Welcome to our next epic 80's Blog/Podcast cross over event! We hope you enjoy reading this blog entry and clicking through to our 80's friends and reading more retro awesomeness.
Hello everyone and welcome once again to another blog post by yours truly. This month's post is a joy filled holiday wonder, where Dave, Scott and I recall our favorite Christmas Gifts that we received during our favorite decade :) I hope you enjoy our memories that we share as much as we enjoy recalling them for you. So just sit back, put your tootsies up on that ottoman with your mug of hot cocoa and read our story: Favorite Christmas Gifts of the 80's
Seeing as how I am the eldest of our group and don't quite remember as much a they do. I will go first. My Christmas gift was more of a memory than a gift, but we all know how quickly times like that these can bring joy to our hearts.
It was 1989 and I had been a single mom for 3 years. My 3 children and I had experienced quite a bit of life together, and this year, we were getting ready for Christmas in our new house. It was a nice old house that creaked and groaned when the wind blew outside. One of the things I was determined to do that year was to get the biggest live Christmas tree I could find. And sure enough, down the street at the local food bank, they were giving away live Christmas trees!
My children and I were absolutely thrilled as we pointed to the one that we wanted and watched as the gentlemen hoisted our tree on top of our car and tied it down securely. Sending us on our way, I'm sure they they had the biggest smiles on their faces, knowing that this would make our Christmas grand!.
When we got home, our neighbor came out and asked if he could help us take the tree inside and of course we said yes. Once inside, he asked "where is the tray that the tree is going to sit in" I looked at him quite blankly and shook my head. "I have no idea it needed a tray." Which was very true. I had no idea about quite a few things about a live tree. Apparently it also needed to be trimmed on the bottom so it could fit in the tray. And then you had to add water to it everyday so it wouldn't drop dead pine needles on your carpet.
But, I was determined that damn tree was going up, regardless. So we propped it up in the corner of the living room, hung the star at the top of the tree so it could face forward because it couldn't fit on top of the tree, that was all bent over :) And that night, my children and I decorated our very first live Christmas tree. Okay so the decorations were all on one level and on one side as well as the lights, but its the thought that counts. :)
No I didn't take a picture of it. You will just have to imagine how that looked in your head. Now go get more cocoa so you can read Scott's entry.
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Scott Compton, our second co-host for 80's Reboot Overdrive, had quite the fortuitous childhood when it came to receiving gifts. Scott, being a huge Star Wars fan describes his first two gifts as if he received them only yesterday. I'm sure these amazing items would have been coveted by his friends and peers alike. Here are two of his first two favorites The remote controlled Jawa Sand-Crawler and the other was the Death Star Play set.
Scott's next two gifts that he recalls is when he was a bit older, in high school, I'm thinking and he was able to ask for things that were a bit more mature in nature I would say. A Personal Cassette Player Holder. You would put your personal cassette player inside of this device and then everyone would be able listen to the music that was playing through the device's speakers. It was possibly the precursor to the boom box? Here is a picture of it below. While Scott's model was a Sanyo, this Toshiba seems just a relevant to the style and the adaptations that the original device had. That and the Sanyo picture wouldn't open :)
Scott's last gift that he recalls was the creme de la creme of all apparel in the 1980's that young men found themselves needing to have in their wardrobe. The Members Only jacket! and not just any one, the leather made Members Only. What an amazing article of clothing this was. It was definitely something that no guy should be without, see for yourself!
I want to thank Scott, for providing these mementos of his favorite 80's Christmas gifts and sharing his memories with us also.
Last but not least is our host, Dave The Overlord White. Dave decided that he would provide his own blog entry, which is great, cause all I have to do is copy and paste, Whoo Hoo! So without further adieu, Here is Dave, regaling us with tales from Christmases past.
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I grew up in a small southern town in Florida. My childhood consisted in essence year around heat and mugginess as a general rule of thumb for an ongoing annual weather report outside of the regular daily rain. I believe one Christmas I was guilt tripped into mowing the grass or it was a gift to my Mom, doing a chore without being told, anyway the point was I MOWED the grass on Christmas. Fast forward to 1989, I graduated high school and 12 days later was whisked away to start serving my country in the United States Navy. When I graduated technical A school I was 3rd highest score in my class and was surprised when one of the choices left for my first duty assignment was at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington DC. Then in the winter of 1989, nature delivered a very wonderful gift to a small southern town boy. This was my first live experience with snow. Of course, over the years my relationship with snow would become love/hate but for a young man all of 18 and experiencing snow for the first time. This was quite the wonderful experience and gave me a newfound respect for mother nature and her gifts to us.
For those that appreciate an actual material 80's theme type thing for a gift item this same season I was at the base store, also known as a PX. In my barracks room, we had these very boring white painted brick walls, so I opted to add some wall flair to the wall as a gift to myself. There in the poster rack, would be the vision of one of my Hollywood crushes and she would be mine, oh yes, she would be mine. That Christmas season she would be hanging in my barracks room in FT Myers, Virginia. A vision in tight blue jeans, leather aviator style jacket and possibly one of the best bare midriffs ever to come out of the 80s. She would remind me daily to "Keep on my toes", signed by the fabulous Janet Jones of American Anthem, Flamingo Kid, and Police Academy 5 movie fame. Watching that poster was better than the last movie on the list above. :-)
I want to thank each and every fan of the 80's that reads or listens to our stuff. You are a fabulous gift to our 80's Reboot Overdrive team and we so very much appreciate you reliving the greatest decade with us. Happy Holidays from Dave, your podcast Overlord.
Thank you again everyone for allowing us to bring to you some of our favorite memories of our 80's Christmas Gifts. If you would like to leave a comment below of some of your favorites, please do, we would love to hear about them.
Take care all, and from all of us here at 80's Reboot Overdrive, Have a Very Merry Christmas!
This is where you get linked to the other blog and podcast entries that are all talking about our #80sChristmas topic. Our 80's friends have great blogs and podcasts that you are highly encouraged to check out and comment, favorite, and share some holiday 80's love.