# What were the fads when you were in school? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243 "2012-11-16T20:57:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/81 "2012-11-18T02:21:22Z")
When I was in elementary school there was a fad for heel plates. They were metal plates that you nailed to the back edge of the heels of your shoes or (Beatle)boots. They made a tapping sound as you walked on hard surfaces. Kind of like tap dancer shoes. We lesser mortals simulated the effect by stealing thumbtacks from the bulletin boards and sticking them in the heels of our shoes. This was circa 1963-64ish. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/82 "2012-11-18T04:51:13Z")
> [@applebetty](#): > > …wearing up to 5 shirts so the collars showed, some popped. 5 shirts at the same time?? I’m sweating just thinking about that.😃 ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/83 "2012-11-18T15:24:17Z")
Junior High: For a time, girls were wearing these contraptions in their hair that I will try to describe: It was like a roach clip, with strips of leather and a feather or two attached. The school district banned them. There was also a trend of wearing a bandana wrapped around one’s bicep. The school banned those as well, citing gang paraphernalia (because [Rochester, Illinois](https://www.google.com/search?num=10&hl=en&safe=off&site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=653&q=rochester%2C+illinois&oq=rochester%2C+illinois&gs_l=img.3..0i24l10.1603.4820.0.7103.19.8.0.0.0.0.286.896.4j3j1.8.0...0.0...1ac.1.raVgcN4R524) had a _huge_ gang problem in 1982 :rolleyes: ). At another junior high school that I went to, students would make these “friendship clips” (or words to similar effect- it’s been 30 years!). You would take a safety pin, and then puts little colored beads and/or baubles on them. The key was to personalize them-- so mine might have been alternating blue and white baubles, whereas yours might have been a unique combination of red, green, and silver, etc. You would then wear your collected clips on your shoes. It was a status symbol how many you had on your shoes; similarly, it was a status symbol as to how many of your clips were on other peoples’ shoes. I only had one. ☹ Then, of course, there were the infamous Izod shirts. If you didn’t have a shirt with the little Izod logo on it, you were a scrub (a dirt-poor nobody). At one time, a boys’ medium was going for around $70 (which was a _shit-ton_ of money in 1982). God I’m glad junior high is over. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/84 "2012-11-18T16:00:04Z")
Back then, people were doing a dance called “the charleston” - going to “reform school” was popular for the boys -girls chewed and snapped bubblegum -your status (as a male) was enhanced if you “did a few years” in prison (car theft, AA, etc.) - “poodle skirts” were in (girls) ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/85 "2012-11-18T16:38:08Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > I see no one’s mentioned tube tops yet; those seemed to just hold on through far, far too long. Well, yes, but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? If they don’t hold on, the wearer probably wasn’t too happy. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![applebetty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@applebetty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/applebetty)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/86 "2012-11-18T19:12:55Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > 5 shirts at the same time?? I’m sweating just thinking about that.😃 Idaho gets a little cold. Or maybe it was the rich girls suffering for fashion. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/87 "2012-11-19T20:27:12Z")
I’m actually finally getting to the age that that stuff is actually getting hard to remember. Let’s see what I do remember, in stream of consciousness order. Crocks were big towards the end of high school. Slap bracelets were all the rage during grade school, as were those jelly shoes that were semi-transparent and made your feet really stink (because they didn’t breathe). Light up shoes were pretty big, too, and a fad guys could get in on. In junior high and early high school, Doc Martins were pretty big, though only amongst the richer kids. Converse didn’t really get popular until after I left school. Now for something that isn’t shoes: wind suits were big from middle school through junior high. Pants with words written on the butt were there before the end of junior high, but no one wore them to school until high school. Same with pajamas, which really didn’t take off until college. Leaving your tag where you could see it was popular in junior high. Or, at least, so I was told. Belly shirts lasted from middle school on, only seeming weird in college, but they were outlawed (though people tried to cheat and wear shirts that would show their belly when they raised their arms). I don’t know if mood rings were really a fad at that point, more just something novel that people would occasionally bring in. For non-clothing related items: Pogs were big in elementary school and had a comeback the beginning of high school. Magic the Gathering really felt like a fad. It still exists, of course, but it actually seemed cool for a while to play. Tamigotchi or other electronic pets were popular at some point, but I don’t remember when. Hair was always gelled to plastic levels. (Stupid girls who would still manage to mess my hair up somehow!) Calculator watches were briefly cool, like in fourth grade (wish I’d gotten that memo before eight, though.) I’m going through some of your posts to see what I could have missed: Flare legs in the modern sense weren’t big yet amongst girls, but baggy legs were big amongst guys, so girls wore baggy flare legs that looked like skirts. Capris were more common, though. Those bracelets you make with cloth bands and your fingers were big in junior high (I think), as were duct tape bracelets. I guess that’s enough for a guy who doesn’t remember school very well anymore. Seriously, that’s a lot of stuff. One parting “fad”: going barefoot as much as possible without getting in trouble. Having a foot fetish then was pretty nice. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/88 "2012-11-20T02:20:02Z")
