How has Retro Junk affected you

Retrojunk brings back childhood and better times to me

So after all this time on Retrojunk it finally dawned on me.... How has the website effected me and my life? What a crazy random thing to think to myself right?.... WRONG.

Retrojunk consistently reminds me of things long since passed that I had completely forgotten about from my childhood, things that when thrown in my face through pictures and video clips have brought back so much joy to me and allowed me to relive some of my childhood memories over and over again.

For instance... who remembers WOOD PANELED ROOMS!? My bedroom used to be covered in that horrendous stuff BUT looking back now I almost miss it lol. Look how HORRIBLE this crap is lol.

I can vividly remember wood paneling being so popular it was even on the sides of station wagons, how gross looking lol.

Our bedrooms looked like marketing firm collaboration rooms, with posters of anything and everything hanging up, bedsheets of our favorite cartoons, and ceiling fans became the norm for lighting and cooling.

There are so many aspects to childhood Retrojunk reminds me of. I looked like that kid playing Nintendo, with a Mullet and the same clothes, my feet on the dresser trying endlessly to beat The Legend of Zelda, calling my friend rob around the block to give updates to where we were.

I loved the Mall, AND speaking of the mall this was a time when ANYONE could SMOKE ANYWHERE, check these old timers out! Taking a smoke break while looking for Orange Julius and Woolworths.

Smokers could smoke ANYWHERE, malls, Restaurants, AIRPLANES, you name it. Crazy to think of a time when you could do this anywhere in public. Another freedom that's been taken away from people in recent years.

How many things can you think of that this site reminds you of? Michael Jackson Thriller, Toys, Movies, BMX BIKES, oh my god my BMX days, when I used to race for Mongoose. Oh man those were the days, practicing all day in the cornfields, making ramps and dirt racetracks. RC Car racing on the same tracks. SO MUCH FUN WE HAD!

The country had the best President, good old Ronald Reagan, a guy that's take NO SHIT from any other country and who cared about AMERICANS!
Love the Gipper!

And of course another great 80's creation that is immortalized in the movie TRON is the Arcade... a cavalcade of digital bliss for kids. Machines begging to be fed quarters so you could kill and alien, race a James Bind type car, Karate Chop your way to the top of the pagoda like Bruce lee, or race your way to the finish line and speed, speed, speed lol.

LOOK AT THIS KIDS COLOR COORDINATED.. well EVERYTHING!! What's worse.. I went out of the house looking like this too, and had socks just like those, and yes... they were pulled that high up. :-( Ung freaking horrible 80's clothing lol.

The MAIN TV stations here in NY were ch11 WPIX, NBC ch4, CBS ch2, and ABC ch7. This was where it was at for the Muppets, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS!

By the way, as a side note, I am eating POP Rocks while writing this because I saw something about them on Retrojunk.

This website has given me so much joy by giving me a small Time Capsule I can visit anytime to enjoy aspects of my childhood over and over again.

Here's some memorable Christmas Images from the 80's when presents were abundant, a Christmas tree was in almost every front window, and SANTA was in fact ON HIS WAY!

CHRISTMAS ALF!

Endless Presents under the almighty Christmas Tree!

And of course MUSICLAND! A must for all of my Heavy Metal albums I wanted like Twisted Sister and WASP!

There is just so much that Retrojunk rockets me back to... even architecture of buildings like the old Mid Island Animal Hospital right near my home. It was all about rock and brick faces on buildings, here check it out

When you become an adult you realize that certain things in life are gone, and that we cannot get them back.
The way the sunset looks in summertime as a child is different, we noticed the color of the light reflecting off of trees and houses, we knew to the second what time a street light would come on, and we didn't need a watch to know what time of day it was. We were never afraid to get dirty, or rip our jeans.

Retrojunk reminds me of a time when possibilities WERE endless, when daring to dream and imagine were GREAT THINGS.

Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of adult life we need that release, that break from reality and Retrojunk gives us that outlet to be TOYS R US kids once again!

Thank you Retrojunk and thank you to the community for reading and supporting my articles. This one goes out to RETROJUNK.COM! We love you guys!

Comments

My grandma's house had rocks on the bottom half.

