# What silly fads have you enjoyed and/or participated in? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 25, 2025, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102 "2025-06-25T02:52:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/101 "2025-06-30T03:28:35Z")
A few other fads from the 60s that I enjoyed (at least a little), include good-luck trolls, peace sign stickers/jewelry, slot cars, Beatlemania wigs, and black-light posters. It was a groovy decade, man. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/102 "2025-07-02T04:36:07Z")
I had a Beatle black light poster. Multitasking. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/103 "2025-07-02T13:08:30Z")
When I was a kid, three walls of my bedroom were covered in posters. The only black-light one was a Peter Max—pure psychedelic glory. I had a bunch of Beatles memorabilia up too, including the headshots from the White Album. But the one that really stuck out was this massive illustrated poster of racehorses thundering forward, with the words: “Big, Bold, Beautiful, Big-A!” At the time, I had no idea what “Big-A” meant. I figured it had to be something edgy and counter-culture—Big A = Amphetamine = Speed = Racing. Perfect poster logic, right? I was a little crushed to learn later it was just a promo for the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. So much for my rebellious symbolism. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/104 "2025-07-02T15:02:28Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > I had a pet rock. Not one of those from a store, I took in a stray from off the street. Aww that’s nice you took in a rescue rock, and not one from a rock mill. 🙂 > [@Joey\_P](#): > > JNCO Never heard of those, but that’s the second time in two days I’d seem them mentioned/. So I looked it up. GAAAH. Those are hideous! kids these days I swear… Mine: For some reason, for a short time in college (1980-81), we all went around without laces in our tenny shoes. Even me, who never follows trends. To this day I have no idea why. > [@solost](#): > > Anybody remember Wacky Packages? I don’t know if Wacky Stickers were (or are! I see they still exist) a fad when they were new (late 60s), but all us cool kids collected them. I kept mine for years and sold them on ebay. I still have one, suck with a magnet (we NEVR stuck them! We collected them! Keep them mint) to my refirgerator. “Blast Blew Ribbon”. > [@solost](#): > > when another kid had a rare one that I didn’t have. Run Tony was really hard to get. Did you know if you put the checklists together they formed a large Wacky on the back? > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > EVERYBODY had squirt guns. In 1976 I “assassinated” the class president with my snub nosed .38 squirt gun, and later tried to use it to hijack my school bus to Cuba. These days I’d be expelled for that. > [@Yllaria](#): > > You have to remember that this was before hand-held calculators. Calculators existed before Trapper Keepers. > [@Icerigger](#): > > I collected The Odd Rods Stickers. Thank you! I could never remember what they were called. We had them but they were harder to find then Wacky Packs. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/105 "2025-07-02T15:05:26Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Did you know if you put the checklists together they formed a large Wacky on the back? Could you explain a little further please? I don’t remember this aspect of Wacky Packages, or never realized in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/106 "2025-07-02T15:18:44Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Could you explain a little further please? Indeedy I can! In the 70s when I collected them, each pack came with a series checklist. That way, you’d know what you didn’t have and would therefor spend more money trying to get Run Tony Shells, or Gyppy Pop or Poopsi. Anyway, the checklist were printed on a big sheet and cut into those 2x3 rectangles. But the back side of the checklist print was a large version of one of that series’ cards. So if you collected enough checklists, you could put the large version together, like a simple puzzle made of pieces all the same shape. Of course you’d get them at random, so you could end up with two or more of the same section of the “puzzle”. Eventually you could get them all. But of course, technology of the day meant no two large prints were ever cut the same, so you’d get overlap or gaps. I just found this website that shows them all. Man people put _everything_ on the internet! Ain’t it great! > **[Wacky Packages Vintage Puzzles](https://www.wackypackages.org/checklists/full/)** eta: > **[Wacky Packages Topps 2nd Series: Run Tony Shells](https://www.wackypackages.org/stickers/2nd_series/whitebacks/runtony_white_front_small_smaller_images.html)** ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/107 "2025-07-02T15:24:16Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Indeedy I can! Ah, thanks! I do seem to have a faint memory of that puzzle aspect of it. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I kept mine for years and sold them on ebay. I still have one, suck with a magnet (we NEVR stuck them! We collected them! Keep them mint) to my refirgerator. This got me thinking, I wonder whatever happened to my Wacky Packs? Like you, I NEVER peeled and stuck them to anything in order to keep them mint, and I treasured my collection. Eh, my mom probably threw them out when I eventually lost interest in them. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/108 "2025-07-02T15:26:38Z")
Cool kids in my high school didn’t wear socks, and although I wasn’t cool, I wanted to be. Years later my mother made a comment in passing about how they stank. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/109 "2025-07-02T15:30:36Z")
Speaking of Wacky Packs and Topps football. They always came with that pressboard pink “gum”. We collected that. You couldn’t chew it, so we’d keep piles of that stuff in our desks. I guess we just couldn’t see throwing away “perfectly good” gum. Well you could use it to shim your desk legs so it didn’t wobble. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/110 "2025-07-02T15:54:20Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Speaking of Wacky Packs and Topps football. They always came with that pressboard pink “gum”. We collected that. You couldn’t chew it I guess I was a dumb kid, because I tried to chew it. I still have TMJ to this day 😄 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/111 "2025-07-02T17:09:56Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Calculators existed before Trapper Keepers. Way back in the first grade(1966), I had a digital calculator. I counted on my fingers. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/112 "2025-07-02T17:45:45Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > I counted on my fingers. Could you do division? Sines and cosines? Did you do it [finger] enter [finger] plus? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/113 "2025-07-02T17:48:26Z")
First grade. We didn’t do sines and cosines. Left hand subtract, right hand add. Only 1/3s in fractions(knuckles). ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102/114 "2025-07-06T03:08:03Z")
True story–in 2015 working for the military, we had a training class where we actually got “mood rings” to wear to measure stress, so apparently they’re still being made [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-silly-fads-have-you-enjoyed-and-or-participated-in/1020102.md?page=5)