The 10 Things I Miss The Most About The 80's

On this episode, Danny reminisces on the 10 things he misses about the 80's. He waxes poetic about discontinued Kool-Aid flavors, early school dismissal, calling into radio stations, going to the arcade, Saturday routines, fed-up monkeys at the zoo and more!

Intro-Late Night Jam by Infrared Krypto

Listener questions/comments:
foxworthpodcast@gmail.com

Instagram:
instagram.com/dannyfoxworth843

X:
x.com/dannyfoxwrth843

Bluesky:
dannyfoxworth843.bsky.social

YouTube Channel:
youtube.com/dannyfoxworth843

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

What is good, good people? You and I listening to another episode of Since We Last Spoke with Danny Foxworth. I am your humble narrator, Danny Foxworth, and on this episode, I'm taking a page from the good brother Tual Ka, who did an episode a while back talking about the things he missed about the 80s. So I have my list. Without further ado, we're going to get into the first thing that I miss about the 80s, which is Saturdays as a kid. Now, in our household, the first thing we would do, we would get up on Saturday mornings. Mom and Dad would be in the kitchen making breakfast. And as they were making breakfast, they would go to the record player and they would pull out a record and they would throw it on the turntable, and we would just jam out as they were cooking breakfast, and me and my sister were getting ready for them to uh finish up cooking so we can all sit at the dinner table and eat our breakfast. My first musical memory was the Sesame Street Gold album. And one of my favorite songs on there was uh Talking about Your Body Parts. And he's like, I got two ears to let to help me here. And then Bob was like, I got two eyes, and they're both the same size. And me and my sister would always always sing along to it. And then I think Kermit the Frog had a song on there too that it's not easy being green. And my sister would just start boo-hoo crying because she felt bad for Kermit for being green. And uh I remember we'd listen to that, and then dad was throwing his amazing Frankie Beverly live in New Orleans album. That was his go-to whenever he would put a record on a turntable. And we'd just sit at the dinner table and we'd uh we'd eat our pancakes and our sausage and we'd just rock out to whatever they were playing on the stereo. And then after we finished eating breakfast, then it was time to do household chores. Once the chores got done, we could sit down and watch cartoons. And my favorite cartoon, I love the Smurfs. I was a big fan of the Snorks, which was basically like an aquatic version of the Smurfs. And Alvin and the Chipmunks. Alvin and the Chipmunks was probably my favorite cartoon, if I'm being real with y'all. Then after cartoons went off, me and my dad would sit and watch Soul Train. And that was really where I got introduced to artists like Runde MC and uh Jody Watley, who, oh my God, I had the worst crush on Jody Watley. And uh I'd see Kitten play and Force MDs and, you know, artists like those. And then after Soul Train went off, we would call in the Pizza Hut, and either mom or dad would call into town, and they'd pick up a pizza, and by the time they came back, it was time to sit down and flip the TV to Channel 24, and we would sit and watch Kung Fu Theater for a few hours. I was all about the karate flicks, and I think I got that from my dad because my dad was actually in the karate, he was a blue belt as a teenager. We would sit and watch like Fist of Legend and all of the Bruce Lee movies and any kung fu flick by the Shaw Brothers. I was in there like swimwear. And then after the Kung Fu theater went off, I would go to my room, I had a tiny black and white TV, and I would click at the Wild World of Sports because back then I was the only person in my house that was in the sports. So I would sit and watch Wild World of Sports for the remainder of the day, and it would show gymnastics and figure skating competitions and old Ali fights and the Harlem Globetrotters games, and it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. The second thing that I miss about being a kid was the prizes they used to keep in the boxes of cereal. We were big frosted flakes householders, frosted flakes and honeycomb cereal. And once in a blue moon, we would get corn pops or fruit loops, and the corn pops and fruit loops actually contained one of my favorite cereal box prizes, which was called the Wacky Wall Walkers. It was like a little rubbery, glow-in-the-dark octopus. You could stick it to the wall and it would just tumble down the wall without falling. And I thought that was really cool. And they also had in the uh box of Fruit Loops, it was a basically a knockoff of Transformers, and it was called Stots. So it would be like a little miniature spaceship and miniature