The yellow oven reminds me of the one my parents have. They still have yellow appliances. Yellow fridge and blender. They had a yellow dishwasher, but they got rid of it in like 2007.

This one place I use to live had wood paneling on the wall, but they just painted over it to match the other walls, but it was so obvious. A few of my relatives lived in houses with wood paneling on the walls. My parents had a tv from 1986 that had wood paneling on it.

What about popcorn ceilings remember those?

OH YES POPCORN CEILINGS LOL, it was a spackle effect. That's hysterical I remember it very well

PukeGreenShagCarpet:

As I get older I realize more then ever that NOTHING lasts forever. And in my very short time that I'll be alive when taken into perspective that my life is a literally blink of an eye in the timeline of the universe, I know now to cherish it all, love life, and live to the fullest that we can achieve to be happy.

BUT RETROJUNK FILLS MY VOID FOR ALL THINGS 80'S AND RETRO

It's affected my wallet LOL
Buying retro junk off of Ebay.

Also it makes you kinda realize that things here today, will be gone one day.
That you should take notice of things while they are there.

TheSkipper84:

So awesome to get so many of you to participate on this article and the more I talk to people the more I hear that wood paneling is still in homes lol. Unreal I tell you.

I think this is a great article. I agree with you about this website for being a time capsule into people's childhoods. I liked the Alf Christmas special and the mounds of presents under the tree, and one other thing though, my basement is covered in that wood paneling stuff.

hey submitter this article rocks!

Wheeljack77:

Yeah man as cheesy as some of this looks now I have to admit I do miss so much of it. lol

Top notch article and pictures, dude. I had a kitchen that looked very similar to that, and to accompany our wood paneling we had some wallpaper that looked like that "lickable" snozberry wallpaper from Willy Wonka's factory. Nice pics of some classic bikes; makes me miss my old bike for sure. Frosted jeans, hot pink shirt, Nintendo Power. Great stuff.

Love the article !!!!!!! even though i was born in the late 80's and cant remember much about the 80's retrojunk has had this same effect on me. It brings back so many great memories of being a kid and growing up in 90's. I really miss being a kid

IowaGirl82:

THANK YOU! And yes I do love well... MISS the 80's. I miss being a kid lol

Submitter - I love this article! Great pictures (love the wood paneling and the arcade!) and you can tell you love your 80s. Awesome!

rascal:

Seriously I cant believe that those cars once drove down the block and people stopped and said "WOW that's a NICE CAR" lol What the hell were they thinking LOL

Great article. I love Retrojunk, I love reading the articles, it always takes me back and makes me so happy. My kids like looking at the videos with me and they have found they really like the cartoons mom grew up watching. I am glad I remember the 80's and my mom had that same station wagon, boy were those hideous.

Another winner! T.U. #52

colavfan19:

Ya know it's funny you say this because I always felt I would have been better suited to have lived in the 40's, but have been old enough to serve in World War II. different time, different core values and morals in America, just a different and in many ways better America. Call me crazy, just my opinion lol.

I loved this article I was born in the early 90s but ive always felt i would have been a beter fit for the 80s

Yeah, I smoke. Wanna fight about it? LOL j/k I've never smoked indoors because its terribly rude and in more recent years illegal in a lot of places. However, if I just wanna step outside for a quick fag and I'm not doing anything terribly important its nobody's business and I should be allowed to do so at a reasonable distance without any persecution or preaching the virtues of not smoking. Its this meddling and assholes like this in my daily life and all the crap that I have to deal with on a regular basis that keeps me smoking. Sure, cigarettes can kill you but so can everything else...

I find as I age (and as I continue to live in a foreign country), I crave more things from my past and Retrojunk definitely helps me take the edge off that craving. While some of things I remember loving, don't stack up so well, there are some that do, especially some of the TV shows I used to watch. Yep, I'm glad Retrojunk.com is around too. Thanks for the read.

Wood paneling...... it is so gross BUT YET brings back so many great memories lol. Another famous paneling that was horrid.... BRICK WALL PANELING LOL. God I had ONE WALL in my room that was that fake brick the rest wood paneling. Ha ha ha ha ha how terrible it was and yet... I miss it LOL

I miss the 80's.And wood paneling was awesome.

