What A Week
Us GenXers have taken some heavy punches this week for sure. First losing Theo, then Ozzy, and then the one that hit me the hardest…losing Hulk Hogan. All of these celebrity deaths have affected different people in different ways. Everyone was saddened by one more than the others, but overall, we’ve all lost a significant chunk of our shared childhoods this week.
For me, the loss of Hogan has hit the hardest. I’ve been a wrestling fan since I was six years old, and Hogan was a large part of that world for most of my life. Watching multiple wrestling shows every week, Hogan was in my life more than most of my family members.
I’m not one to pile onto people when they screw up in life, as I’m sure we all have things in our past we wish we wouldn’t have said or done. So other than this sentence, I’m not even going to mention the troubled recent years of Hogan. Rather, I’m going to spend a few words reflecting on what he meant when I was younger.
Hulk Hogan was a villain. And I’m not talking about the nWo years. I’m talking about his whole career. I grew an NWA fan. I grew up in Horsemen county. I grew up a Ric Flair fan, and when you grow up like that, Hogan and the WWF are the villains.
As hard as I cheered for Flair through the years, I jeered Hogan just as hard. I loved it when Paul Orndorff turned on him in 1986. I sided with Andre when he challenged Hogan. I thought Savage was right all along. I even rooted for Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania 6.
When Hogan came to WCW in the mid-’90s, I was so against it. I rooted against everything he did. But you know what? You don’t hate people who don’t matter. Hogan mattered.
Hogan built the business of pro wrestling in the ‘80s and carried it into the ‘90s. He was the biggest star wrestling had ever seen, and I say he is still the biggest star of all-time. I never hated him. I just loved to root against him because he was the best. Much like football fans who always rooted against the Patriots.
Wrestling has lost it’s greatest champion, and all of us GenXers have lost a major part of our childhood. wRESTle in peace brother. You will never be forgotten, and that makes you truly immortal.
Summerween
I hear there is a term for this time of year. When the days are still long and hot, and the kids haven’t started back to school yet, but Halloween stuff is already out in the stores. They call it Summerween now. And it’s going full on right now.
I was in Wal-Mart yesterday and they already and their Halloween decorations aisle in place, and two aisle of Halloween candy out. Then I stopped at the grocers, and they have their Halloween candy out as well.
I love the fall season and all that it has to offer, but July is much too early to be starting it. With that said, I snapped some pictures of a couple of interesting candy things I saw and wanted to share them with you:
I love seeing that Reese’s has partnered with Peanuts to brand their peanut butter pumpkins as It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown chocolate pumpkins. It doesn’t change the taste any, but it makes it a cooler concept.
And while I’m not a fan of candy corn in general, the S’Mores candy corn has me interested.
What about you? Either of these Halloween items tickling your fancy?
Retro Rambler Around the Web
Even with the hard week, I still found the time to post several new pieces of content in some various places. Here’s where you can check everything out:
Over at The Retro Network, I posted my latest article/essay looking back at Wendy’s SuperBar. It was one of my favorite fast food promotions, and you can get all of my thoughts here: Wendy’s SuperBar and a Buffet of Memories.
Meanwhile, over at Retro Ramblings on the web, I put up an essay looking back at one of my first dates in the piece, Young Love at Wendy’s and the Well Fields.
I added another Wax Pack Flashback video, this time opening an old pack of Saturday Night Fever trading cards from 1978.
In the latest issue of This Nostalgic Like, I wrote an essay about how Sunday Night Television Used To Be The Worst.
Then in my latest piece for Retro-Daze, I looked back at some Old McDonald’s Tray Liners.
And in a special feature at Retro Ramblings, in celebration of Shark Week, I wrote an article about Famous Sharks in Pop Culture History.
Whew.
Spotlight Links
And as usual, here are links to some of the most fun retro and nostalgia-themed stuff I came across in my journeys around the web this week. There’s some great stuff in here, and I highly recommend you check all of it out.
My friend Kevin Hellions wrote a fantastic piece for The Retro Network, In Memory of Hulk Hogan, and I think it’s my favorite thing he’s ever written. It’s a beautiful tribute to a childhood hero.
And John Toma, aka That ‘80s Due, wrote about how all of Our Gen X Icons Are Dying and the impact of such. If you’re around my age, this one is deep, thought-provoking, and hard to accept.
And we don’t want to forget Ozzy, so Rob over at Ninjas and Neon put up a great post called Ozzy and Me.
And rounding out the tributes to the recently fallen, William Bruce West added his thoughts on Malcolm-Jamal Warner in this week’s edition of his fantastic weekly column, West Week Ever. Go for the Malcolm-Jamal Warner talk, and stay for everything else he covers. It’s one of my favorite reads every week.
The Rest of the Curated Links
Most Ridiculous Things That Scared Gen X Kids (GenXcellent)
The Rise and Fall of Like Cola (Retroist)
A Very Unique Problem (Ninjas and Neon)
When Hulkamania Runs Out: Saying Goodbye to a Legend and a Piece of Ourselves (The Retro Dad)
7 Movies That Changed the World in Surprising Ways (Mental Floss)
Into the Fantastic (The Retro Network)
40 Years Ago Commodore Changed the World With the Amiga (Hot Hardware)
5 Awesome Things on eBay This Week (Plaid Stallions)
Coming Up This Week
So this coming Friday, MTV celebrates it’s anniversary. And while all music television is just a smaller part of it’s history at this point, my generation still thinks of it that way.
To celebrate this passing of time, at both The Retro Network and This Nostalgic Life we’re dedicating the week to memories of the glory days of MTV.
In Wednesday’s edition of This Nostalgic Life, we’re telling the story behind the beginnings of MTV, and reviewing a couple of books on the subject. And over at The Retro Network, we’re dropping fresh new MTV content each day of the week. Be sure to visit each day as we cover the following topics:
Monday - The Cultural Impact of MTV's Early Days
Tuesday - MTV and WWF's Rock and Wrestling Connection of the '80s
Wednesday - MTV's Original VJs: Where Are They Now?
Thursday - The Birth of MTV's Video Music Awards
Friday - Remote Control: The MTV Game Show That Broke All the Rules
It should be a fun time, and I hope you join us for all of it. If you just can’t wait until tomorrow to get a dose of MTV nostalgia, you can go check out issue #48 of This Nostalgic Life where Eric and I share thoughts on MTV in the essays The Early ‘90s Were Peak MTV and Five of My Favorite MTV Memories of the ‘80s.
Well that’s going to do it for this extended edition of Retro Ramblings. Let’s hope we have no more deaths of icons this coming week and we can all get back to a happier life.
- Mick