80’s Nostalgia and a Very Special Mystery Guest

on the same gymnastics team. All through our teenage years, we were deep in the competitive gymnastics world, not through the high school, but through a private club. So it was a lot of practicing dedication, a lot of no air conditioning, gymnastics, sweating, all kinds of stuff we're going to talk about. But anyway, that's what this podcast is about is 80s nostalgia. And so I'm going to introduce my mystery guest, who is named Marian. And she's also my graphic designer, and helped.

Well, I don't even want to say helped, I want to say, did a lot of work to get the bolo book put together and published. So say hello to the audience. Marian. Hello, listener. Yeah, we listen to the Jason Bateman podcast. What's it called? smartlace. Yes, yes. smartlace. And they act like they only have one listener. So we thought that was funny. Yes, we we laugh about that. But thank you for having me today. This is a real treat. Well, I'm so glad you agreed to throw

yourself out there. You will only be on your first podcast once, right? So maybe we can make this a recurring podcast if the audience likes it. Which you guys have to tell me if you like this format or not. But anyway, we started off our 80s nostalgia conversation talking about stores. They don't have at the mall anymore. Because we were mallrats. You know, and I don't think that's a thing anymore. Well, that's back when it was semi safe to go to the mall as a teenage girl.

Right? We I mean, before we could even drive, one of our parents would drop us off. Yeah. And we hung out at perimeter mall in Dunwoody, Georgia. And there was no cell phone communication. So mom was like, I'll be back at this door in two hours. Right? Or, you had to make sure you had a dime and then a quarter to use a payphone. Right? But yeah, we'd hang out at the mall, there was a movie

theater. So we might go over and see a movie and always get some kind of food, which was popcorn at the movies and chocolate chip cookies at the mall when they had the cookie factory. So when I asked Mary and I was like, you know, let's talk about stores they don't have at the mall anymore. Her first answer was married go round. That store was an experience like no other. They had the squishy floor which was kind of pieced together like a puzzle is like rubber. Yeah,

it was rubber. Yeah. And which I don't why did that have anything to do with a merry go round? For some reason? It always reminded me of an airplane. Well, they had flashing lights in there. Yeah, like a huge traffic light. It It was most unusual and weird clothes. Yes. Well, for us. We were. We were very traditional shelter. Yeah. And what we were allowed to wear exactly, but That was a great

segue into parachute pants. Now people that don't know what they are think that they're the billowy kind that like MC Hammer wore in that video, right? Oh, baggy. Those are like hair on pants. parachute pants were that nylon material. And they were so tight, like, form fitting. And they had all the zippers and it was like cargo pants made out of nylon. But didn't they have the elastic band at the ankle? They

did. Yeah. I mean, I remember I had a pair and you didn't ever want to wear them in the winter. Even though Georgia winters were nothing It was, there was just like, a piece of paper. They were so thin, right? And you would freeze if you wore those. So I look those up on terapeak. And some of them go for $200. That's crazy. The vintage parachute pants, which I just

said in my last podcast. I don't sell pants because I don't like taking pictures and I don't like listing on but now I'm breaking my own rule looking for those. And of course the military green or cammo ones sell for the most. Right and they're not necessarily form fitting, so I guess they're more forgiving in the size category. Yeah, yeah, maybe mine were just a size too small. And I refused to stop wearing them. I don't know. Do you love them? So I know I was so cool. And those parachute

pants with my head? I don't know. darksiders I don't know what shoes you wear with those. I guess just your original Nikes the white ones with the red stripe. Yes. I had a pair of those two. Well, those came in leather and the fabric cloth right. I had to get the leather because those were easier to clean. Right? Well, and that's what Forrest Gump wore exactly years later in the movie when he was doing his 80s. throwback. Part of the movie, anyway. Yeah. So that's what people call them. Oh, the

Forrest Gump. Nikes Yeah, but, okay. That's for the people that didn't live in the era. Right. Right. So you know, if you come across any original Nikes that vintage ones, I think the first ones were blue with a yellow stripe. Okay, they had like a waffle bottom. Mm hmm. I've seen those on eBay for up to $300. Wow. But it's just all about the nostalgia. And you had a great story about the pink pants.

