Why Punky Brewster traumatized me for life and why Hall and Oates make me want to go to the grocery store.

So, this morning my iTunes decided to give me a big, warm hug in the form of 80s music. And this makes me happy to no end. However, what iTunes doesn’t realize is that my mind attaches music to every single moment of my life. A song comes on and it can remind me of the most mundane thing or a really fun, or sad, or whatever memory. But there is for sure a memory attached to almost any song that I’ve ever heard in my life. Ever.

For example, when I hear “Kiss On My List” by Hall and Oates (which you might think doesn’t happen a lot, but you’d be way wrong since it’s on my iPod and my iPod LOVES it some Hall and Oates, plus I love CVS, and CVS definitely loves it some Hall and Oates), I flash back to going to the grocery store with my mom when I was really little. Why? Not exactly sure, but a memory of going to the grocery store with my mom always makes me happy and feel all nostalgic.

I think I should definitely start telling Character Boyfriend that he’s the Hall to my Oates. This will obviously make him super-happy.

Also, my brain sometimes maybe gets over-stimulated by awesome memories of the 1980s, causing me to kind of melt down into a puddle of reminiscing. And then I bring others into it, causing not just myself, but everyone around me, to immediately stop working and start talking about what’s really important in life: “Family Ties” and “Punky Brewster.”

Let me take you down the dangerous, dark path of my mind. Have you ever seen, like, a really messy attic or a teenager's bedroom? Yeah, that’s what I imagine the inside of my mind to look like. This is how it happened, let me set the scene:

Me, typing and diligently working at my desk. Obviously. Then “At This Moment” by Billy Vera & the Beaters comes on, naturally.

Enter: Everything coming to a screeching halt because I immediately flash back to that incredible, iconic “Family Ties” scene where Alex and Ellen are dancing at some inexplicable college dance (are there even such things? Oh, the 80s, how I love them so) and my mind goes into an overdrive of nostalgia. 

Um, amazing.

Nothing makes me happier then the fact that these two kids stuck it out and got married. Thank you, Billy Vera.

THEN, after I finish reminiscing about how that song always makes me cry because I’m somehow very emotionally attached to two fictional characters from 25 years ago, my mind wandered down the road of one of the other iconic scenes in 80s pop culture history:

Cherie getting locked in the refrigerator on “Punky Brewster.”

Uh, hello, that was terrifying and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t go near our refrigerator for at least a month after seeing that episode. It was for-real traumatizing and I know I’m not the only one who remembers it. Wait....am I?

Oh, also, if you don't remember either of these scenes because you weren't born yet or something, (a) thank you for reading an old lady blog and (b) I kind of secretly might hate you just a bit.

Dear Cherie, You scared the living shit out of me when I was 7. Love, Becky