robots. Those were cool, but my favorite cereal box prize was inside of the honeycomb cereal box, and they used to have the little miniature state license plates. Every other week I was begging my mom to get me a box of honeycomb because I wanted the South Carolina license plate, and I was only able to get three different plates. It was Pennsylvania, it was Hawaii, and I believe it was North Carolina. I wanted that South Carolina license plate so bad, but to no avail. I probably got like nine of the Pennsylvania plates, which they did look cool, though. It was like a navy blue plate with yellow letters, and you could attach it right under your bicycle seat with some twist ties, and I thought that was the coolest thing. The third thing that I missed the most about the 80s is not having bills. I always had my childhood ambitions as a kid. I wanted to be a meteorologist or a long-distance truck driver. All of the kids, they were like, I can't wait to be a grown up. I can't wait to do grown-up things. But one of the grown-up things that is absolutely trash is paying bills. And I know Pac said in Dear Mama, I love paying rent when the rent's due. I don't believe you. I'm sure there was some a bunch of other things you would have loved to do with your rent money besides paying rent. Because paying bills is for the birds. The fourth thing that I miss about the 80s is calling into the radio station request line. And there was one particular song that I heard. Shout out to uh Z93. This was back when the Z93 was actually on 93.5 instead of 93.3 like it is today. And it was a song by the Fat Boys with the Beach Boys. Actually, no, I take that back. It was on Q107. It was another big radio station in Charleston. And they played that song. It was Wipeout with the Fat Boys and the Beach Boys. And that was my first time hearing somebody doing the human beatbox, R.I.P. the Buff Love. And he was doing the beatbox while the Beach Boys were harmonizing over the beatbox. And my seven-year-old mind was so mesmerized by it. And to the point where I went and got the kitchen phone with that long ass spiral cord, and I went and stuck behind the refrigerator, even though you could see that long cord wrapped right behind the refrigerator. So it's not like I could call the radio station in private. You know what's going on when you see that long cord wrapped behind the refrigerator. And they're like, Q107. I'm like, yeah, I like to request wipeout by the fat boys and the beach boys. And the DJ's name was Michael D. He was like, we'll get that song going for you right now. And sure enough, they played it. And I was like, wow. And I remember I tried to hear my own voice on the radio. I had the radio turned up, not knowing that it was going to give a bunch of feedback. And he was like, you got to turn your radio down. I was like, oh man, I wanted to hear myself on the radio. But yeah, man, fun times. The next thing that I missed the most about the 80s is arcades. And 12 Kyle spoke about this on his episode, but I'm going to piggyback on what he said. We used to have an arcade in Northwoods Mall, I believe it was called Aladdin's Castle. And that was my first time being exposed to Mario Brothers and Double Dragon. Double Dragon was my favorite arcade game. And Double Dragon and Gallagher. If you were to ask seven-year-old me, where would you like to have your house if you could live anywhere? I would live at Aladdin's Castle and just spend endless tokens playing all those arcade games. And I remember we actually had an arcade down here in Monk's Corner, South Carolina, which was which was just mind-blowing to me that living in such a small town that we were able to have an arcade, it was called Carolina Arcade and Snack Bar. And I remember they actually had Super Mario Bros. 3 in the arcade. I think this was before it came out on NES. It was right across from St. John's Christian Academy. And I remember blowing so much money in that arcade. And the next thing that I miss about the 80s is the price of everything. I mean, back then, mom would give you like $3, and you could go to the candy lady. We actually had two candy ladies in our neighborhood. Shout out to Miss Money and Miss Lizzie. May they rest in peace. You could get blow pops for like 10 cents. I'd get blow pops and then the little pink bubble gums in the wrapper, those were a nickel. And I used to just, I'd go berserk on those $3. And you could get so much candy with $3 back in 1987. And you can't get anything for $3 in 2026. It's ridiculous. The next thing that I miss the most about the 80s is your parents picking you up from school. There are a few better feelings than being in class in your spiral notebook working on your cursive, and then the intercom goes off and says, Danny Foxworth, please come to the main office. Your mother's here to pick you up. I'm