Throwback Thursday: 1988

A tiny primer for those who don’t remember printed photos from film cameras: your parents would buy a roll of film and it would stay in the camera until it was finished. Then if your parents had money, it would go to a Fotomat or another photolab to get developed in a day or two. If you were us, you’d send it away in a yellow envelope and get your pictures back in a few weeks. The date the film was developed was on back of the each photo, so even if you didn’t write the date on the back (in analog pen) you’d still have an idea of when it was taken.

With that out of the way, I present to you: September, 1988. Sweet sixteen.

Observations:

1) The contents of the top shelf are as “child of the 70s/80s” as you can get, really. The yellow doll was won when I was younger a Wildwood boardwark game. The Basset Hound plushies were popular due to the Hush Puppies brand of shoes. And next to the dog is a painted Strawberry Shortcake figurine

2) The inside of my closet door had the ubiquitous lines indicating my height over the years.

3) This is my childhood bedroom, as taken from our hallway. The room is purple. There are a few posters and pinups (Jason Bateman, George Michael, riiiiiiiiiiight before my HUGE NKOTB era. The Hangin’ Tough album was just released and Please Don’t Go Girl wouldn’t hit top-10 for another few weeks), but they are on the walls that you don’t see from the hallway.

4) Since the timestamp is September, 1988, those balloons (ribbons dangling) were from my Sweet 16 party, a banging barbecue in my backyard with a DJ and a bubble machine and a bunch of my great friends. I didn’t want a party. I didn’t, that is, until a week before my birthday when I said, “hey can I have a party?” and my parents dutifully complied.

5) That shirt! So 80s! So Miami Vice/Kokomo!

6) That hat! The hipster trilby/fedora tend didn’t start yesterday, yanno. 🙂

7) That wrist scrunchy! When are they coming back into style?

8) My brother’s head is the shadow in the foreground. Ancient photobomb!