Oh, my Gloria Vanderbilt, Pam. Those I think I actually looked at those for a very long time before convincing my mother to purchase them because they were quite pricey for pants. But yes, they were hot pink and absolutely irresistible for a teenage girl. So I talked my mom into purchasing those. And I'm sure I wore them way too much. And I don't remember them. I'm sure we have a picture of you in them. Oh, yes. If we only took more pictures back then it's not like today where everything is?

Well, and I was usually the picture taker. Yeah, so I'm not in as many. Then that was by design. Because you look better than me. Well, no, not at all. And But see, I never had the Polaroid camera. And that's what I really wanted the instantaneous pictures. Do you remember when my mom sold those? No, she got a job with Polaroid. Just to stand around the mall and take pictures of people. And you know, here's how it works. Here's the picture and that it would develop immediately in front of them.

And you know, they get to take their picture home and then she'd send them over to I think it was wolf camera. Yeah, Atlanta to buy a camera. Or maybe she had a supply of them with her that she could sell them on the spot. But yeah, she would do that on weekends as a part time job. And I have tons of pictures that are Polaroids I bet but the lighting is terrible. I mean, you had to have the flash bar on the top. And then Oh, wait, wait, my film

ran out. I gotta put some more film and I think those film cartridges and we had like 10 pictures on them. Mm hmm. And then the flashbulbs didn't last Very long. No, there was only like five flashes on them. So yeah, I was the one of the slumber party that was, you know, taking the pictures of everybody like when they were asleep and didn't know. I was like the stealth. I'm getting blackmail photos to use against you later. person. Were you drawing mustaches on that? No, I wasn't mean like

that. I just was like, hey, I've got that picture of you passed out in slumber party, so you better be nice. But back to the clothes. We were talking about how we used to dress up for school. Oh, yes. Yeah, I can remember having a little rule that I just kind of made up for myself. I'm not sure why I did this. But I did not want to wear blue jeans any day except for Fridays? Yeah, it's like casual Fridays, years ago. Everyday is casual now, but I think I had that rule too. And it wasn't a school

dress code thing. Right. Just we wore skirts and maybe three inch heels and roughly pirate black puffy shirt. Yeah, puffy shirts, and blazers in the late 70s, early 80s. It was the long plaid. wool, the knee length plaid wool skirt, and a turtleneck and a blazer. And this was in Georgia, where it really didn't get cold enough to dress like that true. Or we did chinos, right pants. That's what we call the I think it's cienc is the actual fabric ch II and Tz drape rays are made out of

that fabric. That's sort of slicky Yes, shiny, not satin. But you know, we did the preppy look with the the Izod shirt with the collar up. Now I wasn't a edgy collar up person. For you? No, no. I think mainly the guys did the collar up. And that was later. Right. Late 80s maybe maybe so sort of, like Saved by the Bell people. Exactly. That came out. Right. Okay. So yeah, but we dressed up. And we go to the mall, of course and try on clothes that we would never buy.

Yeah, try and test out the perfume at the department stores. And I mean, the mall was it. But there was one store. We really weren't supposed to go in Spencer, right? Yeah, that was a little edgy. Little. My mom was not comfortable with me going in that store. Well, for those who don't know what Spencer's gifts is, it's

like a adult novelty store. And they had stuff like you know, naked lady playing cards and you know, these things like a glass and you when you filled it up with water that the person would change from having closed and not having close. And then they had all the velvet posters in the back. Just lava lamps and all this the black light bowl, rice, all that stuff. And, you know, our parents were like, No, you can't go in there. They sell

drugs in the back. And I mean, it was the 70s they probably did but we were too innocent and naive to know that look at us until we were not going to be their customer. Okay, you too. girls need to stay at the front of the store. Y'all need to go ahead and leave. Because we know you're not buying anything in here. And then what other stores are they they don't have anymore? We go we might get an Orange Julius right. My cousin worked there. Who? Kathy Oh, I didn't. I guess I do remember

that. Yep. Yeah, those were delish. They were good. But like Paul Harris and casual corner and Oh, the 579 store. I don't think they can have that anymore because that's like discrimination against people in even sizes or bigger sizes. But yeah, and Kenny shoes, which I don't think they have that anymore. No, I haven't seen that like places like rack room and you know pick. It was at Payless. Yeah. Where you just go get it yourself and try it on.

