My writing partner Laura (HI LAURA) has been using her old journals and diaries for writing prompts, which in theory would be a great idea for me to do as well, had I not shredded and thrown out all of mine from my childhood and teen years. It’s probably for the best, honestly. No one needs to remind themselves of such misery. Even though I think of the years between fifth and ninth grade as being the absolute low point of my life, Laura convinced me to look back at my old yearbooks, in lieu of my long-lost diaries, and to write about a moment in time, 1988.
The yearbooks have a page in the back for students to fill out, things like Favourite Subject, and Best Friends, and also – weirdly – “Most Gorgeous Guy” and “Best Looking Girl”. Did the purveyors of the yearbook really think that we needed to know who were “The Jock” and “The Jockette” in the years to come? I guess they did. In any case, it was an enlightening journey, going back 36 years, to one of the least-joyful years of my life.
- I don’t know what you were doing in 1988, but I was finishing seventh and starting eighth grade. The junior high years are universally miserable, aren’t they, but I feel they were particularly so in the 80s, and even more so for girls. Age thirteen is a tricky age to be in any case, what with the angst and the complete lack of self-esteem and the desperation to fit in and belong; there are friend crises and romantic crises and clothing crises, and everything in the world seems like it is just poised to constantly thwart you and break your spirit. And as if the generalized agony and misery of seventh and eighth grade were not enough to destroy a girl’s soul, the styles in 1988 finished them off. I am going to make a bold statement right now: no one, but no one, looked good in 1988. There was just no chance. If it wasn’t bad enough to have acne made worse with the use of St Ives Apricot Scrub followed by Sea Breeze astringent, hairstyles that surrounded our poor little scoured faces were insane. Who decided that spiral perms with bangs teased to be vertical were a good idea? This is when we were made aware of the diminishing ozone layer, so we all traded in our aerosol hairsprays for pumps, which we used to make our hair into literal walls. When gravity started to take its inevitable toll on those bangs, we rallied by holding them straight up and spraying them until they dried into a solid form. Why did we do that? What were we thinking? Who came up with this ubiquitous hairstyle?
- I’m not going to say that fashion was worse than the hairstyles – what could be worse than vertical bangs? – but it was pretty bad: loose-fitting jeans that were rolled or pinned at the ankles, which is generally an unflattering silhouette, gigantic tees that were tucked into those jeans, and Keds or their knock-offs, with no socks, which necessitated a toxic amount of baby powder sprinkled inside to keep the feet relatively odour-free. In my school, there was one type of denim that was acceptable, and one type only: Levi’s, with the red tab. Wearing an orange tab would result in incessant teasing, and wearing literally any other kind of jean would make a person a social pariah. At my school, there was no room for variety.
- I loved – and still love – all kinds of music, and I would make mix tapes from the radio, so that every song would be slightly cut off or have the radio station’s jingle or the DJ’s voice fading in or out. My favourite band from that time was INXS, and that was also the first concert I ever went to. Following that, I had concert fever and would go to see any band, at any time. Those were very inexpensive endeavours; I think most concert tickets were under $20, and I was a pretty in-demand babysitter at the time, albeit one who made $2.50 an hour, and so the money that I didn’t spend on hairspray and Cover Girl makeup went towards concerts. 1988 was also the year I got into Depeche Mode and retro music like The Beatles and The Doors.
- When it comes to non-music pop culture, I was glad to have my yearbooks to remind me of my favourites. According to them, my favourite movies in 1988 were Heathers, which, if I thought about it, I could have guessed, and Rain Man, which I absolutely would not. Rain Man, really? Who knew? When it came to television, I loved The Wonder Years – also, if I thought hard enough I could have remembered that, I’d probably still enjoy it today – and Head of the Class. Gun to my head, I would have never come up with Head of the Class. All I remember, mostly, is that the teacher was the guy who was Johnny Fever on WKRP, and Robin Givens, who was married to Mike Tyson, was a student. Oh, wait, you guys, I just googled it and apparently Dan Schneider, the gross abusive pedophile (allegedly), was also on that show. You are dead to me, Head of the Class. Not that I remembered you prior to this exercise, but still. Dead. To me.
