I have spent countless holidays in my mother’s basement rummaging through her storage containers hoping to come across the prize possessions of my youth. I’m not sure how all of these items could have been lost, damage or stolen, but I’m pretty sure if I find at least 4 out of these 6, I can recreate my childhood.

Lisa Frank
Trapperkeepers (not even sure if that’s a word, if not I’m making it one) complete with a pencil case and spiral notebook. Anyone who was anyone had Lisa Frank. Who could resist the cute collections of large eyed unicorns and puppies placed in a euphoric world created by the ambience of bright neon explosions of vibrant colors that our crayons and markers couldn’t replicate. I would like to think that this is what the inside of my imagination looks like, the perfect combination of cute, colorful and creepy.

My Dear Diary This hand held electronic console stored all of my pre-pubescent secrets underneath a password-protected LCD screen. This starter palm pilot was the girliest thing that could come in electronic form, with sections for notes, secrets, birthday reminders, alarm, phone contacts and daily horoscope, you could pretend to have a grown up schedule in a pint size body. You could even enter in the names of all the boys you had a crush on and it would generate a match for you. I actually remember being worried it would self destruct after the 2 digit year surpassed 1999.

Barbie Dream Boat
This wasn’t just ANY old toy boat, this was the BARBIE DREAM BOAT. This boat had a blender inside that made real slushes, not for Barbie and her entourage but for YOU and your peeps. I don’t even know how that feature made it past child safety, but it was awesome. Unfortunately, due to my own mischievous wrong doing, (getting caught looking at presents weeks before Xmas) my mother returned the Barbie Dream Boat in exchange for a corduroy set of overalls that was 2 sizes too small.

String key chains
I can’t really begin to describe what even made these cool. In retrospect I think I just jumped on the bandwagon because all my friends were doing it, peer pressure is a bitch. I couldn’t even figure out how to start them, I would always have someone else start them for me. The pay off of twisting and looping plastic strings together wasn’t worth the time consumption associated with this hobby. Nevertheless this is what we did while we sat in a tight cluster along the bleachers pretending to be too cool to play in gym class.

Talk Boy
YUSSSSSSS I’m still not even sure how this was able to keep my attention for so long. The limited capabilities of this handheld device created endless hours of fun and countless nights of annoying my mom by replaying the sound of her voice as she yelled at us in a slow or fast pace.

Toe Jam and Earl
You may ask yourself, what/who is Toe Jam and Earl? Well, its like THE BEST GAME EVER, next to Mario Cart 64. Toe Jam and Earl are alien rappers who crash-landed on Earth and must find the scattered pieces to their spaceship so they can put it back together and return home to the planet Funkotron.

As they search for their spaceship pieces, they encounter the usual earthly characters like phantom ice-cream trucks, aggressive packs of nerds, giant hamsters and man-eating mailboxes.

And the coolest part of it all, the whole game references and parodies 1990s urban culture and is set to a funk soundtrack.

Wikipedia describes this game as a “sleeper hit” which means those who were privileged enough to discover this game are on average more awesome than those who haven’t.

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