Right the boxes are kind of already the boxes of shoes right already stacked like we used to go Go to the shoe store and sit down and they'd measure your foot with that funny, black and silver measuring thing. And, you know, you pray that they had your size in the back. You know, that was back in the day. I don't think I've seen that anywhere. You just try it on until you find your size. Right? Yeah. So got a lot of a lot of things that don't exist anymore. And I don't think I've even been

in the mall in 10 years. I just with online shopping. You don't really need to go right there at your fingertips. Yeah. Well, and I was telling the story, speaking of the 579 store, that, you know, this was early 80s when Brooke Shields was doing that commercial for Calvin Klein jeans. And she was like, nothing comes between me and my Calvin's and she was like, 14, and that was that was pretty close to porn. I mean, that was pretty

racy. So I had to have a pair of those jeans, because I just thought Brooke Shields was, you know, so beautiful. And so I saved my babysitting money, and paid I think $50 for a pair of Calvin Klein's. But I was so dumb, I was a size three, because I was like 14, and I should have gotten a size bigger. So I could have worn them longer. But you know, but you had a fix for that. What?

Oh, and you started to outgrow them the little ponytail holder where you hook the ponytail holder around the button and then through the button loop and it gives you a couple extra inches in the waist. But you know, when you're 14, you don't really know what's ahead for you with hips getting taller and all that stuff. So I didn't look up vintage Calvin Klein's maybe I can do that right now and just see what those sell for. Because we're all kicking ourselves for

throwing this stuff away. And like if we had it, I don't know if we'd sell it because it would be sentimental, but it's the kind of stuff you can find at thrift stores and garage sales and stuff like that, because everybody else is getting rid of it. So I just put that into terapeak. And let's see what's coming up. So here's a set of two vintage 80s women's USA union made mom jeans, Calvin Klein brand to pair sold for

$100. Wow. So here's one that size 10 vintage Calvin Klein one pair still has the tags sold for $100. Nice. Why didn't we save that stuff? So, but we can be proactive. We can save it we're wearing now. We can we can save our mom clothes, right? Because I'm sure those are gonna be worth a lot of money. Well, Christina, her son's girlfriend was talking last night about. She's got mom shorts and mom like they come up really high waisted. Yeah. And you know, they're their mom

shorts. And I'm like, why would you wear that? You're so cute. And she's like, I don't know. They're just comfortable and everybody else is wearing. They wear the high waisted shorts with the crop top. Oh, okay. All right. Well, I mean, everything cycles back, like crocs are back in again. Yes, they are. Did you bought a new pair? I do not have a new pair. But when they were popular several years ago, our whole family. Everybody had a pair at least one right? Yeah.

And then even the lined? kind you remember the crocs mammoths? Yes. So you could wear them in the winter like a woolly mammoth and fleece lining unbuttoned and you can wash that or take it out and wear them as regular or put them in but you you could wash the crocs and aligning. Right and that's what I liked about them. Because they were you know, microbial or whatever the word is. Anti germ. So that is kind of a good fit for COVID It sure is. Maybe that's why they're

making a comeback. Yeah. Are people wearing them on their hands. Okay, now we're going to move on to health and beauty products, which means hair and makeup. stuff. Oh, girls love that. What's your best memory of something you loved? A product you loved in the 80s the product I loved for my hair was finesse. I just thought that smelled better than any other shampoo on the market. And that came in a blue

bottle. Yes, it did. Okay, well, I'm gonna look that up and see if there are any on eBay shampoo because, you know, this stuff is still out there in people's houses, you know, shoved in the back of their bathroom cabinets. Right. And I've helped you clean out some things and we came across some old stuff that was like, like the band aids in the metal container, right? Yeah, that was a metal container. Okay. And we loved tickle deodorant. And that shows up on eBay from time to time. So let

