyrics of monkey, monkey, anabelle (and the likes) are now senseless... but remember the childhood fun they brought us?

remember this? monkey, monkey, anabelle. how many monkey did you see? one. two. three. a-riki-riki-tik and a blue black ship. pick pack boom. yes or no. y. e. s. alis.

how about this? bombero, bombero, may sunog. saan, saan? dapit sa pantalan is number one. one plus one wonderwoman. two plus two lapu-lapu. three plus three christmas tree. four plus four...

...and this? i went to the sea. i'm suma-sa-e. i'm suma-sa-o. alright everybody, tomorrow at the 4 o'clock.

(wahahahaha... my friends and i laughed so hard and went "ano daw??" when we got to this part because we all realized that the lyrics don't make sense.)

:: that's entertainment was still the talk of tinseltown. sheryl cruz-romnick sarmienta, manilyn reynes-janno gibbs and tina paner-chris villanueva were the hot tandems. there was young love, sweet love.

:: ninja turtles were cool and we had our local pandakekoks. we also had voltes v, he-man and the masters of the universe, thunder cats, shaider, and biokids along many others. there were lots of memorable tv commercials, too!

:: movies were mostly watched using the betamax (and the betamax tapes had to be rented).

i'm sure some things got missed out. if you know them, feel free to share (and add) them... that's what the comment box is also for.


post scripts:

(1) the standout recollection for me is "monkey, monkey, anabelle". after all, what in the world is a-riki-riki-tik? the lyrics really make me laugh.

(2) i've already blogged about the movies, dramas-on-radio, and tv shows that defined the 80's and early 90's. the article is here. standout tv commercials got mentioned here.