Throwback Thursday: 1987 - When I was 6!

The year: 1987, I just graduated from Kindergarten! Wasn't I the cutest thing ever?!?! I was so proud of myself. I also walked up the aisle like I was in a wedding because we had rehearsed for my Aunt's wedding the night before, so I thought I'd show off my "wedding walk." Yep, I was cool like that.

Most of my days were spent hanging out in the driveway out back with all the neighborhood kids. I grew up in a row-home in the Mayfair section of Philly, so that back driveway was THE place to hangout, very little traffic, all of your friends lived right there, it was a party everyday! One of our neighbors had swings hanging from their garage, one was a flat seat and one was a squishy butt seat. (That's what we called it.) One day, there was something going on at my house, a party or something like that, but I wasn't interested. So, I went out back went to my neighbors swings and decided I was big enough to try the flat seat which my mom had warned us we were too little for. I ended up doing just fine, but then I decided, since I was big enough to ride this swing. I was big enough to jump off and land gracefully on my feet. WRONG! I jumped, fell on my face and slid, scraping the one side of my face clean off. Imagine the horrified look on my moms face when I came running in with tears and blood dripping down my face. My poor mother, how she managed to stay somewhat sane is beyond me!
That year, I had been playing softball for the local pee-wee team - The Lansing Lightning. Now, admittedly, I don't do sports, but it didn't stop my mom from trying to have sports enthusiasts for daughters. The same week I had scraped up my face, I had also decided to catch a softball with my other eye. I must have looked a mess! I kinda wish my mom had a picture of me looking all beat up, but since it was 1987, she would have had to pay a decent amount to have the pictures developed, so our camera was saved for special events and vacations.

Speaking of vacations, My very first trip to Disney World was that year! We went with a friend of my mom, and her family. there were 4 adults, and 6 kids total on the trip. I don't remember much, except the pool, which had an awesome slide through a rock waterfall thingy, and the arcade where we were allowed to run off to alone with out any parents to watch us. I was 6! the same age as Love right now. I would never allow her to run off on her own! What were they thinking?!?!
I have a few horror stories from Disney that year. 1) I got lost after coming out of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I was so scared, but I told a park employee and we stayed right in that spot and my mom was there in probably 30 seconds but it felt more like 10 minutes. 2) That awesome pool I just told you about, yeah, another moment where I tried to be big. I decided to go down that awesome waterfall slide (with an inner tube for safety). My parents had no idea that I had run off and decided to try this thing all by myself. I went down, the innertube slipped off me, and I was left in 12 feet of water and unable to swim. Luckily, my "boyfriend" saved me, thus dubbing him my hero for the remainder of the vacation. He became extremely annoyed when I tried to kiss him for the 100th time and we haven't spoken since. So sad. He was sooo cute! We would have made awesome little babies together. LOL!

My favorite toys were my Barbies, Rainbow Brite dolls, Pound Puppies, and Care-Bears plushes.
I can remember dancing to "Bad" by Michael Jackson in our back driveway with a few friends. I was in love with the Bad boy leather look, every father's worse nightmare. My sister fell in love with the movie The Princess Bride. We would tell our parents "as you wish" each night before going to bed, if you don't get the reference, go to netflix and download that shit, you are missing a vital piece of history! Another movie, one that we weren't allowed to see, yet all of our friends were talking about it, was Dirty Dancing. It may have been another 10 years before I got to enjoy the sway of Patrick Swayze's hips, but it was 10 years worth waiting for.
I did get to watch some pretty awesome movies though: Batteries not included, Adventures in Babysitting, The Brave Little Toaster, and 3 Men and a Baby, just to name a few. Such a good year!

As if that wasn't enough for your throwback to 1987, I decided to look up a few facts about that year via this awesome site: http://whathappenedinmybirthyear.com/ - go there and see what happened the year you were born!

1. The top selling movie was Fatal Attraction. 
2. The academy award for the best movie went to The Last Emperor. 
3. The top actor was Michael Douglas for his role as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.
4. The top actress was Cher for her role as Loretta Castorini in Moonstruck. 
5. The best director? Bernardo Bertolucci for The Last Emperor.
6. The number one US bestseller of the time was The Tommyknockers by Stephen King.
7. Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 
8. Supernova 1987A, the first "naked-eye" supernova since 1604, is observed. 
9. The Simpsons cartoon first appears on The Tracy Ullman Show. 
10. NASCAR driver Bill Elliott sets all time fastest lap at Talladega Superspeedway, with 212.8 miles per hour.
11. Guns N' Roses release their debut album, Appetite For Destruction. 
12. The video game of the day was The Legend of Zelda. 
13. MTV is launched in the US.
14. The AIDS pandemic begins.
15. Heavy Metal and Hard Rock bands are extremely popular. 
16. Gay rights become more widely accepted in the world.
17. The rise of Techno music begins. 
18. College Rock enters the scene with bands like the Pixies, REM and Sonic Youth. 
19. The Hip Hop scene continues to evolve. 
20. Teletext is introduced.  
21. Opposition to nuclear power plants grows. 
22. The A-Team and Seinfeld are popular on TV. 
23. US basketball player Michael Jordan bursts on the scene. 
24. Super Mario Bros, Zelda's Link, and Pac-Man gain fame in video games. 
25. People wear leggings, shoulder pads and Ray-Ban sunglasses. 
26. The song La Bamba by Los Lobos topped the US charts.
27. Aaron Carter, Joss Stone, and Tom Felton were born.

Tell me, where were you in 1987? What was the music on your radio? How old were you?