me see. Here's one vintage finesse revitalizing shampoo for permed or color treated hair. You didn't have any perms Did you? Well, in college, I had a couple but everyone had to experiment with a perfect course we were children of the 80s. Well, I had two sisters and we would have permed day in my kitchen. My mom would buy those Ogilvy home perms and she just insisted like our hair was so thin, we had to do something so we would all be getting a perm at the same time. There was

another brand. It'll come to me later when we're done recording. But remember that Ogilvy how empowering because there was a commercial and the lady's hair was just so curly, and I just figured I was gonna look like that. I do. Breezy. Georgia humidity, Suzanne. So anyway, back to finesse. This one bottle sold for $38. That's impressive. That's a lot for an old bottle of shampoo. Right? This one says nine vintage. It's a whole lot of different one. Revlon flex, suave, silky, Ents Oh, I'd

forgotten about that one. And there's the one that everybody knows is Herbal Essence. In the green container. I'm going to look that one up. See how much that's going for? Because I've seen that sell for over $100 Really? Like if it's sealed and, you know, in perfect condition. Sure. Oh, let's see. Oh, Lord, it has gone up. Vintage Herbal Essence shampoo. No s means new old stock, Clairol $200. That's unbelievable. And this one's not even full. No, it's not. It's like three quarters full.

And when did this sell? That's what I like to look at is how recently did this happen? June 15. of 2021. Wow, just a few weeks ago, those house clean outs that are happening. Pay attention to these health and beauty products. I mean, you may not want to put it on your hair. But you know, that was the commercial where it was like the cartoon girl in nature in life, her private areas were covered with flowers. leaves. Yeah, like it was a modest commercial. And it was a cartoon. Oh my gosh.

And then there's some more that sold $177 $150 and there is a glass bottle. Remember the glass bottle? Wow that's a for the shower. Yeah, that's like that was before the plastic revolution. This one was plastic. But there is a glass one I've seen before. So yeah, all those all those shampoos flex. That was like wax. Yeah, cuz one of the things you told me is these people might not be buying them to put it in their hair, but maybe as a background for a movie set or TV set. Yeah, prop. Right.

That happens all the time. I have sold things that have gone to Fox Studios, Universal Studios, like you know, that's what's happening. Yeah, I think that's what you told me was the case with the tickle deodorant. Yeah, it went to a movie. Yeah, which I just pulled that up on terapeak and the highest priced one that sold went for 5999. Wow, vintage tickle green roll on deodorant. And if you don't know what that is, it's like an hourglass shaped container with a round dome top and we take the

top off. It's this big deodorant ball, right? So I mean there's a bunch of these on here that went for over and it would go on very wet if I remember Yeah. Oh was so big. Right. And and then they came out with like the solids that were cleaner. You know, that didn't make such a mess. That Yeah, that was probably one of their chief complaints from customers is it goes on to where it's too wet. takes forever to dry. Oh, I know what I wanted to look up. Do you remember those? Those

razors for women? I think it was called flicker. Oh, and they were round. Yeah. I didn't know any of those are on. I think they were pink. I had several of those. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Let's see. Oh, here's a whole here's a whole jumble. Oh, here it is. Well, this one's white. It's got a pink dial thing in the middle. So one of these sealed flicker women safety razor shaver. 10 blades total that says to razors. Anyway, 50 bucks for this funky little thing. It's

almost like a disc. Yeah, it's like a disc. And I don't know how long they made it. But I know for sure I had it in the 80s because that was just a cool product. And but it was still a razor you could still cut yourself. Mm hmm. But just a very unusual shape for a razor. Yeah, but that sells for 50 bucks. Who knew? And here's another one. I don't know if you had this one. The Clairol curling iron with the mist. Oh, I don't remember that rain. in it. You'd put water in it in

this reservoir. Oh, like an iron. Yeah, I mean, like kind of that Yeah. And you're close with see if I find a soul one goes for 35 and it probably doesn't even have to work. It's just one of those. The storage of things. There's no active. That's a good sign. But you can see this I could pull it up on Google. Okay, wait, this one. This one's active enough. Nope, that's not it. That's a different one. Which by the way, I did sell a to pronounce ci flat, ceramic flat iron straightener for 40

bucks the other day. Like, look at curling ours look at hair tools, I guess they call them right? Those can be good money. See if that's so it had these little holes in it. And this Clairol that's called the time wave. But there's a there's one that's green and it was a mist. I'm just gonna interesting because now I am having you see it wants you to see arrow vintage mist curling fire. Good images. Here's a good picture.

