Rage Against The Machine: Refusing to say what you're thankful for at Thanksgiving, graffiti on a freight train, vegan burritos, camouflage cargo shorts.
The Postal Service: Being a graphic designer, "Sent from my iPhone", pretending you were interested in something before you read about it in the New Yorker/Believer, Douglas Coupland, participating in a Miranda July project.
The Kinks: J.D. Salinger books other than The Catcher in the Rye, owning records without owning a record player, telling someone you like the smell of old books, archery.
Beck: Wearing a baby blue tux to prom, Pete & Pete, eating cereal for every meal for an entire summer.
What really took me back to my old middle school days was her perfect description for The Cardigans:
Baby blue nail polish, Tamagotchi bans, buying deodorant for the first time and smelling all the options, trying to make your room look like a dELiA*s catalog [!!! - I totally forgot about dELiA*s catalogs! I loved those!], convincing your mom to let you use Sun-In, jelly shoes, gel pens, having a crush on a boy with a floppy middle-parted bowl cut, having a birthday party at a bowling alley, amassing bracelets/keychains, sticker earrings, Goldfish crackers in a ziploc bag, dingy white cotton spaghetti-strap tops from GapKids, imagining your first kiss, comparing what shampoo brand/smell you use, practicing bubble letters.
I would also add Doc Martens, reading Seventeen magazine (even though you aren't 17), idolizing Gwen Stefani (because girls kick @$$!), mini backpacks, scrunchies worn around your wrist, choker necklaces, those metal ball and chain necklaces, zig zag headbands, Airwalks, calling *69 to see if it was your crush that just called your house and then hung up, watching a lot of MTV.
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i usually still smell all my options when i buy deodorant! tee hee
ReplyDeleteI think I'm too much of a brand loyalist now. I've been wearing the same deodorant for a while now, so my sniffing days are pretty much done. Unless they stop making my deodorant -- in which case I would totally smell all my options.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Canada, I never found my particular deodorant at the stores we went to. So every time I went to the states, I loaded up.
But thinking of middle school and smelling all the different deodorants...that definitely reminds me of the deodorant brand "Teen Spirit". I don't know if they even make it anymore. That was my first deodorant brand. I want to say the fragrance I had was called Caribbean Cool (whatever that means...).
Holy shit! Who is this Bubblebathos and how did she manage to grow up seemingly in our household without us knowing about it?!
ReplyDeleteI know, right?!
ReplyDeleteI love her descriptions and your additions. I got really excited last week when the girl next to me in a coffee shop had a coat from delias and I remembered how much I loved that catalog, but how the couple times that I ordered, the clothes were really cheap and always too small if you went by their size chart.
ReplyDeleteAnd to the list for The Cardigans, we could also add zig zag parts and white eye liner.
Zig zag parts and white eye liner!!! YES! I was guilty of the zig zag part a few times (so much work!), but I never wore white eye liner (thank god we weren't allowed to wear makeup at that age!). But my friends totally had the white eyeliner. Also, I remember blue mascara was all the rage, too. Looking back, how did these Mormon middle schoolers not realize that it looked like they were going to a rave (especially when you add the candy necklace trend)...
ReplyDeleteI would have shit my pants in total excitement if I saw someone with a delias coat! I always ogled the catalog obsessively, but never actually bought anything. That makes me sad to hear their clothes were cheap -- that ruins my middle school fantasy of the perfect mid-90s fashion, accessories, and bedroom set.
That site is awesome. I love the Sugar Ray associations!
ReplyDelete