75 Photos That Look (And Smell) Like Your Childhood

1) Koosh Time

There was something so satisfying about letting your friends know the technical name for the Koosh Ball. Who knew that not everyone knew what it was called?

2) It Never Fit

It was so frustrating when your Discman or CD Walkman wouldn’t fit into your pocket. Why in the world they didn’t make pockets compatible, we’ll never know.

3) Bedtime Stories

The best bedtime stories were these right here. Sure, you were actually terrified when you read them or listened, but it make you feel older than you actually were.

4) Not a Balloon or a Bubble

These sticky things weren’t balloons but they weren’t soapy bubbles either. They were toxic and probably aren’t sold in stores anymore. Too many kids licking things they shouldn’t.

5) See Through, Just Because

There was a whole thing about stuff being see through. It was cool to be able to see the inner mechanisms of your objects. No one really knows why.

6) Still a Thing?

Kids still play with Play-Doh don’t they? If they don’t then they are missing out. You can spend hours creating snakes that look like something else or ice cream with certain characteristics.

7) Now That’s Sharp

It may look like a fishing reel, kids, but it’s actually an excuse to show off your new outfit in front of class. Take one trip during class but no more or you’re asking for it.

8) What Does It Mean?

No one knows what this S stood for, but we all drew it every chance we got. It was fun to memorize the pattern. If you were really cool, you’d make it “Smile” too.

9) For the Fair

These weren’t that cool, and yet, everyone wanted at least one to hang from their belt loop. Makes the perfect change purse for carnivals and arcades.

10) Collect Them All

Every Barbie came with one of these brushes and you cursed yourself and Mattel if you stepped on one while walking to bed. Who left that out anyway? Couldn’t have been you!

11) Are Those Levi’s?

Now these guys were cool. Everyone knows the Tiger Shark’s skates were amazing because they worked. But the classic cowboy shark was the coolest of them all.

12) Choke Yourself

Some people are still into chokers, but are they really that great? Or safe? Why where something comfortable when you can choke on your own jewelry all day?

13) The Best Day

This was the best day of PE ever. Parachute Day trumped dodge ball by a longshot. It was safe, fun, friendly, and everyone was good at it. Plus, those colors made you feel wonky.

Children of the Nineties
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Children of the Nineties

14) Jelly Babies

Jellies were the coolest shoes ever, especially if you had a super cute sundress to match them. No, they didn’t necessarily smell fruity but they made you feel fruity.

15) Where We Dropping?

This was the best way to learn how maps work. Plus, using Hot Wheel cars on them was better than driving the cars on the boring old floor. Take me to the hospital, please!

16) Smells Like Pencil Shavings

The Spacemaker was the coolest pencil box and it was affordable. So of course this is the one everyone was getting, even if it was the off brand one with see-through lids.

17) Which Was Your Favorite?

You will never admit how old you were when you still enjoyed the Little Golden Books. If you were lucky, you could read The Poky Little Puppy to a younger sibling and look like a hero.

18) Seven Up

Do they still do this? Most people hear Seven Up and they think about the lemon lime soda pop. But it was also a pretty rad game that made you feel telepathic.

19) Pepto Fun

Taking medicine was never a fun time. But when it was bright pink, you knew you were in for a real treat. At least it was better than cough syrup. That was the worst!

20) Thank you, Mr. Feeny

If we learned one thing from Boy Meets World, it’s that Mr. Feeny had the best advice and we wish we had more teachers like him. But we didn’t.

21) Smells Like Sweat and Cheap Pleather

Ugh, just seeing this might give some people anxiety. No one really liked riding the school bus but only kids with amazing parents or stay-at-home moms got to hitch a ride.

Las Vegas Bussales
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Las Vegas Bussales

22) At Least There Were Tattoos

This gum was almost as good as the tape gum, baseball gum, or bandaid gum. Almost. Because Fruit Stripe gum had amazing flavor for about five seconds. Then it was gone.

23) These Plates Though

The Disney plates were amazing and made everything taste so much better. Especially things you dip in ketchup because you get to draw pictures with it on the characters.

24) Warm Plastic

For some reason, you could always smell the plastic in the water. That would be why your mother told you not to drink the water but you still didn’t listen.

25) Better Than Color

Before Paint.Net was a thing, we had Kid Pix, which was somehow more fun than Paintbrush at the time. They not only had crayons and brushes, but they had stamps too.