- In 1988, the whole city had Olympic Fever – the whole city, it seemed, except for me. If there is anything more contrarian and eye-rolly than a thirteen-year-old girl, I don’t know what it is, but I was So Sick of Anything To Do With The Olympics, MOM. I mean, the most prestigious international athletic event taking place in your own city, who cares, am I right? I did enjoy the figure skating, though, and was able to take in an event to see Canada’s sweetheart, Elizabeth Manley, and also the battle between Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas, the latter of whom had a shockingly terrible life, post-Olympics. She was a fabulous skater, though, and that was also the year of the Battle of the Brians, and of Gordeeva and Grinkov. But other than the figure skating, I could not have cared less about the Olympics, and was extremely salty at being forced to watch speed skating practices as a school field trip. I was also annoyed at the joy of the city-wide celebration when the Flames won the Stanley Cup the following year; It’s Just Hockey, WHO CARES (sorry, Darren, if you’re reading this, I’ve grown since then, and also, HI DARREN). Ah, it’s hard to be thirteen. Everyone is irritated with your attitude, and truth be told, YOU are irritated with your own attitude. My strange contrarian attitude towards anything that brought happiness to the city makes my listed “Ambition” even weirder: I wrote that I wanted to be a mayor. Not THE mayor. A mayor. I do not remember ever being interested in the least in municipal politics; maybe I just wanted to keep out all sporting events from the city (or town, I guess) I ruled over? Who can say. I do find it strange that I didn’t list my ambition as being Prime Minister, or even a Member of the Legislative Assembly; I stopped at “a mayor.” I’m generally a Go Big or Go Home kind of gal, so this is puzzling, to say the least.
This little trip down memory lane was fun, but it has left me with more questions than answers. For a much less weird foray into the past, don’t forget to check out, and subscribe to, Laura’s Substack – she’s a gorgeous writer with beautiful art and thought-provoking essays, plus prompts for writing and journalling. I hope you all have a great weekend, perhaps one thinking of your own 1988, or your thirteen-year-old self, or maybe even your hopes and dreams of one day becoming the mayor of a random municipality. xo
That was fun to read. I never had those gravity-defying bangs, but I remember them on my students when I was teaching assistant at the University of Iowa from 89-90. I used to get distracted sometimes wondering how that effect was achieved.
1988 was second semester of my junior year and first semester of my senior year of college. (I feel so old now in comparison.) But thinking about what was going on then– I’d just returned from a semester in Spain to my newish girlfriend (we’d dated for just six weeks before I left) but we picked up where we left off and we’re married now so that worked out fine.
When I was thirteen and a half and in 8th grade we moved and it took me a long time after that to make friends (over a year) so that was a pretty miserable time. Yet, strangely, I never took refuge in fantasies about rising to the top of municipal government.
I will be laughing about “fantasies about rising to the top of municipal government” ALL DAY. I’m sorry you had such a crappy time when you were in 8th grade, that sounds really rough.
I didn’t know you had a semester in Spain! I’d love to hear more about that.
You carried me back in time on a waft of Seabreeze. I love this post and appreciate you going back to an unpleasant time. Like you, I was amazed by what I had forgotten-things that must have been filled with drama & importance. My mother used to say ‘in a 100 years who is going to care?’ And it would infuriate me. Turns out she was right. Except it’s more like in 40 years. Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane!
Your mom was surely right! But ugh, the Seabreeze! Remember that stinging sensation? “It means it’s working!” Working to destroy our poor little faces, that is.
