Summer of '89. Part 1

Guys... 

Where are we? 

I am past the "Is it Monday, Sunday, Someday or That day." I am  starting to wonder what DECADE we are working with. 

Considering I get all my news from Instagram and Royal blogs, current events are running together a little in my tired brain. 

But my streaming services have led me to believe I am enjoying the summer of around 1989. 

This was too much for one post, so like the late 80's/early 90's let's enjoy it in small doses. 

Photo: Stolen from Google

As I live and breathe... the only 5 friends I had in the late 80's. (Unless you count those twins I knew from Sweet Valley High. But they were kind of bitchy.)

Kristy, Dawn, Claudia, Stacey and Mallory. The Baby-Sitters Club.  

These were my people! The jock, the artist, the fashionista, the California girl and the diabetic. Well, not that one, but the rest were a spot on portrayal of everyone I knew. They were all around my age living in a small, but cozy Connecticut town just like I was living in a small town in Western Kentucky where everyone drank Mt. Dew. They, like me, spent their every waking second baby-sitting. Make. That. Money. 

As I have previously blogged, I did a TON of baby-sitting when I was younger and this was my bible. The blueprint from which I worked. These books covered everything from toddler tantrums to kids with special needs to a house that may or may not have been haunted. Name something more on brand for Katie Thomas Sanderson. (Although, would it have killed Ann M. Martin to write a book about babysitting with a Tibetan Monk in the house? ) They were coming-of-age in the best way for someone like me who was, to quote the poet laureate Britney Spears, "Not a girl, not yet a woman." This series got me through a lot of the emotions that run between tween and teen years. First crushes, kisses and heartbreaks. They covered it all. 

As I have also previously blogged, I was a fat kid. For this, Babysitters Club is also to blame. I spent ALL my free time reading these books. Thank God I was making all that cash baby-sitting to support this habit.  As quick as I would finish one, the next one would be out and I would be waiting for it. The only cardio I was getting was running to B. Dalton to buy the newest release. If turning pages counted in MyFitnessPal, I would have set records.  Sleepover this weekend? Doubt it. I've got a new BSC to cruise through. Plus, I was reading so many of these that I CONSTANTLY qualified for Book-It!  I was basically existing on BSC and Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas. 

Luckily, my Mother had the divine foresight to save all of my BSC books. Every single one I read. She moved them from Kentucky to Wyoming and back and finally let me have them back when I got my first big girl house.  I used to dream about a day when I would have a daughter that could get lost in these books like I did. But when that day came, she got about 5-pages in and said "Is it just a club of girls who babysit?" 

HOW DARE YOU. Clearly, I am raising a monster. 

I bargained with her; I bribed her. "But I have 34 of the regular series, some of the bonus mystery ones and the summer only editions!!!" No dice. Not even when I told her I had won a BSC trivia contest (probably) judged by Ann M. Martin herself did she bat an eye. Is this child even mine? 

But thanks to Netflix, I did get to introduce Bee to my 5 very best friends. 

This show is SUPER cute. It is modified only slightly from the books, which I really don't mind because it is making Bee a more woke kid. There was probably more undesirable stereotyping in those books than I would like to admit.  Surprisingly, the scope of the babysitting landscape hasn't changed that much. Kids are still messy and tween girls still  have full blown anxiety over boys.  Netflix really did an awesome job casting this; most of these characters are exactly as I remember them from all those years ago. I would like to say the clothes are better, but even those trends have come back around. They did incorporate the "see through phone" that was on the cover of the books, which I appreciated  But they also referenced that the girls bought it as an "antique" from Etsy, which i took umbrage with. The nostalgia has been REALLY good for me during all of this. There was no COVID when I read these... or in Stonybrook, CT. Here they are again, my 5 besties making me feel safe and loved and like everything is going to be ok. And also, fast forward 30-years to me being holed up in my house with the BSC again eating pizza. 

The real bonus was watching the first episode and asking Bee "Do you know who  that is playing Kristy's Mom?" She thought and when she gave up I said "That's Cher, from Clueless." Her whole brain exploded. While she sorted that out, I went to put on a little extra Retin-A because I am old as hell.