Back to School: GenX Style (Trapper Keepers, designer jeans & Liz Lange)

Speaker 1 0:00

Hi. This is Shaun Cassidy, and you are listening to the pop culture Preservation Society.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:06

There's a generation of kids all of a sudden showing up with 64 and Trapper keepers when the list didn't say that.

Kristin Nilsen 0:13

And I'm like, Here, take the 6464

Carolyn Cochrane 0:19

kids would be like it doesn't say 64 figures and follow the rules. No, this is what you need. Hello

Speaker 1 0:29

World. It's a song that we're singing. Come on. Get happy.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:37

Whole lot of

Kristin Nilsen 0:38

love is what we'll be bringing

Unknown Speaker 0:41

we'll make you happy.

Kristin Nilsen 0:44

Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who know how to write in cursive, and yes, it is faster. We

Michelle Newman 0:54

believe our Gen X childheads gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:06

and today, we'll be saving the glorious back to school shopping experiences of our Gen X childhoods. I'm Carolyn,

Michelle Newman 1:13

I'm Kristen, and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists.

Speaker 1 1:22

That's all you're taking to class. Everything I need is in my new Trapper portfolio. Trapper traps in all my papers. The pockets this way. So I close the trapper. The papers stay trapped in one Trapper for each subject. Where do you keep them in the Trapper Keeper, Trapper on. Trapper

Carolyn Cochrane 1:38

Keeper only from Mead, all right, Gen Xers. Let's take a nostalgic trip back to that golden age of parachute pants, Fair Isle sweaters and neon everything. Remember the thrill of back to school shopping. Sure, we didn't have the internet right to compare prices or endless Tiktok trends to follow, but we did have 17 Magazine and really, you guys, what more did you need? Right? The Bible remember that sweet agony of picking out the perfect lunchbox. Would it be the holly hobby or welcome back Cotter, Alf, Pac Man, today we're going to time travel back to the days of Trapper keepers, Senator racers, Big Chief tablets and BIC banana pens for Gen Xers back to school. Shopping was a lot more than just restocking supplies. It really you guys, was a rite of passage into a world of personal expression. We were granted a degree of autonomy, right? And we this is maybe our first step into autonomy and getting to select stuff, our stuff, right, our gear. With each pencil case binder, lunch box, we were curating a mini identity. The thrill of picking out a neon green Lisa Frank folder or a box of crayons was intoxicating. It was really our first taste of consumerism, a chance to experiment with style and create a unique persona. Though shopping trips were a pivotal moment in our journey to independence. We began to shape our own world, one school supply at a time a

Kristin Nilsen 3:09

men, it was like it was like Christmas. How is it not like Christmas? Except we got to pick out all the stuff exactly,

Carolyn Cochrane 3:16

exactly. It was just the thrill and the anticipation of that trip where I can still feel it. And

Michelle Newman 3:22

didn't you guys hate when that got taken away from you a little bit, because maybe the list said you need six folders, two red, two green and two blue. And I would be like the what you say, I want this critter sitters folder, you know, like, I don't want this, I want this. And I remember even school supply shopping with my own kids was just as thrilling for me. And I would feel the same way when they would come back with all these, you know, My Little Pony folders, or Star Wars folders. And I would go, all right, you can get them, but I don't know if you're going to use them, because right here you're supposed to have two green, two, red, two blue. Also think school supply shopping, for me, it's an olfactory experience too, isn't it?

Kristin Nilsen 4:07

We heard that in our comments, yeah, just different than normally

Michelle Newman 4:11

walking down that aisle at, you know, Target, or wherever you got your school supplies. It's when they're all in one spot, like they are, right? It just takes on a smell it

Kristin Nilsen 4:21

does. I think you're onto something with the more restrictive nature of our kids list, because for Liam, this was not a fun experience at all. In fact, I remember the day when he told me I could just go do it like he wasn't even gonna come with me. And I, of course, am like, Oh, mama, do it, but I come back

Michelle Newman 4:40

with cute erasers and like, pom pom ball zipper bags, but I

Kristin Nilsen 4:44

think to your point, his list was so restrictive that there was no fun in it. It was simply a chore, and it wasn't a place for identity making like it was for us. It wasn't Christmas like it was for us when we were young, the kind of school supplies that we needed were represented. Representative of the kinds of activities we liked, coloring and drawing and creating and making stuff right and when we were older, it often represented a fresh start, like this time I'm gonna be organized. Forget about that shit show last year when all my papers really stuffed in the back of my notebook. It's time. I'm an I'm gonna it's a new me, and I'm gonna kick ass this year you

Michelle Newman 5:27

grew up and your school supplies grew up right along with you. Yeah, yeah, you guys. I remember a time my older daughter, all caps bolded on the list said no Trapper keepers, and she didn't even know what one was yet, because she had been in, you know, for second, third grade, and I was like, what? Like, not even as if I was excited for her to have one, or she would have chosen one. The just the fact that they were saying no, Trapper keepers made me want to put her in private school. Yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 6:09

kids were probably like the first generation of kids that were going to bring Trapper keepers, like that was our thing. So it was so exciting when our kids could get a trapper keeper, they might not have really cared as much that it was a trapper they didn't care. So these teachers exactly were like, almost to the parents, like, no Trapper keepers. Like, sorry, that was the 80s. Good for you, but that doesn't this is not a

Kristin Nilsen 6:33

nostalgia trip. It's not about you. It's about your child.

Michelle Newman 6:38

Give me one good reason. What's wrong with the Trapper Keeper? It's fantastic. Nothing falls out. It's such a

Kristin Nilsen 6:46

great it's such a gift to seventh grade boys, like nothing's falling on the ground. Do you remember when the trapper keeper came out? Maybe that's why it's beloved by us, because we remember the day when you're like, you can close it

Unknown Speaker 7:00

there's Velcro,

Carolyn Cochrane 7:04

and there's folders that fit in it that are really cool. Yes, those were not as dangerous as the other kind of three ring binders. Do you all remember the metal ones that once you got to that point, if your finger got in there? Gosh, it was awful. It was so painful, like you could leave skin in there. And so I would try to be really close, and then, like, lift my hand back really fast so it would just snap closed. And, yeah, remember

Michelle Newman 7:28

that awful anticipation, like, I'm doing it right now. Listeners, like, you'd be squeezing it, but you'd be like, it's closed, turning away, like, because you just knew once it caught, it was just gonna snap.

Carolyn Cochrane 7:39

Yeah, exactly. It was dangerous. I

Kristin Nilsen 7:41

remember asking, like, being like, mom, like, I'm holding it, Mom, I'm not doing it. I'm gonna make my mom

Carolyn Cochrane 7:50

do it. No, that was so you don't worry about that with the Trapper Keeper, because it was plastic. It didn't hurt you. Yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 7:56

So for school supplies, for me, it was 100% target. And y'all not just any target, not just any target. We're talking about the OG target, what our friend Jen calls t1 which is the first target in the nation, in Roseville, Minnesota, the world. T1 is where we got my school supplies, and I don't think we had the whole back of the store transformed into back to school land. I think you just went to the office supplies aisle and cleaned up. And here's something that I recalled when I looked at a picture of me on the first day of school in third grade, or maybe fourth grade, with all the neighborhood kids standing there. There was no backpack. You didn't have we didn't have backpacks, and it's because we didn't have homework, but we didn't have all of the stuff. We didn't have all of the homework. So we didn't require a bag until you got to maybe junior high or high school, and then no backpacks. Nerds carried backpacks, pack or you had like a book bag or a school sanctioned bag, like the school printed bag, or something like that, something cool, a merry Mecco bag. And one thing I heard from so many listeners, I just because I think this is a universal experience. Every year, in that office supplies aisle, I begged for that 64 pack with the sharpener in the back. I begged, why? Why? But no, no, like, I was lucky if my mom would go for the 48 but no, 64 Why, mom, why? And I don't think it's cost. I really don't. I think it was more a values thing, like a principles thing, like, Who do you think you are? Missy, right? Like, you don't. You're not gonna get the top of the line. You don't get you think you deserve 64 different colors and a sharpener. You will do just fine with 48 and you'll be happy about it too. I

Carolyn Cochrane 9:51

think we need to get Linda on the line.