But yeah, we had that. And somehow you were convinced that the mist was once again going to curl that very fine, thin hair. And then we had the hot rollers. The Clairol heatset are ones that they're very spiky. Oh, yeah. And I had those had the little brown circle that would turn to red when it was ready. Yeah. And then they started making them with like a velvet coating. Right. So you wouldn't burn yourself as bad fingers, right? Yeah.

So I have sold some of those. I don't think they were vintage but hot rollers do sell because they're expensive. Now, I think you've even sold the pink sponge. Kai was just gonna say remember this sponge roller that you would sleep in and you did that? Oh, I did that all the time too. And it was super uncomfortable. All right, but you woke up and you look like you had three times the amount of hair that you had before. But did you brush the curls after

you took the rollers out? Well, it was very difficult because they were so tightly woven. It was hard to brush through them. Well, there was a certain cheerleader. Oh, my grade that wore those and she did not brush her hair out. You could just tell where she ended. And I sat behind her in math or something. And I was like, I just wanted to get out my brush and brush her hair. She had great hair. But you could see where the little client that Yeah, clamp down and

there was this line. Oh, yeah, I was like, yo, you might want to get up like five minutes earlier. You could brush her or maybe you need a handheld mirror. Yeah, the back of your head. Yeah, so haircare has come a long way. But there's all kinds of vintage curling irons and stuff that people buy just for this reason of like, Oh, I had that. But you know, my curling iron would just get covered with don't write well, because you'd put moose in your hair or hairspray.

And I think it would just kind of stick to the wind, everything. bubblegum can lead Georgia humidity, you had to do everything you could to. Then some days you just gave up more in a ponytail. Right? Yeah. So that's funny. So let's see, what else did we use back in the 80s? That, that I've seen that might be that might have value? Okay, well, one thing we had. It's not health and beauty but electric blankets. Oh, yes. They don't make those

like they used to? Well, because the coils that were they were kind of hard. Yeah. You could definitely feel them. Right. It wasn't the most comfortable blanket. But did you lay on yours or cover up with it covered up with it? Yeah, but yeah. It was, um, wasn't the most comfortable blanket, that's for sure. Well, you didn't have to sleep in the basement with no heat. Oh, you're right. But I did have to sleep up in the mountains in a cabin. Right, right.

So my bedroom was in the basement like this one little finished corner because there was four kids. And they actually made that for my older sister. And she spent one night down there. And she's like, I don't like it. It's creepy. I don't want to do it. And I was just ready to have my own room because I either had to share with my older sister or my younger sister. And I was like, I'll take it. I didn't take privacy anytime. I'll do it. So

yeah, I moved down there. And my mom was so concerned i'd freeze to death. But I had an electric blanket. And I remember I would turn it on before I went upstairs to take a shower. Right so it'd be toasty warm. Yeah. And you know, I'd have that sucker turned up to like eight. I mean, it was I didn't want to get up in the morning. It was so warm. But I think over the years they have changed the criteria for how hot it can get because fire hazard gate either burned

people, right? It was something about it was burning, disabled people that couldn't move and get out from under it. Okay, or they couldn't feel they were being burned. And so I mean, the ones that make now are just they don't get hot. They don't get anywhere near like they used to. Right and some that they make now are four directly on the mattress right lay on. Yes. I haven't tried that yet. I haven't either. I'm a hot sleeper. So I doubt I'm going to

