Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?

Table of Contents

 

 

 

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

 

Cooper Gael Fashingbauer.

Includes index.

“A Perigee Book.”

eISBN : 978-1-101-51599-0

I. Popular culture—United States—History—20th century. 2. United States—Social life and customs—1971–3. United States—Civilization—1970–I. Bellmont, Brian. II. Title. E169.Z8C.0973'09047—dc22 2010050677

 

 

 

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I
F you owe a couple cavities to Pudding Pops and Marathon candy bars, learned your adverbs from
Schoolhouse Rock!
, ever spent a few of your birthdays at Shakey's Pizza, and can still imitate the slo-mo bionic running sound of the Six Million Dollar Man, this book is for you.

For a supposedly fractured generation, we kids of the 1970s and 1980s share a far more universal past than kids today. We all watched the same five channels, shopped at the same few chain stores, hummed the same commercial jingles. We may not remember the moon landing, but we remember Moon Boots. The Mystery Date board game didn't seem sexist, and exploding Pop Rocks were the epitome of candy science.

At school, everyone who didn't smell of Giorgio or Aramis reeked of Sun-In or Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific. Our slides and jungle gyms were made of shin-burning metal with sharp edges, kids regularly looked things up in card catalogs, and learning how to change a typewriter ribbon still seemed like a good idea. We would have laughed at the thought of purchasing bottled water, and even the youngest among us were trusted to play with javelin-sharp lawn darts.