Kristin Nilsen 9:56

You know what my mom would say? I know exactly what she would say. I bought. You the 64 of course, I did. I bought you the 64 but no, she didn't, you know why? Because I remember very specifically, in second grade, I got the 64 pack of crayons as a birthday gift from my brother. I mean, that's a great gift. Yes, that's a good gift. So I think they saw the 64 pack as, like, that's gift level. That's not something you get. It's very special. Yes, speaking of

Michelle Newman 10:25

those restrictive lists, I can remember taking my daughters back to school shopping. And I think I remember this for myself as well. Well when it would specifically say 24 pack of crayons. Nothing bigger, nothing small, 20

Kristin Nilsen 10:39

I get that. I understand that would

Michelle Newman 10:41

have been the mom though that was buying my kids this.

Carolyn Cochrane 10:43

Don't you think again our kids like we are buying these things for our kids that our parents wouldn't buy for us. There's a generation of kids all of a sudden showing up with 64 and tracker keepers when the list didn't say that. And I'm like, Here, take

Kristin Nilsen 10:58

the 64 he's like, so we'd 64 but yes, take it. Take the

Carolyn Cochrane 11:03

64 kids would be like. It doesn't say 64 follow the rules. No, this is what you need. Oh, our poor children.

Kristin Nilsen 11:11

Did you guys get the little cardboard pencil box? Yeah, oh yes.

Unknown Speaker 11:16

I loved it. I

Kristin Nilsen 11:16

loved it. I love it. Mine was, I think it was yellow with, like, some funky school themed designs on it. It was not branded, but it was adorable, and I remember packing it with my new crayons, the 48 pack, of course, and my number two pencils and my pink erasers and my own personal scissors, no more rounded kindergarten scissors, bitches like this is real scissors, my own in my little cardboard box with like, psychedelic flowers on it. Yes,

Michelle Newman 11:47

there's a reel that we've posted probably for the past couple of years on back to school week, but I'm gonna post it again, because it's so great and it's all these old supplies. But Kristen, I feel like it almost the yellow one. Doesn't it have, like, an apple? Isn't it more like schools, yes, yeah, there's, like a little schoolhouse, and I loved it. Can't you just, can't you just hear the little sound it made when you would drop the lid and just kind of close. It's just,

Carolyn Cochrane 12:11

like, we just talk about those for a minute, because, again, like, you were just talking about Kristen putting the things in there and making sure they'd all fit. Like, I would dump it out and then I do it again. Like, I couldn't, you know, we couldn't use our school supplies yet, but boy, I could sure put them in my box and see, like, Oh, I think the scissors will go here, right next to the crayons, and oh my gosh. And then there were always the few kids that had the actual cigar box, like, that was, like, rebranded, like, with a cigar brand on there. And I couldn't figure out, like, was that sad? Did their dad, like, smoke cigars, and then he's like, Here, take my box. Or, I think a few followers mentioned that they used the OG, like, cigar box. They actually went in our box. Yeah, when they opened, it still smelled like cigar, like there was a cigar. Smells like a grandpa.

Unknown Speaker 12:58

Do you remember

Michelle Newman 12:59

when you got to maybe fifth grade or sixth grade, and on your school supply list was a compass and a protractor compass. It's like the little metal one with the pokey thing that's going to kill someone. You're going to put someone's eye out before you knew how to use it, but you got it home, you would try to figure out how to put those little flaps up and down so that tiny pencil can raise the paper. Otherwise it would just fall through if you didn't clamp it. But I would put those at the bottom of my pencil box, right, and everything's on top of it, your little box of crayons, because you don't get the big one, your rate, your pink eraser, whatever. And then in about February, when the teacher finally says, One day, okay, everyone, get out your math books. And today I want we're gonna start using your protractor or your compass. And you're like, the what you were like, thrilled. You were like, this has been underneath everything for four months. Finally, and you got to learn how to use the compass, and

Kristin Nilsen 13:53

the protractor in particular, because the protractor, if you remember, is like, it's like a ruler with with a hump over it, like arch. And all I could figure out was that that was for drawing rainbows. Of course. What on earth could this be for? You can't measure anything. It's not straight. Oh, it's for drawing rainbows. I get it all right. We had so many comments from our listeners on our social media post about this, and we're gonna bring these comments to you throughout the episode. Just know that this is just the tiniest smattering of what people had to say. So Maria Shaw says, Out of all the school supplies, I loved my seventh grade, Trapper Keeper reigns supreme. It was the solid royal blue one, not a cutesy one, since I was trying to achieve preppy slash classy status. Aaron Gillette says, when I was older, this is so great. You're all going to identify with this. When I was older, I remember transitioning from wide rule to college rule notebook paper.

Michelle Newman 14:47

That was a banner year.

Kristin Nilsen 14:48

Yes, yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 14:51

that I loved that year. And then anytime after that, it was like, anytime you saw wide ruled after college rules, like, that's where babies

Speaker 2 14:57

stupid. Babies. I actually

Michelle Newman 15:01

just recently, I love school supply time. Now, even as an adult with kids who are so far past needing school supplies, I always go shop and get, like the other day at Target, I got some cute pencils. I don't use pencils. I also got some cute stickers, but I cannot. I am like a moth to a flame with composition books, you guys, oh my god, especially the good ones. And I bought one that has the cutest cover, and I got it. I use them for journals. It is freaking wide ruled. But even now, at age 55 I opened it, and

Kristin Nilsen 15:32

I was like, I am too good for this stupid

Michelle Newman 15:38

now I can write pioneer.

Kristin Nilsen 15:41

Okay. Karen lean says she is with me. Caroline is with me. She says, I definitely remember going to target Karen, do you live in Minnesota and picking out folders? I had a Debbie Gibson,

Michelle Newman 15:55

oh, my god, I love that. Okay, can

Kristin Nilsen 15:56

we talk about folders for a minute? Because I found some folders, you know, that transition you talked about, Michelle like, here's my first one. My first one is, we have Star Wars. I'm thinking, this is OG one. This is an OG. This is my OG Star Wars folder. So this is prime 1977 right here. I'm guessing this is fourth grade. And I'm just so it's got c3, po and r2, d2 on it. Those are my favorites. Then, as we get a little bit older, in sixth grade, I remember Garfield was a really big Garfield. He's got some balloons. He says, stick with me, kid, and we'll go places. But he sounds like Carlton, you're a doorman. And then look at seventh grade, you guys. Look at how grown up I am. It's a sunset, wait, but

Michelle Newman 16:41

not just any sunset. Guys, it's not like, it's like a sunset over is that an island or a mountain? Maybe.

Kristin Nilsen 16:48

I think those are pine trees

Michelle Newman 16:51

silhouette. Guys,

Carolyn Cochrane 16:52

the Pacific Northwest, somewhere very

Kristin Nilsen 16:54

Pacific Northwest, I'm growing up now and then. I even have some notebooks that I found. Is that

Michelle Newman 17:00

a little critter? Critter sitters? Yeah, that's critter sitters, for sure. That's the koala, everyone.

Kristin Nilsen 17:05

Yeah, it says, world's greatest. I've got some stickers on here too. I've got the seal of approval. There's one that says, Wow, so that's fun, but this is my favorite one. Oh, my

Michelle Newman 17:14

God. It's the describe what I'm seeing. It's a spiral notebook. It's purple. We've got the Pink Panther, but the Pink Panther has just his hair. He's blow dried it because he we know he's blow dried it with a hair dryer because he's got, like a tool belt with a giant hairdryer. And we know it to be a hairdryer because it actually says hairdryer, hair dryer. And his hair has turned into basically, like a cotton ball

Kristin Nilsen 17:38

on it's like, it's a pink Afro on the Pink Panther. He's adorable. The notebooks and the folders were part of that identity process, right? Like you were telling the world who you were by what was on your folders and your notebooks. And

Carolyn Cochrane 17:52

I got to say, those represent who I would think Kristen would have been. Just put a bunch of folders and notebooks on the floor and you said, Pick what Kristen would have had in, you know, fourth grade, what she would have had in seventh grade, I

Michelle Newman 18:06

think I would have scored 100

Carolyn Cochrane 18:07

I would have gotten,

Michelle Newman 18:09

well, I my memories of school supply shopping really start in fifth grade when I lived in Washington, and we would go to a store called Fred Meyer. And Fred Meyer was kind of like a big, like a Walmart type place, big grocery store. But also, you know, all this stuff there was also, for those of you who live in the Pacific Northwest and have for years, there was this, like bookstore slash stationery store called JK Gill. That was really, it was actually founded in Portland. We had one of those in the Vancouver mall, the van mall, I think between Fred Meyer and JK Gill is probably where we got all our school supplies. But like I said earlier, for me, fifth, sixth grade critter sitters were huge. I still have, I didn't get it out, but I still have my folder. You guys will remember this one. It's the fox and it says Foxy, yeah. And I loved all the critter sitters so much for me. And I know this is a regional thing, and I know that there's probably, you know, half of you listening that'll go yes, and half of you that'll say, no idea what you're talking about. But our folders, it was the peachy folder, P, E, E, C, H, E, and it was this kind of mustard yellow folder, and it had like, line drawings of all these different sports like that was kind of in triangles. And it might be a football player running or then there was the girl playing tennis. And retro. Very retro. Yeah, they weren't cutesy by any means, but it's what you got. And they were, like, the dirt cheap ones, like, when you got the peachy, they were like, you know, five cents a piece, just side note. You guys go on Etsy, going anywhere, and Google peachy. You can get T shirts that look like the peachy folder. You can get mugs.

