I’m 23 as well and you can add to the list those key holder bands. You’d put your key ring on one said on and other would loop around your neck.
Could they have been http://www.itshappybunnybooks.com/ Happy Bunny?
My 19YO loved Happy Bunny.
She also did these, including making a wallet, entirely from duct tape! She would ‘disguise’ holes in her Converse sneakers (had to be Converse!) by duct-taping black satin ribbon on them! She had a couple of hackey sack balls a friend gave her, but never really learned the game.
Given the time frame you’re talking about, vs the time frame I’m talking about, these things must have been around for a while.
It seems like the yoyo thing came around every spring. We also had the troll dolls, but they called them “Wishniks”. Peter Max clothes, yarn ties on your ponytail, Dr. Scholl’s sandals. Damn, I’m old. :smack:
Oh, God - yes! And those Swatches were ungodly expensive, even though they were cheap pieces of crap. I remember wanting one for every outfit I owned. It was sad, sad.
Was that before, during or after The Claw? I think it might have been slightly before - right around the time stirrup pants became popular, right?
Banana clips for hair, two interlocking combs (curved like a banana) that made your hair look like a horse’s mane - I used to manage a Claire’s Boutiques in the mid-80’s, and we had an entire 4’ wall section filled with those damn things.
Feather earrings.
Rubik’s fucking Cubes!
I was in the Michael Jackson/Madonna era. 
I automatically feel nauseous when I see a single white glove.
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
I’m a teacher of 7th grade, so I can fill you in on current fads:
Boys - Hair must come down to eyes in front, which is not enough. Boys must comb their hair down in the mirror in the bathroom during breaks and in class if they can. It’s very odd to walk by the bathroom and see boys all combing and primping their hair.
Girls - Short shorts are back.
Wacky Walkers by Marx. I still have my Jiminy Cricket.
Then there were those Hockey Coins that came with Jello products…
And Duncan Spin-Tops. Yeah… I’m gettin old.
Let’s see. Marbles. Roller skates that fastened to your shoe sole (better not lose that key!) Davey Crockett racoon skin hats. What years do you think I was in grammar school?
Growing (something like) Kombucha as a good luck charm. You had to receive a baby Kombucha from a friend, put it in tea, and talk to it. After a while it made baby Kombuchas, one baby every week, and you had to give them to a friend. After it had three babies, you had to take the mama Kombucha out of the water, dry it, and keep it as a good luck charm.
This was 15-20 years ago. I’m sure I still have it somewhere.
I always wondered: were coonskin hats made of real 'coon?
You want your nostalgia? I got your nostalgia right here.
Some random stuff on there, but lots of old games, toys, and videos.
Tamagotchis. I just found a ‘dead’ one in a drawer recently. And My Little Pony soft vinyl ponies, pink, blue, purple…my daughter had almost 50 at one time (they came into the house via birthdays/Christmas presents, and were also bought at the thrift store). I started abducting one at a time, to be stored in a hidden cardboard box, to bring down the sheer numbers. Eventually all ended up there. When I was a young 'un we made boondoggles, those long keychain things made from plastic strips. And weaving potholders on little looms, Christmas presents for grandma!
I was so cool I kept my sticker collection in my Trapper Keeper. Does anyone remember those plastic snails that came with a key? I think they were called Treasure Keepers. Also Puffalumps and Popples and Care Bears and Wuzzles and Smurfs and Treasure Trolls. And I’d wear two pairs of scrunch socks at once, in Day-Glo colors. Peg-leg Jordache jeans and a hacked up t-shirt stuffed through a ring with a bar in the middle. Blue mascara and sky-high bangs. Fuschia Reeboks with the straps. Shorts overalls with one side undone.
Now my kids are way into the Silly Bandz, which is better than the Bakugans from last year because they’re so much cheaper.
Just thought of the other big fad in elementary school besides yo-yos. (A reminder that we’re talking late 50s/early 60s here.)
This was a homemade device that I’m sure has a name, though I don’t recall anyone calling them anything at the time they were big.
You took a sheet of paper and made it into an exact square, then folded it according to some magic formula until you ended up with a device that you could stick the thumb and index finger of each hand into and manipulate, sort of north/south and east/west, revealing surfaces inside in an alternating fashion.
On the outside flaps were colors, on the inside spaces were numbers. You would manipulate this device a set number of times each round, determined by either spelling out the colors or counting out the number you chose on the interior surface.
My memory has dimmed with time, but I think you eventually got to the end of it, and lifted up an interior flap to reveal a fortune or something like that.
Amazingly, given my complete lack of artistic or mechanical ability, I learned how to make one of these things myself, so was right in there with everyone else who was doing it. Seems like kind of a girly enterprise in retrospect, but I recall many other guys besides me made them too.
I sure hope this description resonates with someone, and they can confirm this thing’s existence (and maybe give it a name).
And I just now remembered the third great elementary school fad: cat’s cradle. Very big for a while, and we looked upon those who could make it to advanced levels with awe.
At my school, we called these “cootie catchers”.
I made one 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 was also going to mention the shirt that you pressed your hand on that would (theoretically) leave a flourescent handprint. My sister had one and, yes, the commercials made it look so cool and easy. In reality, though? You’d have to have your damn hand on that shirt for at least 10 minutes before you’d even get some small, barely noticeable color change at all.
I also remember “the pump” shoes. You were NOT cool unless you had pump shoes and, accordingly, I was NOT cool. There were also shoes with lights on the back that would flash when you walked. I did have those, but still got made fun of because they were the cheap kind.
We called them “fortune tellers”.
Along the same lines, we used to make “pop guns” out of notebook paper (also folding according to some magic formula.) Eventually, we discovered that you could put a paper football inside one and sail it across the room when you popped the “gun”.