Mall memories.

Ha, I so remember Contempo Casuals as a mall fixture from the 1980s-90s. I thought it was an oddly named store even then, and was wondering what the heck happened to all those stores.

According to this, the stores were converted to Wet Seal and Arden B stores (I don't remember seeing either of those chains around lately either, but I really haven't been looking).

It's funny, we take photos and videos of the big moments in life, but really, what I want more than anything is just photos/video of the standard things we've lost, like the inside of a 1967 grocery store, or a 1974 school. Which is why this big-haired mall-memory photo essay is such a treat. (Warning: The link goes to a BuzzFeed roundup of the photos, don't click on the link in the BuzzFeed lead, it warns of malware.)

Once not that long ago a friend and I started naming THE ULTIMATE 1980s mall stores. I can't remember the full list, but here's part of it. Not the boring everyday stores, but the ones whose very name shouts '80s. What did we miss?

--Orange Julius
--Karmelkorn
--Cookie Factory
--Contempo Casuals
--Chess King
--Limited
--Benetton
--Gantos (Minnesota)
--B Dalton (formed in Minnesota--originally the B stood for Books, and the Dalton was a tweak of Dayton's)
--Claire's
--Spencer Gifts
--Structure
--Musicland
--Sharper Image
--Egghead Software
--Merry-Go-Round
--Suncoast Pictures
--Shirt Shack

I am serious about two things

I am serious about two things: Mustaches and word processing.

The Retroist nails it with the commentary on this hilarious vintage ad. "So, if you are reading this, have a need for word processing and it is still 1982, why not give me a call?"

Did it taste like lasagna?

Waffle Whiffer Zone found a coupon for Garfield cereal, in raspberry and blueberry flavors.

Hilarious, and also, yuck!

Does anyone remember this? Perhaps I should have posted this at GenXtinct.com.

Hop in my Chrysler, it's as big as a whale

TMZ has a fun feature where you click on an old photo of a celeb to see what they look like today.

Kate Pierson of the B-52s may be 61, but she's just about the most awesome looking, young and perky, 61-year-old ever.

The Zinger Zapper

Signing on with the Charlie Brown TV specials was a huge win for Dolly Madison cakes, because seriously, I would never have heard of them otherwise.

Matt at Scrubbles posted a couple of old ads featuring the Zinger Zapper. Anyone who knows Peanuts can imagine what big-nosed beagle that was.

Not-so-pretty in pink

In all the discussion of John Hughes movies after his untimely death, how come no one actually dug in and did some research into which costume designer thought Molly Ringwald's prom dress in "Pretty in Pink" was actually, well, pretty?

OK, so she's working with two old vintage dresses, and she's a teenager (although one with much sewing experience, it seems), but even allowing for the fact that she wants to stand out from the Jessica McClintock-clad prom crowd...this is an unattractive dress.

Also, just plain ODD. Why do the sleeves attach where they do? Could she even lift her arms without ripping them off? Why bare the top part of her arms? Why the dog collar? Why the sack shape?

Jezebel calls it "a Pepto-Bismol trapezoid nightmare frock," which is not far off. I am not exactly Anna Wintour, but seeing this dress on the big screen, apparently accepted as perfectly lovely and even cutting-edge, shook whatever confidence I had in my fashion sense to the core.

And I ran...

Huh. "Flock of Seagulls" guy, whose hair was so infamous it was referenced in "Pulp Fiction," looks pretty ordinary Joe these days.

Don't you forget about him

Aw, John Hughes. More of a generational touchstone than Michael Jackson, in a way, since his movies were more relevant to our lives than most of Jackson's lyrics, much as I loved the music.

I wrote a Test Pattern for MSNBC.com on great John Hughes movie quotes, and readers are having a blast with it.

One reader shared this link, to Hughes' story that inspired the movie "National Lampoon's Vacation." It begins: "If Dad hadn't shot Walt Disney in the leg, it would have been our best vacation ever."

Holiday roooooooooooooooad!

UPDATE: Wow, this is amazing. One young fan became John Hughes' pen-pal for a while, and she shares that story in her Weblog. How did he have time to befriend a perfect stranger? What a nice thing to do.

Wocka wocka wocka

Who couldn't love this goofy Pac-Man arcade cabinet ornament?

A-tar-i!

I'm pretty much in agreement with the Top 5 Atari games, as chosen by one of our tech columnists.

Just looking at the Frogger screen starts to stress me out. I can still remember the sinking feeling as you realized a car or a log was going to run right over your little froggie. And the feeling of relief when you finally landed him safely on the other side, only to have to start all over again with a new guy.

I would probably have also put Pac-Man on there, although I know people were horrified at how badly it translated from the arcade. But it was on the Atari that I first learned about patterns, and how you could memorize a way to get through each screen that would work every time. I still never got very far, but it was enlightening to learn that it was possible, even for me.

Eating in the 1980s

Found this list of 10 uniquely 1980s foods at Kottke.

I like how the list tried to encompass foods that represented new kinds of foods or food-delivery systems (fruit snacks! juice boxes!), but I have to say, if I made my own personal list it would probably look something like this:

1. Pepsi Lite

2. Marathon candy bars
3. Jello Pudding Pops

4. Chocodiles

5. Munchos
6. Bubble Yum and Bubbilicious

7. Burger Chef burgers

8. Aero candy bars

9. Chewels bubble gum

10. Velamints

Yes, these items are not all as representative of certain food trends as the other list, and it's quite possible that some of my foods are more 1970s than 1980s, but it's my list, and I'm stickin' to it. Until I remember another food I forgot...

Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?

Kids who were too young to see "The Breakfast Club" are now remaking scenes from it in a JC Penny ad.

Oh fer misguided nostalgia.

Berry good

Strawberry Shortcake already had a renaissance a few years back, but as Jeff at Siftin' points out, apparently the toy line is getting a re-redesign, to be more "fruit forward."

Whatever that means. Even the originals never really smelled like fruit...more like cheap fruit cologne that could never quite cover the smell of the plastic.

Chocolate-chip pancakes!

So do you ever have a bit of your past, something you've read, that just sticks in your head? And even though it's dumb, you itch to re-read it?

Yeah, that happens to me all the time. I was a giant fan of Seventeen magazine in high school (I subscribed for years after that, to keep up on youth culture, but they lost me when they got all People Magazine on me and only put celebs on the cover).

Anyway, I'm looking for an issue of "Seventeen" from the '80s, probably 1982-1987. The only thing I remember about it was that it had a multi-page advertorial, almost certainly for makeup (Cover Girl?) that purported to be a diary by the niece of "Wonder Woman" star Lynda Carter, who apparently was visiting her famous aunt. I'm pretty sure in one entry she surprised her aunt by making chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast.

For whatever reason, I've been thinking about this issue, and am just randomly curious to read it again. I posted an Ask Metafilter thread about it...doubt anyone there will have the specific date of the magazine with only this information, but you never know.

Salvador Dali's Pinball Thrills! Gay French Mario Brothers!

Atari 2600 games, hilariously renamed. Who can forget the joys of playing "Old-Timey Cop With A Stick," (as one commentor notes: "That cop could never catch Gallagher.") or better yet, "It's Fucking Checkers!"

Man, 1980s box art was depressingly similar to clip art used in community college brochures.

(Via Metafilter.)

Ancient Chinese secret, huh?

X-Entertainment remembers a time in the 1980s when McDonald's threw chopsticks, teriyaki, and fortune cookies at McNuggets and dubbed the whole mess "McNuggets Shanghai."

Today, people would probably protest this meal.

Not to be confused with Pudding Pops

Jeff of Siftin reports that Hostess Pudding Pies have returned. Think Hostess Fruit Pies, only with chocolate or vanilla pudding filling. Jeff found only choco-filled ones. (Web searches make it appear that the pies have been back for a while, but I sure haven't seen them in Seattle stores.)

They don't, however, look as good as the chocolate-coated, vanilla cream-filled Pudding Pies depicted in this 1980s commercial. Nice clothes, Dweebie Eighties Kids. And who doesn't want to smack the obnoxious sister?




Also, do not confuse them with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pudding Pies. That is a whole different kettle of radioactive nuclear pudding on the half-shell.

Jeff also has an awesome roundup of ABC's Saturday morning kids' TV lineup for 1974. "Korg: 70,000 B.C."? Who in the what, now? I not only don't remember watching that show, but I don't remember ever even hearing about it. I bet there was a lot of grunting and wearing of animal skins, though. And I also bet any on-location shooting was filmed at Vasquez Rocks. (All the little chicks with the crimson lips are goin' Vasquez Rocks! Vasquez Rocks!)

Isn't he pretty in pink?

The LA Times has a big fat wet kiss to John Hughes and his influence on a generation of filmmakers. And I adored his movies, and get a giant kick out of the fact that our buddy Todd was an extra in "Pretty in Pink."

But I can't help but wonder why the article doesn't point out how his movies all ended...PiP's controversial ending was supposedly changed at the last minute to please audiences by putting Andie with Blaine, but was there really one person in the world who didn't want her with Duckie? And in a recent interview with Ellen Page of "Juno," the 20-year-old was trying to point out how let-down she felt by earlier movies, and her example was Ally Sheedy having to turn into a Molly Ringwald clone in "Breakfast Club."Yes, Ferris Bueller was a neat exception, but mostly the message was CONFORM! CONFORM!

Interesting that John Hughes has taken a note from same-name-twin Howard Hughes (kind of) and gone all reclusive on Hollywood. Bet they hate that.

Creepy ol' V.C. Andrews lives on forever

Jezebel has a fun weekly column where they review a book from our youth that was beloved by girls, from wholesome Laura Ingalls Wilder to slutty V.C. Andrews.

This week the book is Andrews' "My Sweet Audrina," which I definitely read, along with most of the early Andrews oeuvre. Good thing the review offers spoilers though, because I completely forgot the BIG TWIST ENDING.

Man, if our parents knew what we were reading, all hell would have broken loose, but blessedly, they had no idea. V.C. Andrews, and the syndicate that has written them for her since she died, had some really creepadelic ideas. I wonder if she set out to be known as "the incest can be romantic" author, or if that was just a side benefit.

Square pegs, square pegs, square, square pegs!

Sweet! "Square Pegs" is coming out on DVD. This came out either my first or second year in high school and I have really fond memories of watching it. Who didn't feel like a square peg in high school?

I also remember with joy the goofy 1980s styles and trends that it is drenched in (note that the third episode is called "Pac-Man Fever").

Sadly, Merritt Butrick, who played the memorable New Waver Johnny Slash, never made it out of the 1980s, dying in 1989 of brain cancer related to AIDS.

Apparently Amy Linker, one of the two leads, is out of acting and works as a substitute teacher. I hope she occasionally shows her students one of her episodes.

Oh, and Sarah Jessica Parker went on to do some things. You may have heard of her.