Shay’s Favorite Fads From the 80s

I know we live in Texas, where it's hot 10 out of 12 months but everyone still has to be fashion forward. In the 80's we wore our leg warmers over our jeans; yes, we looked silly but we didn't know that at the time. Hindsight is 20/20 you know. However, as silly as this might have been, here in the last year this trend has tried to make a comeback. Just this past Christmas you could find leg warmers everywhere. They were being modeled more with skirts and boots than over jeans but I couldn't believe all my old leg warmers might actually have a use again.

Jellies were the best thing since sliced bread, however, this "jellie" didn't go on bread but on your feet. These shoes were made of a very flexible rubber that you could wear with anything and in any weather! They were worn with skirts, shorts, jeans, socks, or panty hose. They were an all around "go to" shoe for all girls/ladies. They weren't just for kids, grown ups wore them too. Except for my mom who thought they were the ugliest things she'd ever seen. I had probably had 6 pair of jellies; pink, white, clear, light blue, navy and I don't know what else, but they matched everything in my wardrobe. The only drawback was in summer your feet did sweat and make them slippery. A number of companies still make the shoes and if my jellies still fit me I'd still wear them!

I loved the Trapper Keeper!! I even looked for one not long ago, because I needed a good notebook and didn't want just a 3-ring binder. I didn't find them at the time thinking they no longer existed. Everybody had a Trapper Keeper. You could get a solid color or eventually they had designs, mine was green with little white kittens. What made the Trapper Keeper unique was the fact that the folders had a diagonal cut to them so your papers wouldn't slip out. Also the notebook had a Velcro closer so if you dropped the whole notebook nothing would fall out. Guess what, they still make the Trapper Keeper.

The Swatch watch was a big hit in the 80's. I did not have one of these but all of my friends did and they had not just one but many. They came in all different colors, styles and designs and were waterproof. Some even smelled; they were scratch and sniff. Then, of course, you had to have the Swatch face protectors, those were the little rubber bands that fit across the face of the watch to keep it from getting scratched or broken. You could also mix and match those. My boyfriend, who is a few years older than me, said they used to wear more than one Swatch at a time and would set them to different times (I didn't ask why). While researching this I found that Swatch watches are still being made and while some are similar to the old style they have many new styles as well.

The Cabbage Patch Kid was born in the late 70's but didn't cause mania until the 80's when the dolls were mass produced. Inventor, Xavier Roberts, name could be found on the "bottom" of every Cabbage Patch Kid. You bought the doll but you then "adopted" the doll by filling out and returning the adoption paper packaged with every kid and returning it to Babyland General Hospital. You would receive birthday cards to your "kid/s" after doing so too. The craze that came with these dolls was almost unheard of back in the 80's. People would fight, actual fist fights, in the stores over trying to get a Cabbage Patch Kid. In today's society that's just a given, our manners need to be put in check. I had 2 "kids", Gretchen and Michael, they still sit on my bed at my moms house.