It's a Party in a Can!

Commercials could be pretty good in the 90s :)

Remember These??

While doing research for something completely amazing and blog-related (and secret for now), I happened upon some foods I used to love. Yes, we've all seen lists of 90s foods that have since been discontinued, so I realize I'm not breaking new ground here. These are just a few of my personal favorites that I mourn for.

I'll start with the ones I always remembered.. the ones never forgotten:

Taco-flavored ranch dressing from Hidden Valley. Was this stuff even good? I have a feeling it was one of those marketing gimmicks that sucked me in and made me love it regardless of the product's taste. It must not have been around very long either, because I would reminisce about it with my marching band carpool buddies in high school.

Cookies n Creme Twix. You could also buy these in a box of singles. But who wants to eat just one single bar? That's just crazy.

And now for a food I completely forgot about for the last 20 years: Pop Qwiz popcorn! 

I'm just gonna come right out and say it.. this stuff was stupid. It was colored popcorn, and the color in the bag would be a mystery until it was popped. And there was no special flavoring involved, just straight up microwave butter popcorn. This commercial might get you so excited that you'd want to run out and buy some though! Haha. If you have any long-lost foods that you still dream of, let me know in the comments!

Gotta Get a Sharp Locker Mate

So this is what kids used before everyone had cell phones.... But in the mid 90s did they all use phrases like "parental units" and "hippest"? No wonder this product didn't appeal to me. Whoever wrote the copy for this ad may have been a little behind, but wardrobe was spot on for 1995!

Alloy Catalog - Fall 1997

Since my Delia's catalog scans were a hit on BuzzFeed, I figured I should get moving on my need-to-scan pile. Today's feature is the very first Alloy catalog I received. Just like Delia's, this brand morphed over time to meet the interests of the next generation. So, kids don't wanna be skaters any more?? What's up with that? I don't think Alloy sells any guy's clothing at all now either, and yet back then they wanted everyone to dress like dudes. And it totally reeled me in. I had the huge wide leg jeans, baggy striped sweaters, skate shoes, wallet chain, pixie-cut hair, and of course a Dickies mini messenger bag. Here's my embarrassing secret: I didn't even own a skateboard nor know how to ride. And while I was part of my school's ski club, I was too chicken to try out snowboarding. Feels good to admit it after all these years! Haha.

Catalog is located here on Flickr.

90s Problems: No Change for a Phone Call

As awesome as it is to basically have instant access to any tv show or movie I feel like watching, I still think back and sigh about the "good old days of tv". You know, when you actually watched commercials, or looked in the TV Guide to see what Saturday night movies would be on. I could still do those things, but puh-lease! I'm a Netflix and Hulu junkie now. Plus I don't have cable tv and dealing with poor digital channel reception is totally annoying. Instead I waste time watching old commercials on the YouTubes.

1-800-Collect has conveniently wrangled up a collection of their own gems. Oooh David Spade, tell me more about saving money on collect calls! I also enjoy that the 1-800-Collect site is like an homage to the internet of yore.

Don't forget that 1-800-Call ATT gave us their version, starring Carrot Top:

Can't remember the last time I made a collect call, but I do remember abusing the system like many others have done. Mostly this was to save the 25 or 35 cents which I was probably feeding into the vending machine instead. And then there were the times we used it for prank calling, when we'd see if anyone accepted the charges to speak with God or perhaps the Wyld Stallyns. Sometimes they did, and we'd hang up in terror and confusion.

Troll Dolls

Troll dolls were a fad item that had a resurgence in the 90s along with other seemingly "hippie-ish" things like mood rings and lava lamps. Although I've seen them being sold recently at Barnes & Noble, I'm betting (or maybe just hoping) they don't make another comeback. Mostly that's because of people like this:

Doesn't that make you feel better about your own parents?

Delia's Catalog - Summer 96

Confession time: if there was a warehouse out there in the wild blue yonder filled with Delia's deadstock from the mid 90s, I would snag everything in my size and then some. I was such a maniac for this stuff that I actually kept all the catalogs that arrived in my mailbox. While I ended up throwing out every issue of Seventeen, Teen and YM that I owned, I couldn't part with these. Today I finally got around to scanning one, the Summer '96 edition. I still pine for the printed shift dresses and Vans Wally's.

Whole catalog can be viewed on flickr: Delia's Catalog - Summer 96

Found Memories: Geocities

Remember Geocities? Of course you do! Unless you're too young to know of its awesomeness and are just here in hopes of finding inspiration for your trendy early 90s wardrobe.

Anyways I found this today:  http://oneterabyteofkilobyteage.tumblr.com/

Best entry from my scrolling is this one for The Fifis. Sadly for them, they never achieved their dream of becoming famous, building trust and going on the Totally Different Pauly show so they could stab Pauly Shore to death. Young people just don't know how to follow through on goals.