Kristin Nilsen 19:40

It's iconic. It's truly iconic. Yeah, and what's funny is that the peachy was not a thing for us, but my parents were so nostalgic about the peachy folder, and I remember them just like gushing about it and looking for peachy folders for me. And I was like, that looks like something from the 1950s Why would I have. And because I wasn't surrounded by it, it just looked it was like something that my parents had, so I didn't want it. It was like, You're not liking Neil Diamond. Well, maybe it

Carolyn Cochrane 20:08

was their Trapper Keeper. Yes, I think so. They were so nostalgic for the peachy folder. Yes,

Michelle Newman 20:14

our pea cheese. We would cut out magazines and stuff. So I have, like, a sticker that says, barf me out at the top. Do you guys see I just cut people's legs from 17 Magazine and stuck them on. I have, oh, I have a Mrs. Grossman's goose sticker right in the middle. Oh, yeah. I have lots of stuff from 17 magazine. I heart guys, just in general, you know, the nifty 50s, and then I would draw like vans checks all over my that's your Doodle Book. Many of our listeners also remember the peachy and Laura deal remembers that at their junior high, everyone would edit the peachy covers. So instead of where it says peachy all season portfolio, you would, you would edit that so it says, life is peachy, but sex is an

Kristin Nilsen 21:04

all season sport, like they knew anything at all. Laura,

Michelle Newman 21:07

we did the same thing. I remember that perfectly. Or you guys who did peachies in the top triangle, there is a tennis she's a girl, and she's swatting her tennis racket. Would you draw like tennis balls all around, like doodle on her? Peachy? Yes, we did that. Yellow Daisy remembers that in high school, the mid 80s, she had a binder. You guys, this could blow your mind. That was denim type material. She loved it because she could write all over it, and so could her friends. Can't you picture it?

Kristin Nilsen 21:34

Oh, yes, I had one, although it wasn't the actual it was vinyl. So it wasn't actual denim. It was vinyl that looked like denim, and then it also had a big belt on it with a big belt buckle. And it was a gift from my grandma. And I thought I was so cool. This

Michelle Newman 21:51

denim binder, you guys, those were the ones that would pinch your fingers. And can't you picture after maybe by March, the edges were kind of frayed, yeah, like the denim would kind of split and fray off, yeah. And

Carolyn Cochrane 22:05

you could decorate those too. Like that was what was so fun. Like there, there was this kind of, like, your peachy folders, Michelle, you got to start to maybe create your own identity with what you drew on there. Or your friends could draw on there, and you could erase on there too, and kind of make, like a worn out spot, like, you know, you put on your knee, knees of your jeans. And I vaguely remember, and listeners, you'll have to tell us, if you remember this, there was a line of those binders that had the denim that had a pocket, like a screwdriver.

Kristin Nilsen 22:42

Yeah. Screw, put your schedule in there, then you won't have the stress dream where you're the first day of school and you can't find your room.

Michelle Newman 22:47

Yeah, it was like a Levi's pocket or something. Yes, yeah. Well, speaking of decorating and how I had just described a little bit of how I decorated my peachy Lisa Fox Mack is remembering covering your textbooks with paper after the first day of school, so you could just decorate the covers. A lot of our teachers actually required us to just cover them in brown paper bags. I don't know why, because you could remember there was a time when you could go buy the shiny book covers, and it sort of had the instructions of this is where you fold it, and this is where you just had paper bags. That's

Carolyn Cochrane 23:17

it. We had the we didn't have to buy them at the Dairy Queen in Katy, Texas. There would be a stack of them. And you can go and grab as many as you want. They had advertisements for, like, local businesses. They had the high school football schedule, really there, yep, yes. And then there's, like, probably a place that you could write, like, what subject it was, and it had, like, the dotted lines of where you cut it folded, and, yeah, and having it folded, I think, yeah, there was maybe even instructions on the inside. I want

Michelle Newman 23:47

to search and see if I can find a picture of those and put them in, because I bet that would hoosker do

Kristin Nilsen 23:51

a lot. So brilliant, yes, yeah. And it was pre Blizzard, right? Pre blizzard? Yeah. It

Carolyn Cochrane 23:56

was just, like, our, you know, whatever. What do we call those? Like, it wasn't even a soft it was just a cone. Oh yeah, a dip you get a dipped cone.

Kristin Nilsen 24:04

Oh yeah, chocolate dipped or strapped, or the Dilly scotch. Yeah, I'm Cherry dillibar. 100%

Michelle Newman 24:08

I'm chocolate dipped cone. Just the OG. You guys,

Carolyn Cochrane 24:12

I had a huge, huge hoosker Do moment while I was reading through the comments. Okay, because before you could even go school supply shopping, you had to have your list. And I was trying to rack my brain for a little bit thinking, Where did I get my list? I don't really remember we didn't have a list. I think we just got a specific list. And Laura Larson, our follower, said we'd have a list of what we needed. I think it was printed in the local paper. Oh, yes, Laura, yes, yes, yes. The Katy times, I couldn't wait for that. The Katy times would come in Katy, we had several elementary schools, so it would be like Katy Elementary, West Memorial Elementary, or attics elementary at that point, I think there were just three. But so you'd find yours, and then you'd find. In the grade, and it was like Christmas Day, because then you had it, and now it was on, like we could go to the store, and you guys, it was

Michelle Newman 25:09

time. And you know, when you got to the age where you would look at your list and you would see a protractor and compass, do you also remember how big and grown up you felt the year you got the list where you needed colored pencils. Yes, not

Kristin Nilsen 25:24

crayons, not

Carolyn Cochrane 25:27

work, we were going to do

Michelle Newman 25:29

social studies. Was so exciting. I think that was probably about fourth grade. All of a sudden, colored pencils and you just like, grew to it. You're like, what?

Carolyn Cochrane 25:39

For a lot of us, we got to take that list, and in my case, went go to Kmart. Okay, that's where we did all of our back to school shopping. And it was really the first time that I can remember, like, getting to choose things. And my mom almost always saying, yes, like, you know it was, Well, hey, it's on the list, right? It's not me just asking for the binder or the crayons. It's the list, and I think my mom said yes almost all the time, except, as you've pointed out, Kristen, when I wanted to get the 64 crayons, or even to 48 because really, 24 was what the list said. So where would it fit?

Michelle Newman 26:17

Like, did you guys have the desks that like we had in fifth grade again, because about where it would fourth I was in like seven different schools, so I don't remember, but we had the desk that lifted up and our books and binders and stuff. Then it's like, you have this giant box of crayons. I'm not sure. Well,

Carolyn Cochrane 26:35

somehow Lisa fry figured out Justin Emerson's fit, yeah, because they could pull them out and stick them right on the top of their desk, standing straight up, because really the crayon, the crayons that I ended up getting were ones that didn't quite stand up, and here was a Husker dude moment. Do you remember when they were in that hard plastic case? Not just the cardboard that opened up my 1624, the clear one, but if it cracked

Kristin Nilsen 26:59

a little. It was again, like hundreds, like playing cards, yes, yes, yes. Like the

Carolyn Cochrane 27:05

playing cards one, but then if you accidentally hit it somewhere and a little piece came off. It again, sharp,

Kristin Nilsen 27:11

danger, everybody. Danger. Take

Speaker 3 27:14

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Carolyn Cochrane 27:43

in addition to our school supplies helping us to identify who we were to the rest of the world, I would venture to say that the lunch box was probably the epitome of the way that we could show what we loved, what we watched, who we were. I think that it could sometimes be agonizingly difficult to do this, to choose that lunchbox, because now it's we're almost going deeper than just, you know, designs on notebooks and folders. We are going to like our TV shows that we watched we were the music we listened to, the toys that we played with. This was really, really hard. And you guys, I think this is also when I might have experienced my first case of buyer's remorse. Oh no, you know, like sometimes I think I would be trying hard again to make a decision. I'm kind of paralyzed. Then mom might start saying, Carolyn, we gotta go pick one really fast, and then I would just grab one. And I have a distinct memory of regretting the year I chose the mushroom themed lunchbox and thermos. I don't know why it was all different, the orange and brown mushroomy, really 70s vibe, but why? Why

Michelle Newman 28:59

would I choose?

