80's Day 2022!

80's Day was something I started years ago to show my kids how cool the decade was. I share some of my favorite 80's music, movies, video games and food with them and they seem to really enjoy it! Typically we head out and take part in some activities that I liked to do as a kid. The recreation may not be 100% faithful to what life was like back in the 80's, but I feel like we did the best we could with the resources we had available. Here's a re-cap of what we did in 2022!

We started the day as most kids in the 80's did, eating cereal in front of the TV while watching cartoons! Here is what the lineup consisted of: The Legend of Zelda, Popples, M.A.S.K. and Blackstar! Every year I pick a semi-obscure cartoon from my youth for my kids to view. Of course they know He-Man, Ninja Turtles and Transformers, but they were all scratching their heads when Blackstar hit the screen. As was the case with the Centurions viewing last year, I don't think I created any new Blackstar fans. They correctly identified it as a "Bootleg Masters of the Universe" that was done by the same company, Filmation. Anyway, you can view the episode we watched at the YouTube link below:

After cartoons it was time to throw on some of our best 80's licensed character t-shirts, so we could go out and hit the town! Represented in my kids' attire were the Care Bears and The Legend of Zelda. I chose to wear my Mirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt and my wife had her Jem shirt on. 

Looking good and ready for some adventure! We hopped in the van and the soundtrack for the day would be a random assortment of CDs containing some of the biggest hits from the 80's! My kids favorite, which led to a car ride sing along, was "The Goonies 'r' Good Enough" by Cyndi Lauper!

Our first stop of the day was the local comic shop! I picked a Spider-Man book and let the kids each pick out an item. I know it's not 80's, but my twins each picked a pack of Pokemon cards and my oldest daughter grabbed a Stranger Things book. It had been a while since I had taken them to the comic shop and they had fun perusing the shelves and looking for something new to read and help with their overflowing Pokemon collection.

Next we went to the mall and hit up Gamestop to check out the latest games for our Switch and then we headed to the candy store. I let them each pick out a Pez dispenser and I grabbed some gummy bug candies. 

I love how the 80's was represented with everything from Warheads to Whatchamacallit candy bars to these awesome looking Golden Girls mints!

By this time we were ready for lunch, so we hit up McDonalds and the kids all grabbed cheeseburger Happy Meals, my wife got a spicy chicken meal and I got a Double Quarter Pounder Meal. Again, my kids were jumping with crazy joy to find out the toy this time around was Pokemon cards! Yay! More Pokemon cards!!! It was pretty cool that we did get the table with the video games built in though!

Usually we go home and play some retro NES, Super NES and Atari video games, but this year I asked the kids if they wanted to go to the local arcade. They rejected that idea, but they did suggest going to Chuck E. Cheese and playing some games there. Who am I to argue with that!

We actually had a ton of fun and they had some pretty cool games including Guitar Hero, Monopoly and of course Skee-Ball!

My kids had something like 5,000,000 tickets which was just enough for them to get a few Tootsie Rolls, some stickers and a small plastic Chuck E. figure. Next time maybe we'll stay for the show and grab some pizza!

Speaking of pizza, it was close to dinner time by the time we left Chuck's, so we stopped by an old 80's staple...PIZZA HUT!

We got a stuffed crust peperoni pizza and a traditional supreme pie. We were going to eat in the restaurant, but when we walked in we were told that due to the lack of staffing the dining area was closed! Oh well, I guess we'll take it home.

When we got home, we dished up and prepared for the night's feature presentation, the 1986 classic...Labyrinth! The kids had seen this movie before, but it had been a while and there was so much that they forgot about. They laughed and thoroughly enjoyed this masterpiece of a film by Mr. Jim Henson featuring catchy tunes by David Bowie. Overall it was another successful 80s day that was enjoyed by all. I know I say this every year, but hopefully next year we can make it bigger and better!