26) Best Halloween

If you were really lucky, you could get your mom to get you an official Halloween bucket instead of using a pillowcase. Those pillowcases never held the candy the same and it made you feel silly.

27) Scoot Along

These were the most fun to play around with in PE. So long as you kept your fingers tucked in at all times. The best of us could beat anyone in class, if we got to choose our color first.

28) We All Did This

At first, the noodle slipped on up on accident. But the other three, that was all you. For some reason, it was fun to eat them like this. Macaroni and Cheese was the best!

29) On the List

This was always on your birthday and Christmas list but it was never high enough for you to actually get it. So instead, you got another Nintendo 64 game and a Tamagotchi.

30) Leaning Tower of Cheeza

For some reason, this was the funniest scene in The Goofy Movie. We all repeated Pauly Shore’s words over and over even though it annoyed our parents.

31) They Didn’t Work

These silly erasers didn’t exactly work like we wanted them to but they were fun to collect and stick in the pencil box. Did you get the watermelon and strawberry?

32) ‘Bout to Have a Party

This meant that a Disney Channel Original Movie was about to come on and that was the best news ever. You never knew what it was going to be but it was going to be good.

33) Classic Floam

If you left it out, it hardened and was unusable. But keep it stored and it was super fun. You were supposed to mix and match the colors but of course that wasn’t allowed.

My Polish Stash
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My Polish Stash

34) Bugle Boy

Were Bugles designed to wear as claws? I don’t know. But that’s exactly what everyone used them for. They were pretty tasty too, so eating them off your fingers was a treat.

35) Watermelon Was the Best

It may have been low tear, but it wasn’t tear free. As a child with curly hair, you did feel good about using that watermelon one though. Like it made your hair curlier!

36) Is It Cheese?

As adults, we now know of something called cheese product and I’m pretty sure that’s what was in those Kraft snacks. But that really doesn’t matter, they were the best lunchbox snack.

37) The Textures!

Remeber the Rainbow Fish? You always assume that the shiny areas will be even more textured than they were, but they weren’t. Still, it sure was a classic.

38) Can You Smell It?

I hope they don’t still play dodgeball in schools because it really wasn’t the safest game. Not only did certain kids get ganged up on but it really isn’t a kids game at all.

Fourth Grade Nothing
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Fourth Grade Nothing

39) Just a Minute

Have you ever been as nervous as you were when you were timed doing multiplication? Sure, you could do the problems, but did you really need to do them in one second?

Thge Odyssey Online
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Thge Odyssey Online

40) Pop ‘Em

These rubber poppers were so much fun at parties. Most kids gave them away as party favors at birthday parties and they beat the plastic frogs by a longshot.

41) So Strong

There was nothing that made you feel more grown up then popping an Altoid from a metal tin. You knew they were strong and you got to keep the tin for…things.

Business Insider
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Business Insider

42) Try a Bagel

French bread pizza was so fun because you could make them yourself and it was a personal pan size. Like the Personal Pan Pizzas at Pizza Hut, only with a buttery taste.

42) I Am Magic

Balancing these birds on your finger made you feel like you were magic. Even after taking Physics, you weren’t sure how this really worked. They really were magic.

Shut Up I'm Talking
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Shut Up I'm Talking

44) We Want His Room

Arnold’s room was the coolest room in all of TV history. He had a built in bed, a giant skylight and access to the roof. Yep, he was the coolest 4th grader ever.

45) Cool Beans

Seeing the Coming Soon news on your new DVD or VHS was like finding out there was a new Toy Story via the internet. This was the way you found out what was coming out.

46) Don’t Be Shy

Don’t lie, you read Peggy Parish’s books and you liked them. But no need to be bashful, all of the I Can Read Books were the bomb. Why? Because you could read and you were proud.

47) He was Funny

If there was one thing that would make your older sibling tell you to stop being stupid, it was reading The Stinky Cheese Man and all the other silly tales in this book.

48) We All Cried

This was sadder than The Lion King or Old Yeller. When Little Foot lost his mom, we all lost a piece of ourselves. So now you can’t sing “If We Hold On Together” without tearing up.

49) Your First Tooth

The only good thing about getting a tooth pulled was getting this cool treasure chest to put your tooth in. It didn’t go under the pillow like a baggie, but it was way cooler.