Carolyn Cochrane 28:59

What does that say about

Michelle Newman 29:02

that is so back end right now, everything's mushrooms go to like, cost, plus world market, everything that would have been so like, now I'm like, why were you regretting that? So cute, but put myself back in the 70s. I totally get it. You would have been like, this looks like my mom's kitchen.

Carolyn Cochrane 29:18

Yeah, doing this is, I didn't pick a TV show or any of those things, and when it came to choosing our lunch boxes, our followers had a wide array of choices. I'm just going to share a few that some of our followers shared with us. Some of their favorites included Donnie and Marie, the Waltons Little House on the Prairie, the bugaloos, Sigmund and the sea Munster, Cat in the Hat. Hardy boy, strawberry shortcake, the Muppets, Disney. Snoopy, Snow White. Welcome back. Cotter, Superman, Benji, The Simpsons, Star Trek, Barbie, Brady Bunch. Emergency. There were two, actually, that got the most mentions. Okay? One, the Partridge Family. Oh yeah, people love and I can't you just see that? Partridge Family lunch box, yes, with the school bus on it, and then the one that always hits a special spot for so many of our listeners, the iconic Holly hobby lunchbox, absolutely so many of us had that while those were all pop culture themed lunch boxes, and that's what most of us were going for. I thought this was a fun COMMENT that one of our followers shared. So this would be in the Foxwoods, and she said my favorite lunch box was the one I had at the beginning of middle school when I felt like I should have outgrown the boxes with characters on them, I got to order a personalized lunchbox from a catalog. Lillian Vernon, if my memory serves me correctly, do you remember that

Michelle Newman 30:41

it was my favorite day when that would come in the mail. Yes, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 30:46

Because you could get things personalized. I'm like, in the Foxwoods. Since I am one of those kids who could never find their name spelled correctly on a mini license plate, anything personalized was a big deal. And she said she used that lunch box until her name were off,

Kristin Nilsen 31:01

I'm just like, so who's screwed? Dude? By Lillian Vernon. And there were so many items in the catalog, and I think that I got personalized pencils one year for back to school, and with my name spelled correctly, because you ordered it with the name, you didn't have to stand there, like she said at the spinner, and it was K, R, i, s, t, e, n, and you're like, No, yeah, oh, I remember that. My

Michelle Newman 31:22

favorite, though, was my Don Ann Marie lunchbox. And I had the, I think almost all of them were vinyl. It was vinyl square, but it had, it was white, had their pictures on it. And it's very rare

Kristin Nilsen 31:33

because it was only cardboard and vinyl. Those things did not last. So you can't find them in thrift shops and things like that.

Carolyn Cochrane 31:40

So one of our followers, Dela Cruz, 6641 shared a Donnie and Marie vinyl memory. She was really jealous of her across the street neighbor, Kathy, because she had the oval shape Donnie and Marie one, and she said it zipped all the way around the top and had a carrying strap that made it look like a purse.

Kristin Nilsen 32:01

It's so grown up,

Carolyn Cochrane 32:02

those vinyl ones, they had a specific smell. And it's almost like it absorbed, like the food kind of absorbed that cardboard. Yeah, it was just very and if you, God forbid, you spilled any milk in those hoof because that would just, it would turn sour in your lunchbox or vinyl thing would never, ever can't get it out be the same again.

Michelle Newman 32:22

I feel like mine always smelled like old Spaghettios, because I think I used to get Spaghettios, like, in a thermos. Oh yeah, but just that smell of that tomato sauce,

Carolyn Cochrane 32:31

oh yeah, I love. There was hot stuff in the thermos, like when my mom was very exciting, yeah. And then I would pour it in that little top.

Michelle Newman 32:39

It was just so it was like magic. When you'd open it, you'd be like, it's still hot.

Kristin Nilsen 32:46

I had the my two lunch boxes were the blue Holly hobby, and then when I got older, the red peanuts with Snoopy and Charlie Brown. And I did pick these out, and I did like them, but I feel like my mom had a lot of say in it, because I really wanted something that was more pop culture. I really wanted the Hardy Boys or Charlie's Angels or something like that that I thought reflected me a little bit more than Holly hobby did, but I think my mom was trying to keep me in the cute lane, so I wasn't by any means upset with my choices. But to your point, Carolyn, it wasn't a true like, it's not all me. There's Linda in there too. There's a little Linda in there. Aaron fensel says my metal Care Bears lunch box saw me well through my entire elementary and junior high school years from 1983 onward, perfectly serviceable for smacking jerk bully guys upside the head, and you should have seen the other guy. And then she says, best not to ask about what happened to the thermos bottle. It's a long story. And then Laura deal says, right on the heels of this, like, remember the old thermoses with glass in them that would break? The boys would set them up like bowling pins and then slide the lunch boxes into them to see how many they could shatter. I remember that. Yes, I remember the sliding lunchbox totally. And I was thinking, of course, I keep my things nice, so I'm like, What are you doing? You're gonna scratch the paint off your nice lunchbox. She said, Poor Laura deal says I was heartbroken when they broke my thermos, and then I had to get some random plaid thermos that didn't match my lunch box. Oh,

Michelle Newman 34:25

yeah, no, no, mom of three boys who says she had a holly hobby lunch box, which dad bought on the clearance rack. So you guys can relate to this. It had a broken clasp, so he replaced it with the one from the bed knobs and broomsticks lunch box.

Carolyn Cochrane 34:45

I just thought that was so what a great dad would have known how to do that, to be honest. I just think like, what a little handy daddy went out screwdriver.

Kristin Nilsen 34:56

Don't worry, we have the bed knobs and broomsticks. What I love most about

Michelle Newman 34:59

that is it was. Only the class. So mom of three boys still got the coveted Holly hobby lunch box, probably for 25 cents. I love that. Yeah, that was such a sweet thing. And then ek Burnett, her favorite lunch box was her Hanna Barbera jabber jaws. But she still has it and says it's proudly display in her craft room. You guys, I love this so much. She says, In my childhood museum collection, all three of us have turned our offices into childhood museums. That's what I'm going to call it now, the childhood Museum. Because when people come into my office that don't know like what I do, they might be like, Wow. Why do you have Fisher Price toys? Are you a toy collection? Yeah, with your Oh, and wait, are those old Laura Ingalls Wilder books and oh, wait, are those Judy Blume books and wait, is that an Ernie and Burt puppet? And all of us have these little relics from our childhood, but now it's not called my office anymore, thanks to EK Burnett. This room is my childhood Museum. Isn't that better? Doesn't that child?

Kristin Nilsen 35:58

Yes, I love it. It elevates it. It elevates it.

Michelle Newman 36:01

This is my childhood Museum, right? Listeners,

Carolyn Cochrane 36:03

if you've always wanted to do that, but have been like, ah, that's silly, you can now be the curator of your own museum. That's right. I love that.

