# Kid's fads, past & present **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 9, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490 "2010-06-09T01:33:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/61 "2010-06-11T05:10:00Z")
> [@Simmerdown](#): > > [Wacky Packages](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacky_Packages) Wacky Packages was huge when I was in sixth grade. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/62 "2010-06-11T05:41:49Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I made [one](http://doanie.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/fortuneteller00-main_full.jpg) the other day. > > Nowadays, they’re called “fortune tellers” or “origami fortune tellers,” but when I was in school, we called it “that stupid game girls play.” I call it “that thing in the opening credits for _Community_.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/63 "2010-06-11T06:35:38Z")
bracelets & necklaces made from wrigley’s chewing gum wrappers. Seemed like everyone was making those. Especially the girls. Guys made braided belts from vinyl or regular string. I recall some done with different color vinyl string. I’ve forgotten how it was done. They were only about a half inch across. Square or round depending on how it was braided. Model car and airplane kits. Many a brain cell was lost from that glue. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/64 "2010-06-11T12:56:49Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I made [one](http://doanie.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/fortuneteller00-main_full.jpg) the other day. > > Nowadays, they’re called “fortune tellers” or “origami fortune tellers,” but when I was in school, we called it “that stupid game girls play.” Ha! Like I said, looking back, it was pretty girly, but my memory is all the guys got sucked into it too. Thanks for posting the photo…I’m gonna download it and keep it as a memory-jogger. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/65 "2010-06-11T13:05:46Z")
Puffy stickers. Little round ones that came in packs of about 40 to a sheet. They had cute little designs on them. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Real_Regency_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/66 "2010-06-11T13:36:13Z")
Roach clips (I didn’t realize their true purpose) with feathers dangling from long suede cords. Woven ribbon barrettes in two colors with the loose ends hanging down wearing one fake nail that was all-metal, usually silver Anything to do with KISS 3/4 sleeve baseball tees with the iron-ons you got in the mall while you watched and hoped the guy didn’t get it all crooked shell jewelry of all kinds skateboards with the big red translucent wheels ring pops Star Wars trading cards Why yes, I was a junior burnout, how can you tell? ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/67 "2010-06-12T04:12:16Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > When I was a kid though, the fads seemed normal and understandable, **and are still popular today** : > Collecting sports cards > Playing trumps > Playing video games on school computers > Chess > Pool > Drinking > Smoking > Yoyo’s > Breakdancing (Bolding mine) Doesn’t this kind of contradict the definition of a fad? ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/68 "2010-06-12T05:49:11Z")
I had a Hyper Color shirt too. I sadly bought it at the end of the craze but managed to keep it working for nearly a year by not ever putting it in the dryer. That’s what killed them. At my school the hot thing was to collect key fobs. Girls had key chains 3’ long because they had so many linked together, 3’ chains with three keys. Every once in a while I get a strange urge to add cute key fobs to my simple one. I have to suppress it by remembering that I like carrying a small purse and don’t want to switch to a big one just so i have room for my keys. I was also lucky enough to be skinny during the body suit fad. I looked fabulous in them, btw. I would not look so hot now, sadly. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/69 "2010-06-12T06:06:52Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > Lollies, slime, cowboy hats (which led to a joke–"How is a cowboy hat like a hemmorhoid? Because sooner or later every a\*\*hole gets one.) Just curious where the hell you went to school that cowboy hats were a fad? I grew up in Idaho and though I saw plenty of cowboy hats they were never a fad among school kids. I not only remember clackers, I still have the original clackers that I used to bruise my forearms in junior high. They are orange just like these but mine have a metal ring: [http://www.bigredtoybox.com/articles/clackersindex.shtml](http://www.bigredtoybox.com/articles/clackersindex.shtml) happy times… ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Hoodie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2acd7d/32.png) [@Red\_Hoodie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Hoodie)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/70 "2010-06-12T07:20:07Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Cabbage Patch Kids. I wanted one so badly and there was no way my mom was going to stand in line for hours or go to any effort whatsoever for a doll she considered to be hideously ugly. She’s morally opposed to fighting for toys (also Barbie, Costco, and video players in the car). > I looked really good in those… I managed to get a Cabbage Patch Kid a year or two after they were hot…she had the same name as me, but different hair color. _pout_ But what about Garbage Pail Kids? Satire, card collecting, a sticker in every pack, gross-out jokes…I can still remember the pictures on the cards for my and my siblings’ names. I don’t know if these are fads, but I know my friends all had… Easy Bake oven? It’s still around, I know… Shrinky-Dinks? Color the plastic, cut it out, flipping BAKE it in the oven, and then TA-DA! Uhm…2-D action figure fun! Light Bright - until your mom gets so sick of vacuuming the pegs, she throws it all away. Fast forward a couple years…Z Cavaricci pants, pleated to Hell and back, with more belt loops than you can shake a belt at…and they MUST be tightrolled to within an inch of your life. Starter jackets were huge, caps too…people got beat up for a Bulls Starter jacket or some such, if I remember middle school correctly. (_I still miss GPK_.) ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/71 "2010-06-12T12:59:22Z")
I remember the paper fortune tellers. I and one of our friends used it to tell my sister she would marry Joe Stalin (he’d been dead 25 years at that point) and be driven to the wedding in a wheelbarrow. It took a while to make her stop crying. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/72 "2010-06-12T15:11:00Z")
Here’s one I saw yesterday, when I took **mudgirl** to join the park swimming pool: teenage girls, wearing tank-style bathing suits, with shorts over them. The fad is this: the waist-band of the shorts is rolled down so you can see thigh between the top of the swimsuit leg hole and the top of the waist-band of the shorts. I saw at least five teenage girls sporting this look yesterday, so at least around here, it must be a fad. ---
**Author:** ![Beerman1963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@Beerman1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beerman1963)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490/73 "2010-06-14T06:54:05Z")
How about sprayed on tight pants for the girls? Get the knack t-shirts for everybody(for about 20 minutes) Popped collars on your Izod shirts. Trapper Keepers anyone? yo- yo’s skateboards In high school you were not cool if you did not drive a Trans Am or a Camaro smoking…on campus Top siders no socks of course Electronic football [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-fads-past-present/542490.md?page=3)