Hey everyone just finished reading your responses and I have to say humbly and with so much appreciation THANK YOU ALL! Without you guys I wouldn't be inspired to write articles and share some of myself with you all. You ALL make my day! I actually got a little choked up reading some of your responses because I feel so damn good that so many of you were touched by it and shared your experiences as well, ultimately making retrojunk that much cooler!

Your stories and additives in the comments section mean so much to me. I LOVE reading the responses good, bad, and indifferent!

This website fills a small void inside me when I think of how things used to be, and how they are now. And let me tell ya, when I read a response from someone that ends up relating to me and to the subject it just outright makes me smile! It is awesome to have this one thing in common with so many, that it brings us together here for a good time.

Hopefully I'll bang out a few more articles before year's end. Till then I wish EVERYONE a great Thanksgiving... MAKE SURE TO WATCH THE MACYS THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE! ( Big tradition in my family here in NY )

See you all soon when I turn on the old Tube TV and get a good subject in my brain!

Fuzz:

I do agree that smoking in general is a terrible habit, life threatening, and in reality isn't so bad that smoking is being "cut out" of society.

BUT here's the thing.... And this goes for quite a few double standards that exist today..... When America boasts we are the "free" world when does it become hypocritical to put restrictions on your citizens?

There's a LONG list of things that are on this highly sensitive and volitile list like:

Smoker's Rights
The Right to Bare Arms
Gay Marriage
certain Taxes and fees forced on citizens.

The smoking thing is something I remember vividly as a kid, and YES sometimes an annoyance, I was just stating how back then we as a people, in general, did have more freedoms BECAUSE there was less Federal Involvement and certain aspects of LAW were still primarily a State matter.

The other reason I brought it up is because our government was not founded to become the monster it is... So much so that this is exactly why States have the ability to make their OWN laws for that state, which was where government was REALLY supposed to reign supreme and NOT with the FED, as we know it today.

But yes I do agree Smoking in particular is something that needed to be curbed BUT truthfully... Since Human Beings know how dangerous it is, and that it WILL KILL YOU... don;t you find it funny how it is not banned completely for the well being of ALL Americans? Too much money is made in tobacco that's the reason why BUT, Im just saying, you think we'd all wise up and just ban it lol.

retrojunk.com reminds me of the goood ol' days
as a kid like going to the gameroom on Saturday mornings

This was a great article. You totally touched on every aspect of why this site is so damned perfect. The house I grew up in had wood paneling throughout and my house now has one room with wood paneling in it. Before my wife and I moved in I immediately claimed this room as my man cave (or as I like to call it..Mooseknuckle lodge). Just being in this room brings me back to my childhood.

Great stuff

Thanks for taking me back.

Another great article draven as always. 80's...THE BEST!!!!!

If you've ever came to my hometown of Barnesville, Ohio, or any place in the Ohio River Tri-State Area, it just screams the 1980's. And I love it.

My parents basement is 100% wood paneling from start-to-finish. When I moved into my own house afer many-a-year, the basement was partially finished... it also had wood paneling. As "retro" as it was, I loved it... but lothed it. Eventually, I just had to rip it out & make it modern (not to mention they did a crap job at it).

Being an 80's kid has to be the best timeline. Despite the strange clothes with short shorts, tube socks, and teased hair... you can't get around just how much better life SEEMED overall. Sure, world tension may have been at an all-time high, but that's not what we cared about. We just liked Muppet Babies & PaperBoy at the arcade with neon lighting. We liked going outside late at night with little curfew not having our parents helicoptering over us like they do now.

Can I get an AMEN! Awesome article! Love what you said in the closing.

Read this and it brought a tear to my eye. Great article. Great website. GREAT MEMORIES!

I disagree with how you say smoking anywhere in public was a "freedom" taken away. It's been proven that second-hand smoke is harmful to breath in. How is the potential to harm others a freedom?

I could never be as cool as that Nintendo kid.