50) Lucky Kids

Is it just me or was it only the rich kid that got to go to the Discovery Zone. The poor kids got nothing or if it was their birthday, a nice trip to McDonald’s playplace.

51) Taste Even Better In This

If you don’t recognize these as Pizza Hut cups then you need more pizza in your life. So please order one tonight and pretend it’s a Big New Yorker or Monster pizza.

52) Marker Stamps

Now these were fun. You always chose your favorite and used it as a signature on notes you wrote, or Valentines. That way, they’d know who it was without you signing it.

53) Still Do This

There were two kinds of kids. The kids who stuck pins through their skin and the ones who cringed at the ones who did. You could not be indifferent.

54) Second Best Day

The Scholastic Book Fair was by far the most fun you can have at school. Ready was the ultimate break from every other subject. How could you not love reading?

55) Shark Bait

Although the strawberry fruit snacks tasted the best, the character ones were the coolest. Especially the Shark Bites, even though the white ones really didn’t taste like much.

56) Don’t Watch This Commercial

We all loved fruit gushers and wished we could eat them every day. But what you probably didn’t love was the creepy commericals where everyone’s heads turned into fruit.

57) Remember Him?

There were a few toys that were both disturbing and desirable. This T-Rex with removable skin was one of them. The skin was rubbery and the inside was solid.

58) I’m the GOAT

When you’re a grade or two behind the grade level of the Brain Quest deck and you still ace the test, you feel amazing. No one will ever surpass someone like that.

59) Did They Work?

No, they didn’t really work, but when you’re too young to skate anyway, they would suffice. Until you realized your shoes were too big to fit in them, of course.

60) We Saw Ourselves Doing It

Beanie Babies were everything back then. And with good reason too. Collecting as many as you could was all anyone wanted. Today, they are worth thousands, so well done.

Under Scoopfire
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Under Scoopfire

61) Died of Dysentery

Can you believe that adults actually approved The Oregon Trail as an educational tool rather than a video game. It was pretty much the original Sims, only hardcore.

62) The Only Background

If you were going to draw a landscape, there’s a 99% chance that it started out like this. Maybe you’d draw a few spurts of grass or a tree on one side.

63) A Great Classic

The best part about reading this book was your parents discouraging you from wanting a motorcycle when you grew up. Little did they know you really wanted a mouse.

64) Aged to Perfection

There’s something about a box of mixed Crayola crayons that is just so special. Maybe it’s the smell and maybe it’s finally have two or three blacks so you don’t have to share.

65) We All Had It

The Fisher-Price castle, pirate, western, and jungle sets were the best thing that ever came out of the company. And they were huge in the ’90s so that’s saying a lot.

66) Can You Smell Them?

Kids these days still enjoy scented markers, but they weren’t fanatics like we were. They were mostly fruity and we longed for better smelling vanilla or cookie dough.

67) Peel and Stick

If you had a few moments in class with a bottle of Elmer’s glue, you bet you were going to cover your hand in a thin layer. It didn’t take too long to dry so you were free to peel in no time.

68) They Changed Colors

They were also found in your cereal boxes so if you wanted to use them, sometimes your parents would make you eat all the cereal first. But that next box was yours and Simba’s!

69) Nice Collection

If you didn’t have at least a dozen Disney movies on VHS, were you really living? Most families collected them as they were released and where did they all go now?

70) Take It Out

They didn’t come out with the laser mouse until well into the 2000s. Before then, we used this bad boy. The ball was removable so you could “clean” it.

71) Waiting for Fillings

It was no fun going to the dentist, but at least you could forget the torture you were about to endure if this was in the waiting room. If not, you’d have to stick with Highlights for Kids.

72) The Orange One

So, most VHS tapes were black, but there were a special few that were different. Barney was white and Rugrats was orange. The scary ones were red and ET had green accents!

73) Not Drew Carey

Bob Barker was always a friendly face to wake up to or go to bed to. He reigned for so many years, it’s hard to remember that Drew Carey has hosted since 2007.

American Profile
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American Profile

74) He Was So Cool

Bill Nye taught us everything we needed to know about science. I mean, if he could replace your science teacher in class, you’d choose him every day of the week.

75) From Another Planet

You were the luckiest kid in the world if you got these in your lunchbox. They were known as Cosmic Brownies and everyone wanted the one with the most chocolate candies on top.