The Museum of Forgotten Trends

Nuts about the Nineties!

Back in the mid to late 70's people were really into the 90's. No not the 1990s. The Me decade wasn't looking towards the future they were nostalgic for the 1890's. Or as it was commonly called the Gay 90's. It's not a name that would probably fly today, but I do know of a pizza place still called Gay 90's pizza, that originally opened in the 70's.

Back in the 1970s The 1890's vibe was everywhere. Have you ever wondered why Wendy's used to have tables with pages of old Sears Catalogs printed on the tabletop? It wasn't just to have something to read while you waited for your burger. It was simply part of the great 1890's trend. In fact this old Sears Catalog look was made into wallpaper that was especially popular in bathrooms. What better way to spend some quality time than to read about Singer Sewing machines for only $1.95, or handlebar mustache grooming kits, or those bicycles with the giant front wheel.

The 1890's inspired novelty items, toys and games. Did you have a copy of the Parker Brothers game The Inventors? I have a copy and I can tell you its design is clearly inspired by Edison and other famous inventors of the 1890's.

So what brought about this trend? I don't know for sure, but Disney may have had a hand. They did create a Mickey Mouse short called the nifty nineties, and of course they had Main Street U.S.A. Back in the 1970's Main Street tried harder to create the real feeling of a small town. The stores had much better merchandise then, instead of store after store being dedicated to the same stuffed animals you can get cheaper at the local mall. Another factor may have been bicentennial fever. Famous Americans were in the forefront and 1890's heroes like Alexander Graham Bell and Edison were showing up in book reports across America.

Today not much remains of America's affair with the 1890's. Now the tables at Wendy's are as boring as every other fast food place. It seems the lone vestige of 90's madness is the guy on the Pringles can. Sure they have tried to jazz him up, but he stall has that jaunty had and handlebar mustache. It can only mean one thing. Pringles must have been created in the 1970s.

Give a hoot

There are a few copies of old Sears and JC Penny catalogs from 1980 circulating around the web and they all have one thing in common. Owls! Yes there were owl rugs, owl pillows, owl salt and pepper shakers, owl trash cans, owl oven mitts, owl bathroom sets, owl latch hook sets, and of course the professor owl kids calculator.

Why Owls? Why not? I don't know. Perhaps it was inspired by the ubiquitous public service announcements featuring Woodsy Owl, or maybe the owl on New Zoo Revue. (My mom hated the silliness of New Zoo Revue and I was hardly ever allowed to watch) I think it was because the colors of 1980 went well with the colors of owls. In 1980 earth tones were slowly going away but the bland beiges of the mid 80's had not yet set in. That meant Browns, a lot of browns, and rust, and burnt umber, and sienna, and red orange, and some harvest gold from those still stuck in the 70's. Face it, 1980 was the year of the owl.

Multi-Purpose clothing.

The year was 1981, the place was kindergarten and the jacket was fully awesome. It was probably from J.C. Penny since my Mom didn't like the clothes at Sears, though it could have been purchased at the late Emporium Capwells. (A.K.A. deplorable cadwells) My mother had somehow managed to procure for me and my little brother the most early 80s piece of clothing ever.

The jacket was puffy ski style of course. It was also reversible of course. Both sides had early 80s colors, I think mine was brown and yellow. What made these jackets special were the sleeves and hood. You could not only remove the hood, but you could unzip each sleeve and create a puffy vest. Yes, Four years before Marty McFly did I was rocking the puffy vest.

Do they still make reversible jackets? Probably, but they are not as trendy as they were back in the day, and they don't change into vests.

The Metric System

Back in the 70's there was this big plan to change America over to the metric system. It didn't happen, they kept pushing it back, and pushing it back, but it wouldn't completely go away. Even as a kid in the 80's my math teachers would bring it out from time to time on slow math days. (Of course everyday for me was a slow math day, but that's another story.)

Perhaps you have heard the story. America is going to change over to the metric system because it is so much easier and it makes so much more sense and it is based on tens and zzzzz. I paid about as much attention to this as I did the Dewey Decimal System, and I survived pretty well without knowing that one.

So if we do switch I am totally unprepared just like I was for y2k. Will I survive only knowing about feet and inches and MPH? I don't know. Will you? (Cue ominous music...dun dun duuuun!)

Home Incinerators (they burn me up!)

So far the majority of my forgotten trends have been from the 70's and 80's, so I thought I would give you guys an old trend for nostalgia's stake.

When I was a kid visiting my grandparents house in Los Angeles, I noticed they had a cement path that led to nowhere, or a patch of dirt with nothing on it. "What is this path for?" I asked one day.
"The incinerator" My mom responded.
So of course my next question is what the heck is an in-sin-er-a-tor?

Turns out the way they got rid of trash in 1940s L.A. was to burn it in a thing in your back yard, and you wondered why L.A. has always had a reputation for smogginess. I guess it was an easy way to get rid of the sled prop they gave you as a gift for working on Citizen Kane.

Anyway as you can probably guess L.A. residents no longer burn their own trash.

I hope you have enjoyed your trip to the Forgotten Trend Museum. New Exhibits are on the way. Please don't forget to stop in our Gift Shop on the way out.

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