I graduated HS in 1977 in Anchorage. Most of the fads were similar to those mentioned here by other 70s survivors but there were a few that were probably just regional. Lifesaver lollipops (giant lifesaver sized lollipops with swirled colors and “gourmet” flavors) were a huge fad. The way to do it properly (no, I have no idea why, or how it got started), was to keep the thing in your back pocket along with its wrapper, so that it was visible. Same thing with “picks”. [http://www.manicure4u.co.uk/combs-afro-combs-c-38\_39.html](http://www.manicure4u.co.uk/combs-afro-combs-c-38_39.html) People who could, stuck them in their hair and left them, most of us had to make do with the back pocket. Another 70s style I haven’t seen mentioned is the “sizzler,” a really short dress you’d wear with bloomers whose print/fabric matched the collar and sleeves of the dress. [This item is unavailable - Etsy](http://www.etsy.com/listing/93527488/vintage-1970s-womens-bikini-sizzler-mini) The pattern above doesn’t show it that way, but that was the “cool” way to wear them. I had to sneak mine out of the house in my cornet case and change at school, my parents would have had a heart attack. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/89 "2012-11-20T04:48:51Z")
Wacky Packages were huge when I was in elementary school, mid 70s, Montreal. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/90 "2012-11-20T05:19:13Z")
Pastel-colored gel pens were huge when I was in elementary school. Until the school banned them because people were eating the ink. 😕 I don’t know if it was an actual problem or if it was just a moral panic, but they sent a letter home with everyone telling parents about the evils of consuming ink. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/91 "2012-11-20T06:00:33Z")
Something everyone had in high school: pagers. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/92 "2012-11-20T15:27:19Z")
Ooooh, you guys are bringing back so many memories. Painter’s pants! Dittos! Let’s see; Earth shoes were the abominable successor to Wallabies in the late 70s. Before we had Sassoon, Jordache, and Sergio Valente jeans we wore bellbottom jeans by Chemin de Fer (they had different button closures like sailor and tuxedo style). At some point double pierced ears became big and you’d wear brightly colored enamel earrings - a hoop in the first hole and a stud in the second. There was the year the "New Romantic"look was big, with puffy shirts, capri pants that fastened at the knee and godawful metallic ballet slippers. Ralph Lauren was the popular scent for girls, starting in about sixth grade. It wasn’t until high school that the guys started wearing the wretched Polo that mixed with the stench of their chewing tobacco (I’m talking about the jocks). Dolphin shorts were big(nylon running shorts that were striped or two toned with alternating colors on the front and pack panels.) Bikinis had tops with extra long strings that you’d cross in the back then hook them under the sides of the bottoms and tie around your belly. This allowed you hike them way up. Guys wore OP shorts that were not too short, like goofy athletic shorts of a few years prior and not too long like the ugly style today. Clove cigarettes and Bartles and James wine coolers were the refreshments of choice and Duran Duran was my favorite concert that I saw during my high school years. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mister\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Owl)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/93 "2012-11-20T16:18:23Z")
I spent a couple of my middle teen years living in a small town in central Oregon. This would have been '75 - '76. Perhaps it doesn’t count as a fad since it’s still being played, but my friends introduced me to the then brand new hippie past time of Hacky Sack. When I moved back down to LA, I tried to introduce to some of my friends, but I was never particularly good at it and most weren’t interested. A few years later and it was being played on college campuses nearly everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/94 "2012-11-20T16:21:08Z")
> [@phouka](#): > > - not sure when, possibly ninth or tenth grade (84-86), but there was a clothing store called Units, which sold very generic, non-gendered, multi-purpose knit cotton clothing - like tunics, tights, belts, and such. The idea was that you could own twelve pieces of clothing and have a complete wardrobe. Ugly as hell. Wow, somebody else remembers these! I had some my grandma bought me…I used to wear the “belt” for a skirt. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/95 "2012-11-20T16:24:52Z")
In the 80s at my school it was cinnamon toothpicks and yo-yos – the second not necessarily always a fad, but in this case so much so that they were banned at one point. (As were the toothpicks.) ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/96 "2012-11-20T17:04:27Z")
Southern Ontario '80s… Most have already been mentioned (friendship pins, collecting stickers, rolling your jeans) so I’m trying to think of other ones: In Grade 3 there was fad of wearing tight jeans and carrying a comb in your back pocket with the “tail” of the comb sticking out. Subsequent years: Legwarmers over tight jeans and scrunched down around the ankle. Jean Jackets with those little square rockstar buttons pinned to them. Rat’s tails. Peter Pan Puddle Jumpers - aka Ankle Boots. In high school there was safety-pinning your jeans at the lower leg to make them tighter, “desert boots” (ugly as hell and I don’t know why anybody wanted to wear them), Bennetton shirts, Vuarnet shirts, Polo shirts, “Co-ed Naked (insert activity)” shirts, Dr. Zog’s Sex Wax shirts, Levi’s 501 (button fly) jeans where you cut off the tab at the fly to expose the buttons, and guys wore either Polo or Drakkar Noir cologne. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/97 "2012-11-20T18:03:23Z")
When I was in High School, “Laugh-In” was a hugely popular TV show. Arte Johnson played The Dirty Old Man, and Ruth Busby played The Spinster. He was always trying to sit next to her on the park bench and talk dirty to her. After he offered her a Walnetto, we kids stormed the stores and bought up all this candy we could find. We’d eat them in class, and crack each other up by muttering, “Wanna Walnetto?” ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/98 "2012-11-20T18:17:24Z")
[Wilderness boots.](http://laci.hostcentric.com/36030.JPEG) Not really cowboy boots, but not completely just work boots, either. Why they were called wilderness boots, I have no clue. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/99 "2012-11-20T18:24:39Z")
Anyone remember **Burple**? Oooh, I used to love that stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243/100 "2012-11-20T18:36:35Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Wow, somebody else remembers these! I had some my grandma bought me…I used to wear the “belt” for a skirt. 😃 I still have a couple of ‘units’ pieces – my mom was crazy about them. The pieces I have are leg warmers. I think she had quite a few pieces and everyone got stuck with them for Christmas that year (her go-to store for them was Macys, which still may have been Bambergers at the time.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-fads-when-you-were-in-school/641243.md?page=6)