Kristin Nilsen 36:10

Yeah, it's really you're not a hoarder, you're a curator. I love

Unknown Speaker 36:22

it. Okay? Well, it's

Carolyn Cochrane 36:23

obvious from our conversation that purchasing our school supplies during back to school shopping was a highlight, but I'm not sure there is anything that can quite compare to that feeling of the back to school clothes shopping experience that will always hold a special place in all of our hearts, from the brands to the stores to the styles, we had definite ideas of what back to school fashion looked like. Many of us, as we said before, took our cues from the back to school issue of 17 magazine. So many of our followers mentioned that, along with the fact that fashion trends often included corduroy and wool sweaters and turtlenecks, but by golly, we'd wear those outfits on the first day of school, even if we lived in Southern California or Texas or Arizona. Weather be damned, we are going to be fashionable and sweat. And one of our followers, I thought she did a great job with her comment, she pretty much summed up what I would consider a typical Gen X back to school fashion timeline, she wrote that she always loved clothes. She went through a preppy period. Everything was monogrammed. Her eyes odd. Eighth grade started to be more trendy. Esprit was my favorite brand. I loved to shop at Contempo county seat, wild pair bakers, the limited Benetton words, Jean Nicole foxmore, Limited Express, esprit purses and totes. Liz Claiborne purses, Dooney and Burke coach. My first real designer bag was bought with my Kentucky Fried Chicken paycheck. A Gucci. I love that. And on yay, which I also remember Anya was also popular. It was that oxblood burgundy purses and boots, etc. I totally remember that. Okay. Op hang 10, Jordache, palmetto, gasoline, jeans, guess smile jeans, Sassoon or Sassan? Sassan Sassoon was the hair, the hair, yeah, the same people. I always wondered. I

Kristin Nilsen 38:09

thought they were the same people, but they're not. I always assumed his hair and jeans, wow,

Carolyn Cochrane 38:15

that is wild. Calvin Klein, Gloria, Vanderbilt, bonjour, etc, etc, wow. We can all go on that was a very all encompassing timeline, and I remember all of

Michelle Newman 38:28

those. And that's from Lynn kimberlyn. We should say I am just like, impressed that Lynn remembers all those stores. Kidding. I remember a few, and then I usually Google, like, what were some mall stores in the 80s, because I don't remember, but wow, I remember we would go to Van mall, Vancouver mall, and we would shop at Meyer and Frank. We had Nordstrom, we had Sears, and we had Meyer and Frank. So I think we would probably shop at all three of those. I definitely remember Nordstrom. We got to get our shoes at the Nordstrom children's shoe department, which was upstairs. We got a balloon when you would leave, and I can remember being kind of like, okay, I'll take it, but then you loved it. And I've mentioned this before, but we would always go shopping at the esprit factory outlet store in San Francisco. Oh, that was like, kid in a candy store. It was a warehouse where you really couldn't tell, like things were just in boxes. And I would just be plucking all those sweatshirts out and bags and shoes and headbands, and it was great. So lucky. A

Carolyn Cochrane 39:23

lot of people mentioned Esprit, specifically the tote bag. I didn't remember that as much, but that was evidently the way to carry your stuff around. Was that esprit?

Kristin Nilsen 39:33

You gotta have a brand of some kind on there. Yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 39:35

I remember my dad saying, like with that, and especially with the designer jeans, he would say, that's just free marketing for them. You're not going to walk around their name on your bottom like they should pay you. He was very he did not like things that had the brand name speech,

Kristin Nilsen 39:53

the advertising on your bottom, on your bottom, yeah. Do you remember when certain colors or looks. Became trendy, and that's what I would look for like in the late 70s, peach, everything was peach, and you had peach on your hair ribbons and peach on your T shirt, and peach everything was peach. And then the gunny sacks look was big for back to school, and we all came to school looking like we lived in Walnut Grove, but just, but just on the top half, not on the bottom half. On the bottom half, you'd be like, wearing your cords, and the top half would be, would be Gunny sex. So we mostly did a one day trip, and it was very special, because my mom would take my brother and me separately. I got my own trip to Rosedale. My brother got his own trip to Rosedale, and I remember the budget was $100 and I was just like, Oh, my God. Couldn't believe it. And we mostly just went to two stores, which is obviously Sears, and stride right, stride right shoes. We always got two pairs of shoes. You got one pair of school shoes. My favorites were my wallabies in third grade, and you got one pair of shoes for gym, right? Yeah, or tennis shoes, and you at stride, right? You would stand on top of this pretend Castle they had in the middle of the store, and that's where you they measured your feet. So on the first day of second grade, which is my first day, I'm new to Minnesota. I'm the new kid. I'm the kid from California. So I already felt like I didn't know the language, and Ms Swartz wrote on the board the school supplies that we would need, and one of the things she said we would need was tennis shoes. So I ran home, and I'm like, Mom, Mom, I need tennis shoes. And she's like, well, we're gonna talk to you some No, no, we don't should we need tennis shoes, and she's trying to explain to me. And finally I figured out that tennis shoes, Tenna, I thought I was wearing tennis shoes.

Michelle Newman 41:48

You thought you were gonna play tennis, and these were for tennis. Yes, I

Kristin Nilsen 41:52

needed tennis shoes. My mom was explaining tennis shoes, tennis shoes, or tennis shoes. But I was in such a panic, because I was so scared that my mom had already bought me tennis shoes, and those weren't gonna work, no, because they had to have tennis shoes, not for the court. No,

Michelle Newman 42:10

we're penny loafers, a big deal for you guys, because penny loafers were huge for us in like, eighth and ninth grade. It was, like, the bass regions, and they hurt. Like, yeah, that's why they were stiff. They hurt so badly, but I had to have them.

Kristin Nilsen 42:24

Well, txca, 1068, that's a long name. She gets it. She says I wanted guest jeans so bad, but I had to settle for the knockoff palmettos from Mervyn's. The humiliation was real. See, like there's a whole we're all we're out there, we're all out there. You had to go to Mervin. I had to go to

Michelle Newman 42:43

wait. Was the was the triangle, like, turned the ice.

Kristin Nilsen 42:47

I remember it didn't have, like a little Palmetto tree. It's like a little palm tree. Yes, on the pocket there is a little palm tree.

Carolyn Cochrane 42:54

I responded to her because I said, we need a support group. Yeah, we do as we really do. We do all of the pennies, plain pocket Fox polo shirt wearing, folks like, I really it's so good to know I'm not alone

Kristin Nilsen 43:06

in mine. And we pined. We pined, yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 43:09

and I think mine started, as I've shared with you guys before, I had to wear orthopedic shoes when I was young, with these huge like, arch supports in them, and they only came in three styles, like the saddle shoes, I've said clown shoes, which were like saddle shoes, but they were multi kind of colored, and then the pilgrim shoes. So I would, and we would go to stride, right? That's where they had those. But I and I would look at this table of all the new school shoes. You guys have no idea, same three

Kristin Nilsen 43:39

boxes every year, clown

Michelle Newman 43:41

saddle like well, we also have these new nurse shoes.

Carolyn Cochrane 43:46

So from a very early age, I realized that I was I was different. I just wanted to be like everybody else. So bad, you guys, I think that's when my being different really left its mark, and I tried to be like everybody else from then, from then on, you had,

Kristin Nilsen 44:02

yeah, you needed the stars back to the

Michelle Newman 44:05

shoes. It does. I

Carolyn Cochrane 44:06

really think that that impacted

Michelle Newman 44:08

you, yeah.

Carolyn Cochrane 44:09

So clearly, fashion was such a big part of our back to school experience, and we really wanted to chat with someone in this episode who would have been eyes wide open about what we were wearing back then. And we found the perfect person

Kristin Nilsen 44:29

joining us now is a woman we Jen exters may have first met at target in the maternity department, and she revolutionized how we as a generation dressed ourselves when we were pregnant, we would be the first generation to ditch the tent dresses and show off our baby bumps in form fitting clothes, and that is thanks to designer Liz Lange. We recently got reacquainted with Liz Lange via a new podcast called The just enough family, which has exactly nothing to do with fashion and everything. To do with the absolutely fascinating, and I swear to God, cinematic story of growing up in Liz's very wealthy New York City family. And seriously, I'm just waiting for it to be turned into a TV show. I don't know if that's gonna happen, but I really want that to happen. So that podcast put Liz on our radar again. So when it was time to talk about back to school shopping, we thought, let's call the Gen X fashion designer who saved us from tent dresses. Liz Lange, first of all, thank you, and welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society.

