I’m feeling a little nostalgic today so my list is going to be comprised of 13 things I miss from my childhood/adolescent years. Let us not dally; get right to the meat of it!

1. Arcades. Sure, some places are trying to bring it back but they’re also bars and serve food. Arcades were made nearly obsolete by home gaming consoles but nothing beat standing in line with your stack of quarters and challenging a stranger face to face.
2. The lingo of the 80s. Sometimes I get so sick of hearing my kids say “It’s lit!” or “Oh, get rekt!” But I remember how silly the 80s were with “radical”, “tubular” and “grody”, etc.
3. You know I watch wrestling. But I started waaaay back in the day, in the time of Hogan and Macho Man, Flair and Brutus the Barber Beefcake. My favorite memory surrounding this is when my dad and I rode our bikes to 7-11 to get Slurpees and I would spend allowance money on WWF trading cards.
4. Watching soap operas with my mom. I can’t really get into them anymore (plus I work all day) but there was such a good feeling I got from them. Some of it came from the aesthetic, the theme songs, and from the fact that the themes were more mature than what I should have been watching. But my mom let me and that made it special.
5. Shopping malls. I’ve talked about it before but I love a mall. And part of why I am so endeared to them is that I spent a lot of time in them. My mom worked in one and we visited often. And like any 90s teen, that was the place to hang out with friends. I know brick and mortar stores are a dying breed so my draw to mall is intensified knowing they could be on their way out for good.
6. Actually writing. I wrote notes to my friends, wrote in a journal (ok, I do still do that) and I just enjoyed that way of communication. Now, I am not against our new tech for this – I love texting on my phone same as anybody – but there was just something about a hand-written note.
7. This one is two-fold: Eating fast food and fast food restaurant playgrounds. When I was a kid, I never thought about healthy eating. In some ways, I subconsciously knew my mom was watching out for me. She made very well-rounded meals. Always a protein, a starch, a vegetable, and a bread. But when we got to at McDonalds, it was a real treat. The feeling of not caring about the unhealthiness of a meal is something I can never get back. I will never look at that kind of food the same ever again. And add onto that how fun the playgrounds were too!  
8. The smell of grilling and the times when my dad did it. I don’t know why it’s different now or when my husband does it but when my dad fired up our charcoal grill and made stuff like country style ribs, I was in heaven. Plus, I remember playing outside under a huge lime tree while he came in and out to tend the food so it strikes a chord.
9. Beach days. I grew up in south Florida; the Atlantic was about 15 minutes away. We went often and those were some of my favorite times. 
10. The style and atmosphere of living in South Florida. I loved the mid-century style of houses, the palm trees, the wide avenues that circled every so often. I loved how if you went East on Hollywood Boulevard, you’d end up at the ocean.
11.  Water parks. Ok so we mostly just went to this one, Atlantis. But above all other things my dad took us to do, this one is engrained in my memory the most. From the hot concrete, the way my sister was afraid to climb the stairs up to the slides, right down to the overly chlorinated water smell, I dream about this place; it lives in my subconscious. 
12. Saturday morning cartoons. As far as I can tell, these don’t really exists anymore. Mostly because the way we consume media has drastically changed. My kids have Nick, Nick Jr., Cartoon Network, all manner of Disney channels and they play stuff all day long. But I fondly remember waking up before my parents, getting a bowl of cereal, and watching TV until they got up. 
13. That feeling of being stress-free. What did we even worry about as kids? Not running faster than a class mate? In my teenage years, it was dumb petty friend crap but none of it was important. I just miss being able to go outside and run around and have fun. Adulting is hard.