Submitted and Written by Julia H

ALPHIE was an 80s toy that I absolutely loved. It was the early version of all of the ‘Leapster’ type stuff now Math skills, animal noises, a ‘twenty questions’ type game. He really had it all. I still have mine, it still works, and now my daughter plays with it!

Calling it a computer might be a stretch…

Submitted by Colleen S

Magic Slate was a peel-back dry erase board, kind of like a poor man’s, goody-bag friendly Etch-A-Sketch. I was never able to draw anything especially impressive on a Magic Slate pad, but then again, I was thankful that it was so easy to erase — I’m sure my third grade teacher would’ve been upset about the portraits I was doodling of her.

Submitted by Mary Beth D

The giant parachute was a classic kindergarten/early-elementary school activity. Whether you were an athletic kid or not, this gym class game brought everyone together to share their appreciation of really large parachutes. I remember raising the parachute and sitting on the inside as it slowly collapsed. Epic nostalgia. Maybe middle school wouldn’t have been so lame if there were more giant parachutes.

Submitted by Roxy

The point of the game was to sneak to the refrigerator in the middle of the night. It played like a cross between Chutes and Ladders and hot potato, more of a novelty for the plastic Dad that would spring up if you pushed the alarm clock enough times.

Still, I always wondered why Daddy would be so angry if the kids got a midnight snack. Maybe the fridge was full of booze.

Submitted and Written by Brenna M

When I was in 5th grade, my friends and I would exchange the FIRST text messages during class with the casio Super Magic Diary. One model even had a remote control for a television, and we’d change the channel during educational videos. It had a digital filing system for names and phone numbers, and you could create portraits of your friends.