Excellent article. I'm right there with you. It's awesome to have a place where you can just truly tune out of your everyday life and take a trip in the wayback machine when needed. If I'm not careful I'll lose hours at a time on this site. And if I'm not careful I'll start to feel depressed longing for the past too much. Nonetheless this is one of my favorite places on the web and like you said, it's brought me an unexplainable amount of joy over the years.

I was not a fan of hair metal when it was current, and Rappin' Ronnie was a terrible President (they all have pretty much sucked in recent history) but great article nonetheless.

Thank you for writing this. Straight to the point and very true. I just had my first kid and get fond of the good old days when I think about him growing up in this day and age. And oh yeah, I was a consummate 80's teenager from Intellivision to MTV and Aqua Net I loved them all (and still do!)

The retrojunk site has effected me greatly having all of this awesome cool stuff I remember & forgot about but now i kinda remember it again pushed back into my life is super awesomeness the 80s is a cool decade but i am sorry its albout the 90s & early 00s man I think in my opinion that those where the best times to grow up in & before you say anything yes i was still a child when 2000 hit but it still felt like the 90s to me from 2000-2003 because at the time there was still some 90s pop culture left over then but then when we hit 2004 thats when we enter our modern world at least from my point of view so if you disagree on what I said that is okay I accept I will not start an argument though never good article thumbs up & love this site just try to stay away from those mean sarcastic idiots okay folks.

Great article. Great pictures! Overall, well done!

#loveRetroJunk

This is truly a great article, and this website has made me become a nostalgia-holic, I was born a nineties kid but ever since I have been coming on this site I feel more at home with the eighties due to my tastes in music and movie preferences. I want to thank you all for helping with that with the articles you all write and the many different forum posts it has helped me remember playing my parents Atari and other games now considered retro. So thanks again to you all and especially thanks to jpdraven for writing this! (Sounds like I just gave a speech at the motion picture awards or something xD lol)

Great article- I especially love anything with an old picture of an arcade! The 80s were a great time to grow up - the economy was great, it was the golden age of home video games, home video rentals and home computers.

I completely agree. In as much as I'm very used to things today like smartphones, DVRs, the internet, and technological wonders that we barely imagined back in the 80's and even 90's, it sure does feel like some of the warmth that was so great about those times has been lost. I do wish that I could go back and visit the late 80's or early 90's for just one week. I think Retrojunk is that small outlet for that for a lot of Generation X-ers. I often fantasize about something like music stores, video rental stores, or arcades coming back as the economy improves. But when I really stop to think about it, I know their time has past and it makes me so sad to think that I'll probably never have those outlets again. I do miss the mall a lot myself. I think that's one place that will rebound to some extent, but when I go to most of my local malls anymore right now, they're pretty devoid of any people and a good half of the stores are closed. Very sad. I remember just a few years ago how full of life they were, but even more so in the 80's and 90's. Wow what a place to be they were. And yes, I too had wood paneling in my family's house and many other items too. Faded green shag carpeting was a decor travesty that we had to endure for many years too.

Heh,my den at home is wood panelled... And that is what RJ is to me,my port in the internet storm where everything just quiets down and the whole universe seems to be at peace.

Beautiful article! I certainly do remember wood paneled rooms because my parents still have one. I love the pic from the arcade, I really miss 80's arcades with the walls just lined with video games. And I had those exactly black mag wheels on my bike. Great memories and great job!!

Retrojunk have reminded me of many of the things I loved about the 80's. Things that I had almost forgotten. My toy and movie collection has grown, thanks to Retrojunk

)
I'm now 35 and still thinks the 80's was the coolest decade. So many great toys that the kids nowadays never will experience.
Thank you Retrojunk for keeping me young

)

so many memories in one article great job.

Retrojunk has supplied me content for my compilation videos.

Bravo man. You really do love this site. It's pretty cool I'll admit. Anyways thumbs up.

Awesome article, it is always fun to read about other peoples childhood and what they encompassed. My mostly entailed watching cable when it first came out and since I was the youngest I was spoiled, I can admit it, so I had some sweet ass toys to play with. For example, TNMNT toys and my brother's hammy downs of transformers and G.I. Joe. Man the memories are pouring in now, always nice to have these memories for an escape from my responsibilities now!!!!!