Child's Play

While living in Washington, I've been going to school full time to finish my degree. Before I had a stroke last November, I did a little babysitting for extra cash (in case you were wondering, as thankful as I am to have social security disability checks, it doesn't quite cover all my bills). I noticed that the kids I watched were into (obviously) all kinds of technologically advanced toys and games. I'm not about to say, "When I was a kid, we only had sticks and rocks to play with!". Growing up in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s, we had some pretty nice gizmos to play with too. Who could forget the Tomagotchi which was the absolute perfect pet?! But lately I noticed a pretty young child of a friend who has their own Facebook account. I'm talking about a middle schooler. I have no stance on this in any way, but it got me thinking about what life would have been like for me if I grew up with the whole world just a click away. Frankly, it'd be total hell. I feel so bad for kids today who can't make one mistake without it being chronicled on the internet for all of history. That awkward phase you're going to go through with braces, no boobs, lanky limbs, and a face full of zits will be broadcast to LITERALLY the entire world. Luckily, my awkward phase(s) can be hidden if I bribe the right people. My cousin, Jordyn, who is an incredible teenage girl visited me this summer. During her visit, her mother (my Aunt Jennifer) called and texted Jordyn several times to see if she knew what twerking was and if she or anyone she knew posted twerking videos online. Honestly, my mother never had to have that conversation with me. Thank God.

Photo Credit: Google Images

Growing up, my parents gave me their huge, clunky "Danny Tanner- style" VHS recorder when they replaced it with a more slim-line one (yet still huge by today's standards). Most of my friends growing up were made at church. The core group consisted of me, my cousin Stacy, Andrea, Kelli, April, and Becca. We had sleepovers at each other's houses, went to school together, spent summer weeks at camp together, and saw each other at least twice a week at church. One of our favorite things to do at all of our sleepovers was make movies. I'd bring my ginormous camera, tripod, and tapes, and we'd make shows or music videos. I remember a few times we decided to act out our version of the Sally Jesse Raphael show. We called it "The Penny Panties Show." We weren't crude or anything like that. I think we just thought the word "panties" was humorous. We dressed up like trashy characters with idiotic problems. We teased our hair, caked on eyeshadow and lipstick, and stuffed our training bras with toilet paper. We made up silly stories and filmed them then laughed and giggled while watching them later. Our other favorite was making music videos. Once we made a cover of several Spice Girls songs. I dressed up as Scary Spice by flipping my frizzy curls upside down and dousing them with a can of Aqua Net. Naturally, all vocals were done by the original Spice Girls by playing the cassette close to the microphone on the camera. Once during a visit from Tennessee, my cousin Betty, Stacy and I had a sleepover at my house. This time we decided to make homemade peanut butter ice cream (which was a complete messy disaster, by the way). While it was supposed to be freezing, we decided to make cover of TLC's "Waterfalls". Stacy and I were T-Boz and Chili while Betty played the role of Left Eye. We used LOTS of black liquid eyeliner to make sure Betty looked the part. After dancing down the staircase for our music video, we decided to clean up and watch our work. My mom had recently bought decorative white guest towels with little monograms on them. At the time, we hadn't lived in our new house long. I had a mini stroke after seeing that Betty and Stacy washed off all their black makeup with mom's new towels. But, I digress...

Photo Credit Google Images

My point is, my friends and I did some really embarrassing stuff growing up. I can't imagine if those music videos or talk show clips were on YouTube, Vine, or Facebook. I'd definitely say we had it quite good back then. And by the way, if you girls who starred in those embarrassing videos are reading this, I still have them. And I'm taking bribes ;)