like, yes. At that age, it's basically making the announcement that you want a trip to Cabo. Like, I get to go home early? You kidding me? Let's go. Then packing up all my books and skating out of the classroom, like, nah, nee, nee, nee, nah, y'all gotta stay. And the next thing that I miss about the 80s, which actually ties into that, your uh parents picking you out, is at Whitesville Elementary School, one of the biggest rites of passage was making a trip to the Riverbank Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina. Now, Columbia's about an hour and a half from me, but that was like the biggest topic of discussion outside of girls. It was like, I went to the Riverbank Zoo, really, no way. And it was just seeing all those cool animals like getting to feed giraffes and seeing bears in real life, and I actually saw a monkey fling a turd at a little kid that was provoking this monkey. And I always heard that monkeys had a propensity to fling their doo-doo at people. But actually seeing it in person, and albeit this kid was being an absolute jerk to this monkey, and he deserved getting that turd flung at him. But the boy was just steadily provoking him. And then the monkey got fed up and just picked up his picking up his doo-doo. I mean, just threw a piss rod and hit the boy. He hit the boy right in his face. And this little kid is freaking out. And he goes and runs in his mom's arms, and now she got doo doo all over her sleeve. It was an absolute mess, but man, that was hilarious. The ninth thing that I miss about the 80s is, especially growing up in my neighborhood, which was extremely rural, and we didn't have access to cable. So the closest thing we had to MTV was a program that used to come on NBC on Friday nights entitled Friday Night Videos. And that's where I got exposed to other artists that I normally would not have heard on Z93. And I remember seeing Dire Straits, Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, and seeing Walk This Way with Runde and seeing Aerosmith. And my favorite artist that they used to always show on Friday night videos is a dude from Europe by the name of Falco. He ended up dying in a car accident back in the 80s. But he had a song called Rock Me Amadeus. He actually had two songs. It was that, and then he had another song called Vienna Calling. And the thing I loved about Falco was he was basically rapping, and he always had on a tailored suit, but he would rock white sneakers with the tailor suit. And I thought that was the most coolest stylish thing I'd ever seen in my life. And seeing the salt and pepper push it video, boy, I had the worst crush on salt as a kid. Yeah, Friday night videos, and the last thing that I really missed about the 80s was in the late 80s, Kool-Aid had introduced two new flavors. And first one was called charcoalberry fin. Now, charcoalberry fin was a mixture of strawberry orange and banana, which it was okay. I could halfway tolerate charcoalberry fin, but I never really liked bananas and the thought of banana flavoring in my Kool-Aid, it was kind of a turn off. But the other flavor that they introduced was Purple Source Rex. And Gerard Rose, if you listen into this, I know how you feel about Purple Source Rex, and I wanted to tell you that you were absolutely wrong. Purple Sauce Rex was not trash, bro. Purple Sorce Rex was basically a combination of grape flavor and lemon flavor. I remember seeing the commercial for it and the Kool-Aid man busting through the wall, like, oh yeah. Like, we got charcoalberry fin and purple sauce rex. And then mom brought home the purple sauce rex one Friday. And when she made it, I took that first sip. I was like, this is the best thing I've ever tasted in my entire life. And fast forward to 2026, at the ripe old age of 46 years old, I tried my hand at making it. So I got some, I bought some grape Kool-Aid from the store and then just added some lemon juice to it. Soon as I took that first sip, it was like the ratatouille effect. I immediately transported back to being seven years old again. And I was like, man, this is living right here. Like I always say, it's paramount that you tap in with your inner child at least once a week. And that was one of the ways that I did it. And Purple Source Rex, I love you. I miss you. You're greatly appreciated. And that's going to do it for this episode of Since We Last Spoke with Danny Foxworth. Tell a friend to tell a friend about the podcast. You can find me on all DSPs. And you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel, which is at Danny Foxworth843. There you can find videos of every episode of this podcast, as well as my baseball podcast at The Plate with Danny Foxworth, my candle podcast, The Wicked Good Time with Danny Foxworth, and Growing Up Low Country with Liz and Danny. And until next time, y'all be good. Peace.