Speaker 4 45:31

Well, thank you so much. Such a nice intro, and very happy to be here. So

Kristin Nilsen 45:35

you are one of us. Liz Lange, you're totally one of us, and we so we're wondering when you were growing up, when you were a kid, when you were a tween, when you were a teen, who were your fashion influencers? What influenced what you thought you should wear, or what you wanted to wear, or what you wanted to buy? Who did you want to be? Who were you emulating like? Was there somebody out there that you really wanted to look like? Well,

Speaker 4 45:59

you know, there were, like, there were so many because, you know, these as kids weren't you like, I was like, when I start writing my Instagram, always like, I worship this one, I worship that one, right? It was like crazy. But I'd say, like, I was reading 17 Magazine, and there were some pairs of sisters that were modeling sisters. Nothing was cooler than that. Like, I mean, I would have killed more. So Phoebe Cates and her sister were modeling sisters, and everything they wore in 17 I wanted to wear two. And then there were these two other sisters. I think their last name was Fitzpatrick. I looked nothing like them. It was Kate and Kelly. They were 17 magazine stars, and I really wanted to dress and look like them, too. It all depends on what year we're talking about, because the worshiping would just morph like, of course, like you guys, I looked up to people like, you know, Marsha Brady and Susan day and all them. But I can't remember. I wanted to dress like them, because they were dressing in a very retro way for those shows. Then there were Brad packers, like Demi Moore. Then there were girls that weren't that much older than me, but I just thought they were so beautiful. I mean, it was truly shallow. I was just obsessed with Brooke Shields. If I saw a picture of Brook shields and anything, I just wanted to be Brooke Shields really, really badly.

Kristin Nilsen 47:14

But I think 17 magazine is is we had fewer sources, which means that they were the ones that we had were more important. So the weight of 17 can't be emphasized enough. We used that like a Bible, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 47:28

Entire episode that we devoted to 17 Magazine and the comments and things we got from people between the back to school issue, which was like our back to school Bible,

Michelle Newman 47:37

17 was so important to all of us and our generation that it wasn't just the clothes and the ads, it was the models. These were people that we act they were like celebrities to us, like I would look through that magazine to find those recognizable Oh, there she is again, you know. So I think that's really relatable to our generation, is that the models were pseudo celebrities for us and and people we who, who were influencing us for sure, yeah,

Speaker 4 48:03

even, like, they're not famous, but just the high schoolers at your school, right? Like, there were just girls who they learned so large, I think if I saw them even today, they might have only been two years older than me. I would be like, you know, tongue tied, so cool and so beautiful, and whatever they wore to school, I was desperately also trying to get my little paws on they were like

Kristin Nilsen 48:25

the Marsha Brady of the school, right? Like the people who were just a little bit older than you and seemed to have it all figured out. And then you show up for school that first week, and you're kind of examining, what are we wearing. What are we wearing this year? Was your outfit highly curated? I feel like we curated our outfits so much more than they do today. That's not as big a concern, not that they don't care about their clothes, they do, but we curated everything. It was chosen so carefully, and

Michelle Newman 48:52

because fashion's so different, like, I'm thinking of a particular first day of school outfit, and it wasn't just the striped boat neck top with the pants. It was the little gold stretchy belt, and then it was the color of beads that I wore around my neck, you know, and the earrings that had to match. And then what shoe, I mean, it was, there were we accessorized, I think, way more than,

Kristin Nilsen 49:17

Oh, my God,

Michelle Newman 49:18

they generations. I mean,

Kristin Nilsen 49:19

no, they have nails, but they don't have, they don't even have nails. I didn't know, no, I don't even

Speaker 4 49:24

think I would have been allowed to think about my nails, but, but, like, oh yeah. I mean, the first day outfit. I know my first I know some of them, don't you? Like,

Michelle Newman 49:34

yeah, you have any that comes okay.

Speaker 4 49:37

Like, you so, like, first day ninth grade, because I was going to a new school, and it was co Ed, I had gone to an all girls school, so the level of excitement over that, It can't even be stated. It really can't be so that year I was wearing, it was 1980 so I was wearing something I called baggies. It was a style, yes, yes. The. Were very ballooned out, and then they got very, very narrow at the bottom. Do you remember

Kristin Nilsen 50:04

the brand? Do you remember the brand they were? Were they Artie Simpsons? I

Speaker 4 50:07

don't think they were already Simpsons. I cannot remember what the brand was, but they were purple. I had them in purple. I had them in turquoise. These were purple baggies because these were the colors that were very important. Turquoise, purple, extremely important. And then there was a matching maybe it was a different shade of purple, Ralph Lauren polo, short sleeved shirt collar up, hooked in to these baggies. And I know I had some sort of belt, because you mentioned belt, but that I can't remember, but on my feet, do you remember these? Because there were some regional differences. They were mini Tonka moccasins,

Michelle Newman 50:44

little colored beads on

Kristin Nilsen 50:48

them. Yeah, I

Speaker 4 50:49

mean, this was like an this outfit was I really felt I had nailed it and in my hair that I had used a, what is it? Called that thing that you would attach to your blow dryer to make your

Carolyn Cochrane 51:00

hair extra big, like a diffuser. My

Speaker 4 51:03

hair was all diffused, and I had done what I'm doing right now so that my hair was big and curly, the opposite of the way I would want it right now and then. I know this is going to sound crazy, but it was very popular in New York City. I had taken some kind of headband that had a big bow was also purple. The bow was on the side, and that was in my

Michelle Newman 51:24

hair. Liz, probably not holding your bangs back for

Kristin Nilsen 51:32

Tiara

Speaker 4 51:33

had nailed it like I was considered well dressed, like this was a very good outfit. I fluctuated, I don't know about you guys, between that baggy trend. It must have been fluctuating in New York City and literally painted on, painted on, like lying down on the dressing room, on my bed, to zip it up pants. There were two opposite trends that were both popular in the early days, so it kind of went back and forth. But I was wearing that anyway. That was my first day.

Kristin Nilsen 52:02

Can you remember any must have items? Let's let's do like middle school. When you were in middle school, what were the must have clothing items that you had to have?

Speaker 4 52:12

Again? This is New York City. So far. It was preppy. Fair Isles. We used to wear something called painters pants. You bought

Kristin Nilsen 52:21

them in the pocket. Yeah.

Speaker 4 52:23

Those also in bright colors. We were also they were bought at the Army Navy store. They were Fruit of the Loom, and they kind of looked like sweatshirts, but inside out. And they also came in turquoise and yellow and purple. These were very popular in New York City in the in the late 70s, I went to an all girls school with a very strict uniform through eighth grade, and we too, you know, it was all about what you could do with that uniform, right? So we were preppy, we wore fair isles, we wore docksiders and Topsiders and jazz shoes, right? Yeah. So, yeah, you know what else we wore? A lot of it must haves in those years, very long tiered skirts from this store called putamayo, or from Laura Ashley. These were huge in New York, push we would take our socks and we push them down so they were, of course, underneath the skirt. Yeah, and did

Michelle Newman 53:29

you? Did you ever double layer your socks like you would wear two different colors and scrunch down even? And then if you could shove that, all those socks and your foot in your Capezio to lace your capesia.

Carolyn Cochrane 53:48

Damn good. Wallabies,

Unknown Speaker 53:50

things that were just preppy.

Kristin Nilsen 53:53

These are preppy. I didn't even know that.

Speaker 4 53:57

Yeah, duck shoes from LL Bean, LL Bean sweaters. All like it was all in the mix up somehow of what we wore in my middle school years, but my middle school years on like some of you were the mid to late 70s. Well,

Carolyn Cochrane 54:12

I guess Liz, I'd be interested to know, based on listening to your podcast, your back to school shopping experience might have been a little different than ours in the suburbs of big cities, but at the same time, there were maybe some must have items and maybe some places that you wanted to go fashion wise or just school supply wise, like, were there some things that was

Kristin Nilsen 54:36

there a shopping trip? Yes, was there was

Speaker 4 54:39

a day that my mother had kind of put aside, that she was taking my sister and I both for back to school, clothes that were, just to be clear, unlike the way kids shop today, those were clothes that, even if we bought them in August, were meant to be put away.

