Remember when?

[Jerry Oz]

Here we go again!
Hood sports:
Sandlot football [[tackle in the street!)/handball & stickball/water hydrant in Summer
We also played curb ball and on the playground, dodge ball. And remember tetherball? Girls used to destroy all the boys at tetherball. And we also played "Chicago", our name for 21, which was one-on-[[however many) basketball. Make a shot and if you sank three free throws, you could take it out to try to make another.

Home remedies 2:
Liquid bandaid/rubbing alcohol/ Witch Hazel/Mom's dabs of spit/shoes w/holey sole? Newspaper or cardboard!
Did your mom hold up a napkin and tell you to lick it so she could wipe something off, like a scrape?

Hobbies:
Going to the library [[to read for fun, not school)/Columbia House Club, mail order CDs/Oprah's Book Club/stamp or coin comicbook collecting/bottle caps/marbles [[glass ones)
Collected comics for years. My brother and I would catch the bus downtown to go to the comic book store or to the grindhouse to watch movies. Remember "Weekly Reader"? Always loved it when the teacher opened up the box with all of the books we ordered.

Banks in the 80's & 90's:
Chemical Bank/ Fleet Bank
Remember Savings & Loans?

"Big box" stores [[60's & 70's version):
Alexander's/ Korvettes/ Sears & Roebuck Co./Crazy Eddie's [[audio)/The Wiz [[audio)/Dr. J's [["urban wear")
Rinks, Woolworth, Gold Circle

Before streaming, there was Netflix before it was Netflix [[just series runs of classic tv, such as I Love Lucy)/ before downloading and music services, Revolt/Tidal/iTunes, etc. There was Limeware & Napster.
Before cable, Showtime & HBO, there was Turner Network.
Remember when HBO came on every day at 4:30 or 5:00 PM and the last movie ended just after midnight? And WTBS made me an Atlanta Hawks fan and I was 600 miles outside of Atlanta.

Before podcasts, blogs, vblogs, their was Public Access.
The cheapest and most entertaining programs were on public access. Until a bunch of goofs decided to get all of the slots and presented cheap homemade talk shows that booked people who were neither relevant nor interesting.

Rap & Hip-hop's legacy was Kurtis Blow/Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five/Treacherous Trio/Run-DMC.
I didn't like rap until the mid-80s. My cousin Tony played so much Public Enemy and Boogie Down Production, I remain a fan of both acts to this day.

Before there was Nat Geo/The History Channel/ Snapped!/Cosmos [[w/the strange-talking astrophysicist guy from the planetarium) we had In Search of... [[w/Leonard Nimoy, Spock)/ Unsolved Mysteries - hosted by a very android-sounding Robert Stack and Nova/the original Cosmos w/late Carl Sagan, "..there are billions of billions of billions...
Don't forget That's Incredible, which made teenager Byron Allen a star and no doubt led to his becoming the rarest of breeds: an African-American billionaire. I'll never forget the time some idiot tried to catch a bullet in his mouth and it ripped through his lip.
Also, Wild Kingdom hosted by Marlon Perkins and The Crocodile Hunter [[late Bill Irwin, who rarely hunted crocs! Daughter, Bindi, just recently got married and has her own show. Crikey!!
Remember when Marlon Perkins would jump into four feet of water and wrestle with a 20 foot Boa Constrictor? Did it every few weeks and I would wonder why the camera crew would let this old dude fight such monsters. Then I realized the snakes were drugged and he was never in danger at all. And also, when they would clip a tag on a Wildebeest's or lion's ear and insist that it didn't hurt, in spite of the drugged animal's writhing in obvious pain when they did it?

Apparel:
Everyone and his mother has a clothing line[[s). Even His Orangeness' daughter does! We had these: Cross Colours/Karl Kani/Bennetton/Fubu/Rocca Wear/Sean John/Dapper Dan
You're not going far enough back. I remember window paned blue jeans and elephant and monster-legged bell bottoms. Also, daishikis and stacked heels. None of which was truly fly unless you made sure you walked around with your afro pick stuck in the back of your head.

Kiddie apparel:
Osh Kosh By Gosh/Garanimals/Underoos
Moms had the frumpy-dumpy housedress and fuzzy/furry slippers
Garanimals were classic. Designed for fashion-fuzzy moms so they could match their kids' clothes without embarrassing them in front of their friends. And I'll never forget the time when my mother bought me a pair of husky pants in the seventh grade. That was enough to make me lose weight.

What about when SNL was funny? In the hungry and salad days. Think Eddie Murphy/Jimmy Fallon [[no so funny since he unseated Jay)/ Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players: Dan, Gilda,John,Garett, and Chevy. They brought the funny and never let it go, son!!
SNL was great when it started. John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, and Lorraine Newman hit the ground running. And Bill Murray replaced Belushi. He was so unfunny, he gave a classic monologue that I'm pretty sure saved his career. People started laughing half way through it and he was the star of the ensemble for the rest of his tenure. SNL made Steve Martin a star. And when the original crew left, it went in the dumpster until Eddie Murphy [["featuring Eddie Murphy") came along. A lot of his best stuff was on Saturday Night Live. BTW: Do you remember ABC tried to riff SNL with a show called "Friday"? It's where Michael Richards and Julia Louis-Dreyfus got the big breaks. Andy Kaufmann famously blew it up on live TV once by refusing to finish any of the skits.

Last word. I promise. 2 megabestellers - The Preppy Handbook & What to Expect When You're Expecting. Hot fashion terms? Yuppie and buppie.
Rich Man, Poor Man. Roots. Jaws. And it was the era of the first movie blockbusters like Star Wars, Jaws [[again), Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Rocky and others.

Have at it, guys! I'm gonna catch a nap. Bye.

Those days are gone for good. Of course, today's kids will have similar memories of good times 30-40 years from now.