Retro Ramblings
Back When Saying No Was an Entire Program
I can still see myself sitting on that hard gym floor, the kind that always smelled faintly like floor wax and sneakers. Our whole grade was packed in there, fidgeting …
90s
Retro Ramblings
A Kid’s Love Letter to American Gladiators
There was a stretch of time when American Gladiators felt like the most intense thing on television. Not just exciting. Not just loud. It felt dangerous in the best possible …
Mickey on Movies
Did Jar Jar Binks Have Jedi Powers?
Jar Jar’s clumsy luck starts looking suspicious when you realize he moves, survives, and influences others with the kind of instinct that feels a lot like hidden Jedi power. …
Retro Ramblings
The Great Jell-O Jiggler Craze of My Childhood
I know Jell‑O Jigglers technically never went away. You can still take any flavor you want, follow the old jiggler recipe, and end up with that firm, wobbly little block …
Retro Ramblings
Growing Up Afraid of the Bermuda Triangle
There was a time when the Bermuda Triangle felt like one of the biggest, scariest mysteries on the planet. Not to scientists or adults, of course. I’m talking about when …
Retro Ramblings
When USA Network Pulled Me Into a Galaxy Far, Far Away
I always knew what Star Wars was, long before I ever actually saw it. That was just part of being a kid in the eighties and early nineties. The characters …
Retro Ramblings
Chasing Knightfall One Issue at a Time
Knightfall turned every week into a hunt for the next chapter, a pre‑internet scramble of allowance money, borrowed issues, grocery‑store racks, and pure 90s comic‑fan obsession. …
Retro Ramblings
Hypercolor: The Shirt That Exposed All My Sweaty Secrets
My Hypercolor shirt changed colors, all right—mostly under the arms and across my stomach, creating a heat‑sensitive map of every place I wished people wouldn’t look. …
Retro Ramblings
Mom and Me Would Yell at Strangers About Turkeys
Mom and I watched Supermarket Sweep every evening, shouting grocery advice at contestants like seasoned pros who absolutely knew the fastest route to the world’s most valuable ham. …
Retro Ramblings
A Weekend Wrapped Around One Song
Before music lived in the cloud, I stood under KMart’s fluorescent lights flipping through cassette singles, searching for the one song I could carry home in my pocket. It felt like choosing who I wanted to be. …