try that. But you spent the night a few times in my basement bedroom. I did. Yeah. It was just fun to have my own place. That was that was a big space and we listened to records right and you would hand paint Brett's you would put put our names on our bread so we had purse and this was long before personalization mall, right came along was that store at the mall that would write your name on anything. We had the little little bubbles at the

end of each letter. Yep. I don't remember the name of that store. But they had like anything you can imagine that they would paint your name on it. So maybe that was your inspiration. I'm pretty sure I copy everybody. So but we I mean we didn't have internet we didn't have video games. Well, we had Pong Pong. The most boring video game of all time, but we thought it was the cool. Show that to a teenager right now. I know they would know what to

do with that. So yeah, we started painting stuff and putting our names on a clipboard. And I just love to have office supplies, right? And so I just like my desk, had all these little acrylic containers, and we put our names on stuff like that. But back to video games. Well, pac man came out Yes, during our time. And I think we had a we had an Atari system. Great. So I mean, I did you had a pinball machine in your basement. That was pretty cool. And you still have it? We do still have

it. Does it still work? It still works? Yep. And is this somebody in the family habit? And like actually use it? It's still at my parents house, but my nephew definitely wants it in his house whenever he's that far along. Or electronics nephew. No. Different one different one. We're not naming names to protect the privacy of people that we might be embarrassing. They will probably never listen to this podcast anyway. But so we had Pac Man and we had

asteroids. Yes. Can you look back and Galaga I didn't have that you didn't have Galaga Well, what about Donkey Kong? Oh yeah. Or misses Pac Man and Frogger Yes, por Frogger he didn't always get across No, he got smashed a lot. Oh my gosh, we thought those games were the best. And I guess they're still out there. Let's now I have to look up what they might be worth. I'm sure I've seen these on money making money

Mondays back. Pac Man Atari game just going back to what I had well there's no that's active let's look at sold no sold. Probably putting something Oh, it says Paceman. No wonder spellcheck got me again. Okay. sold. Well. Here's a lot of 14 games for Atari that sold for $510. Wow. These are all like in lots a lot of for Atari games at Junior Pac Man, Miss Pac Man and other $160. See, in my in the last $100 sales video, somebody sold a bunch of like Nintendo games. See, I

don't I don't know those. Right. If I saw Atari, I would know that because we had that right. And then we didn't do video games. And then our kids had them. And I mean, they just lived for the day that whatever was coming out, right? The release date? Yes. Yes. Just, you know, Grand Theft Auto four or whatever it was, you know, they just lived for that. But looking at these these sold games. I mean, there's a lot so if you recognize Atari, or any

of those first. I mean, it was a fit Carter's like an eight track. Yes, it was a track tape. There's another story. Did you have an eight track tape player in your car? I did not. But I had the cassette player. Yeah, that you'd have to pop out and turn over. Right, right. My sister had an eight track tape in her car. It was a Chevette. Chevette that little silver car. Mm hmm. And yeah, she would drive around with that eight track tape. Ted Nugent stuff like she was

all into the 80s hair bands. And just it would stop in the middle of the song. So frustrating. Yeah. Well, I think we have gone back in time, as much as we can today because it's almost happy hour at Mary Ann's house. And the best part of visiting Marian is that I sit at the bar in the kitchen and she prepares food and I just watch and we just chat and then all of a sudden there shark uteri in front of me and all of a sudden my drink is refilled

and It's just amazing. So maybe we'll do the podcast during happy hour next time. Oh, y'all will have to tell us if you liked this format. You got away with not hearing a vocabulary builder this week. But trust me, I'll catch you up on that. So thank you, Marion for taking the time to be on my podcast. You're welcome. It's been so much fun. And now you won't have to be nervous because you'll know what to expect, right? She was like, I don't know if I can be spontaneous. I'm not a public

speaker. Well, you're all you're doing is talking into microphones. It's not like you're standing up in a at the Fox Theater with 1000s of people. So thanks for listening everybody. This is Suzanne a wells and best friend from life, Marian, and you can find me on YouTube and Facebook. Please let me know your feedback on this episode if you like it, and we will make more. Thanks for tuning in and I'll be back next week. Have a great day on eBay. Bye bye.