The "Noid":

From a 1987 marketing campaign for Domino's Pizza. To this day I have no idea what he's supposed to be, or what "Noid" stands for. The last pic's a bendable rubber toy figure that they sold. I had one (I believe it cost me about 5 bucks), but frankly it was so ugly I didn't keep it for long.

Boomboxes:

In the early '80s I wanted a boombox, but wasn't old enough to buy one for myself (not having a job), and my folks thought they were too expensive and said "no". I thought people looked really cool walking around with massive boom boxes on their shoulders, but in retrospect I realize that only black guys could pull that look off. White guys walking around with boomboxes on their shoulders just kind of looked like white guys wanting to look black..

"I Love Rock 'N Roll" by Joan Jett:

Back in the day I couldn't get enough of this song.

Not my thing:

I never got in to Swatch watches  - not because I thought they were ugly, but because I never could get used to the feel of a watch on my wrist. Especially 8 of them...

Hungry???

Have a Barth burger.

Michael Anthony's..

... gonna kick your ass..

In '81 this pic seemed to be everywhere:

1981. Nastassja Kinski. And a snake. Other than that there's not much more to say..

Back in the day, nobody was cooler than David Lee Roth:

Epic Fail:

What the hell were they thinking???

Misc. Remembrance:

Back when Halloween II came out, my father was living in Tennessee. He and my stepmother came to Massachusetts for a visit, and they brought along some 17 year old kid (I think he was related to my stepmother). Dad dropped us both off at the movies, and we wanted to see Halloween II, but we were under age. He was disappointed but I turned to him and said quietly "Don't worry, I'll get us in." We paid to see some lame rated-G movie, and once the movie previews started and the ushers went back into the lobby, I said "follow me". We snuck out and went into the screen room where Halloween II was playing, and we watched the movie. It was a trick that worked every time.

I was definitely in the minority on this one:

I think I was the only one on the planet, but one of the movies I liked least was "E.T". I thought E.T. was ugly, and I hated Reese's Pieces. Maybe it's because there was so much hype about the movie, that when I actually went to see it, it was kind of a let-down.

Molly Ringwald:

In the mid-'80s, Molly Ringwald was the queen. She wasn't a knockout beauty, but she was girl-next-door-pretty and had a certain charm about her. We could identify with Molly, and she seemed like someone we'd all want to hang around with. '86 was definitely her year, because she also made the cover of Time Magazine in May (I thought she'd made the cover of "People", but I couldn't find any results in my image search). Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club have always been two of my all-time faves. I guess she's not acting any more, but back in the day it seemed like she'd always be around. I really miss her.