You know you're a kid of the 90s if...

I am seriously nostalgic right now. I was babysitting two little girls today, and out of nowhere I made a fist on of the girls' heads, bumped it with my other fist and said, "crack an egg on your head and let the yolk run down." Now come on, who doesn't remember that game you used to play with your friends on a hot summer day, sitting on the side of the local community pool?

So today, when I started the rhyme, I tried to keep going, but I couldn't remember the rest of it (god, I sound like such an old, Alzheimer-ridden grandma) so I decided to google it. Well, of course it turns out that there are like a hundred different variations of this game, which incidentally is called "Concentration." And by the way, you know what I totally forgot? That a part of the game is you chanting "people are dying, children are crying." What kind of sick game were we all playing?! I think I was the ripe old age of 8 when I played this game and there I was, happily yelling about death and despair for all to hear.

Anyway, the point is that in my efforts to find the words to "Concentration" led me to this website that glances over some of the popular fads of the 90s. And I swear to God, it's like they pulled this list directly from my childhood. I mean, what little girl didn't have an Easy Bake Oven?! Oh my god, and do you remember when Gelly shoes were popular? Although why we thought they were the best thing to put on your feet, I'll never know, because whenever you put them on your feet went from clean and dry to sweaty and smelly in less to 4.6 seconds. There are so many relics of my youth that, as I look back in my wizened age, I shake my head in confusion. Why was it so important to keep a giga pet alive? I think I pulled out most of my hair in a stress-induced haze during my giga pet months. (Incidentally, I was obviously not ready to care for another living creature--I think I killed 60 giga pets in the span of 2 months.) And who decided that the macarena was a cool dance to do in public? And remember those bracelets that started out straight, and you had to slap them onto your wrist to make them curl around your arm? All of the girls in my third grade class went around with giant welts on their wrists for weeks---but look at the jazzy bracelets!

It was all so long ago, and while I now scoff at some of the crazier fads from the 90s, I can't help but feel a tiny glimmer of warm, fuzzy feelings as I look back on my early years. Things were so much easier when it was all about the Spice Girls and Saved by the Bell and Sega. Why can't we go back to those simpler times?