I grew up with, like, Cabbage Patch Kids, Barbie and the
Rockers, and a whole slew of bitchen sit-coms, in, like, the decade of the
Valley Girl! It was a time of Moon Unit Zappa (she’s fer sure super super nice),
Cyndi Lauper, and arcades. The early days of the Brat Pack. Leg warmers, head
bands, Swatch watches!
It was, like, fer sure, totally tubular!
The 80s also affected our language and slang. Grody to the Max and Gag Me with a Spoon were common phrases
at school.
Let me be clear, I was not a Valley Girl. Not even close. I
grew up in upstate New York as far from the Valley as I could be, but we, my
friends and I, loved mimicking the accent, that shrill squeal, and the bratty
air-head attitude that we saw on TV and in movies. We twirled our hair and
tossed our heads, hip cocked out to the side.
Like, fer sure.
Totally.
It was done in fun, a blatant parody of a group of people
who may or may not have been depicted accurately.
Both Grody to the Max
and Gag Me with a Spoon mean
something that is disgusting and are both from the 1980s. Although grody by itself was used in the 1970s,
I prefer the 1980s version.
Example: Gavin gave
Gabby a growler of Guinness that gushed out engulfing Gabby in goo. “Grody to the max!” Gabby gasped
emphatically while Gwen glared at Gavin, “Gag
me with a spoon!”
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Like, totally awesome...lol, I'm even further from the valley, but loved the tv shows that we did get here and your post.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I keep meaning to update my netflix queue so that my girls can see more of the shows I grew up with...but other things keep pushing the 80s shows down the list.
DeleteOh wow, I haven't heard gag me with a spoon in ages!
ReplyDeleteGood grumblings!
ReplyDeleteBeth
http://bethlapinsatozblog.wordpress.com
Love it, this.post was fun :) I said gag me! I remember grody, so I probably used that, too, but Iowa's definitely a gag me user :)
ReplyDeleteSo many words for the vocabulary
ReplyDeleteI remember all that - and the big hair, oh my! I'm glad now my hair just wouldn't cooperate with such styling.
ReplyDeleteSo you didn't have big teased hair? I was still a little too young when that style was popular and really, my hair didn't need any more volume!
DeleteI say gag me with a spoon to my kids all the time. They don't get it. They think they just have a weird mom.
ReplyDeleteEEEKS... embarrassing memories come crashing back. Those pictures which are hidden in the back of the closet. Whenever my kids pull them out, they declare they were adopted!
ReplyDeleteHow about that fountain hair that was popular too! ugh...
ReplyDeleteKaTy Did at: Life's Ride As I See It
A-Z Challenge
I remember those expressions. During that era, my brother and sister and I were assigned to wash the dishes each night. We had fun saying it was grody because you had to, like, touch other people's food--that was something Moon Unit talked about in Frank Zappa's song.
ReplyDeleteThe other part I liked was when she talks about getting her braces off and getting a retainer. She found it grody, but I disagreed, because I thought girls with retainers were cute. Oh, high school!
I remember having to do the dishes too (of course as the youngest I usually got away with the least amount of work) but, yeah, dishes are seriously grody!
DeleteLike totally gag me!!! I still use that one to this very day!
ReplyDeleteHugs!
Valerie