Carolyn Cochrane 54:55

It was torture that dude didn't

Speaker 4 54:57

touch them. Was actually. Usually fall, and it was wear them, so there was a back to school shopping for clothes and also for supplies. And supplies were again for this generation. Must sound strange, and I know you ladies can relate, oddly exciting. Nothing was more exciting than my brand new notebooks, different colors. We had this thing in New York City. I might have been a little earlier than high school, but we used to bite like, I think, like, craft paper and wrapping paper, and we would wrap them, like,

Kristin Nilsen 55:28

Oh yes, yes. Like your books, yes. Like your books, right? Yeah,

Speaker 4 55:32

we wrapped them. And that was exciting. And just the new supplies, I'm having trouble remembering, like, Where specifically we did the shopping even though we lived in New York City. We had a weekend house, just enough family reference. We had a weekend house in Westchester, and I think in the summer, we were often still there when we had to do the back to school shopping. So we were not shopping necessarily for my back to school things in New York City, and then if I went way back, like way way back, earlier than that. And that's not exactly what we're talking about, but we all have the same references. The really exciting thing would have been the new lunchbox with the matching thermos, but that was earlier, and I was not doing that in high school, but yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Michelle Newman 56:15

I think it's so funny, though, because I'm loving hearing you say so many of the same brands and things that we all have for us. We would always go to San Francisco in the summer because my stepfather had a, like, a convention there. So for like, four years in a row, we got to go to the esprit outlet store. We would come home with bags that were so giant because it was all so cheap. It was like a warehouse, you guys, but it was every different color of esprit t shirt, sweatshirt, sweater, shoes, some of my favorite shoes were pink Penny pink esprit penny loafers that I loved so much. And then, of course, all the IZOD shirts and everything, but I'm loving after listening to the just enough family. And I was kind of joking like, you know, but Liz probably didn't wear esprit or Gloria Vanderbilt jeans you probably shopped at, like the Gucci store. Here's

Speaker 4 57:04

the thing about our generation. I don't think it was specific to my family. I think it's our generation. And I think this is probably part of it, is it wasn't like the way kids are today, or, I don't know, your kids are like, we're like, somehow they have just access to everything, and they're just like, little grown ups just buying the good brands and stuff. Yes, these were very bifurcated. It really made no difference that my parents had a lot of money. They did, obviously a ton, but like, it didn't matter. I was still a kid and kids got kids things like, it wasn't about like, I maybe the big splurge was that sometimes I did have the polaroph Lauren and the IZOD shirts, but those were considered by my parents to be expensive and a special treat for me. Those were not, you know, like I did have them, whereas I'm sure there were some kids who did not. I had those. Yeah, they

Michelle Newman 57:53

had, like, a little fox

Carolyn Cochrane 57:56

or the plane pockets from JCPenney, and not the Levi's.

Speaker 4 57:59

But, I mean, I wore wranglers and I wore Levi's, and our big sweater store wasn't a spray, it was Benetton. Was just the holy grail of colorful sweaters and everything,

Michelle Newman 58:11

and layering, layering the all the different colors have been, you know, the United on so you'd layer the the pop colors, but then sometimes you'd even layered like two crew necks,

Carolyn Cochrane 58:23

like now I'm thinking I'm sweating as we're talking about that.

Unknown Speaker 58:26

Did you guys? We would take the V neck so we wear them backwards again every once

Carolyn Cochrane 58:33

in a while too, where the buttons were up the back

Unknown Speaker 58:37

of chic,

Kristin Nilsen 58:40

this will not surprise Carolyn, Michelle, I refuse to do it. I was like, this makes sense. I don't know why we're turning our sweaters on backwards. I don't get it and I'm not doing it

Carolyn Cochrane 58:48

was fashionable. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 58:51

I was into it

Kristin Nilsen 58:53

yourself. This is another unifying part of our culture, no matter what strata you came from, all of these brands were the things that all of us wanted. Some of us had to have the parrot instead of the alligator. But for the most part, we were all aiming for the same exact same look. It was the same look.

Speaker 4 59:11

My true like eureka moment was in eighth grade when I when I got to trail my the coolest girl, it turns out, in high school. But I didn't know that my parents knew her parents, and because I was going to this new school, they asked this girl, her name was also Liz, to show me around. And I met her at the bus stop, and my jaw was on the floor as I said, I came in my preppy outfit. I thought it was cool, and she was in a whole other level of thing, black silky pants, red cowboy boots, a high school 12th grade boyfriend,

Unknown Speaker 59:49

a loser,

Speaker 4 59:52

preppy outfit, and everything started to change for me, like, get me some suruci. Get me these are, you know, everything. Started to change.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:01

Wow. I wonder. Do you think obviously you became known for your fashion design and things like that, but do you feel like that was maybe the start of you noticing it didn't sound like you had set out to become a fashion we did set out to become a fashion

Speaker 4 1:00:17

designer. Like the college I'm talking about is Brown University where I was a comparative literature major, like I wasn't thinking, like I grew up in New York City. My mom was a shopper, as I mentioned, totally like a clothes horse. Loved clothes. I loved clothes. And I was one of those girls in high school, even though I you wouldn't have known that, I also, like everyone else, was super insecure and looked up to other people and wanted to dress like this. But I was probably somebody, if I'm being honest, that was considered like that. I knew what to wear, you know, I was, I that was like a, you know, I had, I cared about clothes, and I kind of got it early, and so I was one of those people. And after college, I went to work at Vogue magazine. But it's like what you were saying about 17, that was like a plum, job that had, for me, a little bit less to do with fashion. I thought I was going to be writing, and I was writing for Vogue. I like fashion a lot, so they kind of coincided, but I thought I was going to be a writer, and then I got this idea for maternity clothing that was sort of just based on taste and what I saw people wearing. And it started, you guys mentioned target, and it's so many years ago, it actually started as a very high end line, and I had three very expensive boutiques, ultimately, and that's what attracted target. And they asked me if I would do a less expensive line for their stores, and that I rolled that out in 2001 I mean, again, I was that friend, like I told I was sort of helping people with what to wear. I was that person. But just like all of you, you know, throughout high school and middle school and Lower School, I assume I was just plagued with wanting to fit in and wanting to wear the right thing and never feeling quite right, even though, you know,

Kristin Nilsen 1:01:54

isn't that universal. I mean, it's here. It's let's just put this in perspective. Here's Liz Lange, fashion designer Liz Lange, telling us that she felt insecure about what she was wearing right and wanted so badly to fit in and wear the right thing, and choosing things so carefully, it's universal.

Michelle Newman 1:02:12

But in this proof that money doesn't buy that That's right, it doesn't

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:15

matter. It doesn't matter you.

Michelle Newman 1:02:23

So should we go ahead to our fun game that she doesn't know we're gonna play with her yet, but we play with all of our special guests?

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:29

Yeah, no matter who we have on, it's again, just showing this place where we have an intersection of things, like we all existed at this same moment in time, and we all have things that we have in common. And so we like to ask these questions of all of our people, who was your very first crush? Who did you fall in love with, like your celebrity crush?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:48

Who was first?

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:54

Maybe Greg, maybe Greg.

Speaker 4 1:02:55

It was either Greg Brady or David Cassidy. It was, I used to watch Partridge Family and Brady Bunch back to back. Probably it was David Cassidy who played, yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:10

oh yeah, yes. I

Speaker 4 1:03:11

mean, I was so in love with him that. So I think him, I think, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:16

that's a good choice, you and millions of other women, from women, girls,

Speaker 4 1:03:19

girls, ready to for some reason now, I don't know why now looking back, but yeah, yeah,

Michelle Newman 1:03:25

okay. Liz, what was your first concert?

Speaker 4 1:03:29

Billy, Joel, my dad took me, and he took, like, my best friend. Oh, amazing.

Michelle Newman 1:03:37

You could still go now, like, no,

Speaker 4 1:03:40

it's getting still playing Madison Square Garden. I swear to God, it was at Madison Square Garden. Okay. Well, speaking

Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:45

of music, do you remember your first album?

Speaker 4 1:03:49

Yes, my cousin Laura, who's on the, well, actually, there were two. And I know that's a cheat, so I remember having, for like, I didn't have an actual record player, or, I guess it was, it was like a suitcase that you could open. And there was, I think it was white. I thought it was incredible. So I had the Donny I had a Donny Osmond record there, but I don't, I know I had that. And then a little later, when I was in third grade, my cousin Laura, who was four years older, I worshiped her. She came over one day and she brought me the Elton John record. And God, I can visualize it, but I can't think of what it was called. It had crocodile rock on it, but the fact that she brought me that out, bought me that album, I just couldn't believe it. Liz, did

Michelle Newman 1:04:33

you go roller skating like at a rink? Oh, yeah, okay, so did you have a favorite roller skating song?

Speaker 4 1:04:40

The one that I remember skating to and just thinking I was the coolest person on earth. Was the song pop music. Do you remember that

Michelle Newman 1:04:47

New York, London, Paris,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:48

everybody.

Okay, my question is, whose posters were on your wall? Did you were you allowed

Speaker 4 1:05:01

to posters on my watch? No posters, but I had I cut out and maybe I put in a sticker book or other things, Tiger Beat. What is that Mad Magazine that had nothing to do? Mad Magazine to me. Comic books like especially with Betty and Veronica were very important to me. 17 Magazine and then, but You mean, like, Who did I worship? So I was girls and boys like, you know for sure, force I loved, I love some of the top models back then, like, even forgetting the younger ones. And I started to notice, like, people like Cheryl Teague and, of course, Farrah Fawcett. I also love Lindsey Wagner. She wasn't Yes, I'm

Carolyn Cochrane 1:05:46

sorry that's I just love Jamie summers. I want the bionic woman. And

Speaker 4 1:05:51

the fact that there was crossover, and that she was with The $6 million Man,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:05:56

she had amnesia and she could have remembered that she loved him,

Speaker 4 1:06:00

broke my little girl heart like that was just too much for me that she couldn't remember. Yes. So I definitely, I would have had their posters, and then I would have had people like, you know, like, I mean, definitely David Cassie. I love the Bay City Rollers. I loved them. They had a TV show that I also used to watch, probably back then.

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:22

Okay, I have one more question for you. What lunch box did you have?

Speaker 4 1:06:28

Well, that I was really young, but so I must have had like I think, I think my favorites were Betty and Veronica. I really looked up to them. I think even though I was a girl, I think I went through this slightly tomboyish phase where I also liked Spider Man a lot, like I love Spider Man, but I also love Wonder Woman, and I love Scooby Doo maybe this was like a rich girl thing, but I get a new one every year, so special. And maybe I got a new one for day camp too.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:07:02

So Liz, what is we've talked a little bit about the podcast, but what else keeps you busy these days? Well, I'm

Speaker 4 1:07:08

really busy right now. I did the podcast actually during covid, but also during covid. I've always been in the fashion business my entire career, and I knew I wanted to continue to be in it. So I was thinking about starting a brand, which is typically what I do, or possibly buying a brand. And during covid, a brand became for sale that I was a huge fan of, like had no business connection to, but just wore a lot this brand called fig. It's a women's fashion brand. It's spelled with a French spelling, so it's f, i, G, U, E, but it's actually pronounced fake. Anyway it became for sale, I ended up acquiring it and relaunching it, and that's what I do now. It's been three years, and I've got it, you know, offices in a small team in New York and city, and I love it. So I'm, you know, really busy with that. I love Instagram. Like, like, you ladies, I've kind of found a lane in Instagram that really is fun for me, and so I write my own I know you guys do too. People always like, who writes your Instagram? I write these Instagrams daily, and I, and I get a lot of comments, as you do, too, and I like to answer all of them personally. So that's also, you know, semi time consuming. And then, you know, just, just life in general. I've got a 23 year old and a 25 year old. And so between Instagram, my my brand fig, and my life, yeah, I feel like I'm fairly busy, yeah,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:08:31

and we haven't mentioned the where you are speaking to us from. You kind of did something cool as well with the home that you're living in. Do you want to share, kind of what, where you live? And so,

Speaker 4 1:08:43

you know, really, we live in New York City, but like so many people, during covid Again, covid keeps coming up. My life shifted a bit, and it shifted forever, just by choice. So we had this weekend house that we had just bought, like, a year or so prior to covid hitting. It's actually gray Gardens, which, for people of our generation and older, that actually means something, because it was this documentary that was wildly popular. So we bought the house gray gardens that had been owned by big Edie and little Edie, who were the first cousin and aunt of Jackie Kennedy and her sister, Lee radzwell, and we spent a long time, kind of, you know, redoing it and renovating it and the whole thing. So that took like, three years, and I'm here now. I kind of live here over the summer. We still have our apartment in New York City, but I am talking to you from Greg arts or someone else.

Kristin Nilsen 1:09:34

It's iconic,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:09:36

and it's beautiful what you've done with it. So listeners do not worry, we will have links to everything. This

Michelle Newman 1:09:42

was so fun. Liz, I love knowing you. I love having met you and having chatted with you. And love knowing that we're all just we're all just the same.

Kristin Nilsen 1:09:52

We really are. Yes, I love spending time with you today. Thank you so much. So

Unknown Speaker 1:09:57

much fun for me. Thank you, ladies.

Michelle Newman 1:09:59

Oh, my. Gosh, you're welcome. We're gonna continue our friendship. I hope definitely.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:10:04

Oh my gosh, you guys. How fun was that conversation? I've heard.

Michelle Newman 1:10:06

It's just like, so it's another friend. We found another friend and Liz, we felt like we knew you for a long time. It was so fun, like we

Kristin Nilsen 1:10:16

just had a play date with her.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:17

I loved it.

Kristin Nilsen 1:10:19

But isn't that funny? When you're trying on those maternity clothes at Target, you had no idea that someday you'd be having a play date with the woman who created that.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:10:28

I know it was just wild. And as you guys, our listeners, can imagine, it wasn't just a short, quick Convo. It went long and you only heard a bit of it in today's episode. However, if you are one of our patrons, you will get to see the video conversation the entire thing, and we digressed a lot. So if you are not already a patron, you know what to do. You know to go on to our link in bio, or to go to patreon.com and put pop culture Preservation Society in the search bubble. You guys, I wanted to say that one of my biggest takeaways from our conversation with Liz was that, you know, when it comes to Generation X, we share so many of the same experiences, whether we grew up wealthy in New York City or in a small town in Washington state, a suburb of Houston or a city like St Paul, the same excitement when it came back to go back to school shopping. We all felt it. Yeah, you guys, we are so much more alike than we are different, and I just love when we have those moments when you realize that.

Kristin Nilsen 1:11:29

I love it. This was a meeting of the minds, even though we came from vastly different situations growing up, the four of us so interesting. This has been a really fun conversation. I think it's the first time we've really gone deep on school supplies, which was a big thing that was really big for our generation. It's so different than it is now. And if you are like me, you still crave a little back to school shopping. When the weather starts to turn cool, your heart gives a beat when you push your cart past the school supplies quadrant at Target, it's like a whole quarter of the store, basically, right? You still crave a new box of crayons, crayons, crayons, crayons, crayons. And you need some new notebooks, and I swear to God, maybe you need a new outfit featuring some corduroy of some kind. Oh, yes, right? It's exciting for us in a way that it isn't necessarily as exciting for our kids again, like we said before, maybe because it got too big and overwhelming, or maybe it got too prescribed, I'm not sure, but here at the PCPs, we are all about recapturing the joy we had when we were kids. And so here's me giving you permission go get yourself some school supplies. Do you want crayons, get the fucking 64 pack. You deserve it, and I think you need a new outfit. Why not? You deserve this. Consider it a form of therapy, a way to connect to the most authentic version of yourself. Thank you for listening today. Thanks for showing up for our first day of season 13, and we will see you next week.

Michelle Newman 1:12:59

It is. It's back to school day for us here, isn't it? And Kristen, thank you for that permission. I am gonna go to Target today, and I'm even though I've already gotten some I'm going to get some glue, and tonight I'm going to put it on my hand. I'm see if I can peel it off in one piece. But I am also going to get some crayons. Yeah, I haven't had no crayons in a long time. I'm gonna get some new crayons.

Kristin Nilsen 1:13:22

I have a 64 pack in my hands here. There's

Michelle Newman 1:13:24

the sharpener. Have you had to sharpen any yet? No, look. They're fresh. And you know what else I'm gonna get? Do they still make coloring box? Yes, actual, but like with that, nothing like for a dog. I'm gonna go look. Anyway. Today's episode was brought to you by some of our just wonderful, wonderful supporters on Patreon, and today we're giving a shout out to Mike, Sandy, Alice, Alisa. Alisa, who we met at the Donny Osmond concert. Hi, Alisa. She's a new 1976 patron. I know we love you. Elisa, we love all of you. Miriam, C, source, sarsonus, because some people just have their email in but I don't want to neglect you. C, sarsonus, so maybe your name is Cecilia, or maybe your name is Candy, or maybe it's Carl, we don't know. Diane Collette, Kelly, Sharon, another here's cake, the cat and Susan. In

Kristin Nilsen 1:14:22

the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast, courtesy of the cast of Three's Company, two good times,

Michelle Newman 1:14:29

two Happy Days, Two Little House on

Carolyn Cochrane 1:14:32

the Prairie and the first day of school.

Kristin Nilsen 1:14:35

Cheers, cheers. The information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society. Podcast belongs solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards Nanu. Nanu keep on truckin and may the Force. Be With You. You.