I was 11 in 1988 and there is a specific picture of me from my 6th grade graduation that I have done my best to forget about but haunts me (and teaches me) to this day: at the time, my mother was still having my curls permed to “organize” them, so I have this wild head of hair with the bangs you did with the round brush, pink plastic coke-bottle glasses, a halter top floral dress, and jelly shoes and if that isn’t the exact feeling of how out of body and not yourself puberty and tweendom make you feel, I don’t know what is! What a trip, Nicole!
The perming of curly-haired gals was SUCH a thing! Also, weirdly, the cutting short of hair to “thicken it up” – hair doesn’t work that way! I remember my look at my sixth grade graduation and I also had the thick glasses! It’s a weird out of body feeling for sure.
1988 was definitely better for me than 7th grade was. In 1988 I had moved to San Francisco, I was in college, I was dating my now husband, I had met my dad and sisters, it was a pretty good time. Though both of my grandfathers and my 16 year old dog died that spring, so that was rough. I always wanted the hair you had, my friends had it, but my hair is so straight I was never able to manage it, even with a perm. I did use the Sebastian sculpting gel (Gel Forte?) to get some serious lift into my hair. Awesome.
7th grade? Blah. I found my yearbook from 8th grade recently, and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to ‘rate’ everyone. I put arrows next to their pictures. Up arrow for ‘I like this person’, down arrow for ‘I don’t like this person’, and sideways arrow for ‘this person is fine’. I had a down arrow next to my picture, which is pretty much the saddest thing ever to me now.
I liked your memories, and I also got into the Beatles in Jr. High!
Your down arrow story just about killed me.
I’m sending lots of UP arrows to your 8th grade self!
J, a few of my yearbooks had a similar “rating” in it – not for everyone, but there was commentary about a lot of people written next to their photos. It makes me sad, because I was so insecure that I had to write snarky comments about other people. Ah, well, we live and learn!
I’m sad to hear you didn’t have the best time in 1988, Nicole. You deserve to be happy always! You had everything going for you: you look lovely, and had awesome taste in music, and seem to have been doing well in school–but I remember how difficult it can be to be a teenager. I came to Depeche and INXS slightly later, I think I was very into teeny bop like Wham at that point.
Hearing you say you used to make mix tapes off the radio reminded me that my cousins who lived in the U.S. used to do that for me… so I would listen to Casey Kasem doing the top 40 or whatever during the long summer breaks in India.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane… and the apricot scrub and Sea Breeze and that weird hair style were waiting for me when I arrived stateside a handful of years later :).
The radio mix tapes are pretty fun – there was a station that did the top 6 at 6 and the top 10 at 10 and so there would always be a booming voice “number three!” just before the song came on!
The teen years are so hard, but I think they made me a better mother, because I remembered so clearly all the angst that went with them, so I could be kind and sympathetic to my own kids.
Teenage Nicole was so adorable! Ah yes, I remember the amazing heights of bangs back then! I was 18 in 1988, my freshman year in college. I remember it as a wonderful year – as well as scary, being away from home. But, oh my goodness, Junior High was awful!!! Talk about a time of angst and awkwardness! And just like you, I shredded and burned all my diaries! In my forties, I looked back at one of my journals and decided I liked my softened memories much better than my very ugly teenage rantings! It was great that I could vent in my diaries, but there was no need to keep those memories!
I was also obsessed with the figure skating events during the Calgary Olympics! I remember recording them on my VCR in my dorm room and watching them over and over. (We didn’t have much to watch back then!) The Battle of the Brians, and Gordeeva and Grinkov and all that brings back so many memories!
The figure skating was epic!!! I’m so excited that you loved it too.
I agree – it’s so much better to not have to face those awful teen rantings in diary form!
Nicole for mayor, Prime Minister, President, or Supreme Rule of the Universe, yes please and thank you.
This gave me a sympathetic pang: “Age thirteen is a tricky age to be in any case, what with the angst and the complete lack of self-esteem and the desperation to fit in and belong; there are friend crises and romantic crises and clothing crises, and everything in the world seems like it is just poised to constantly thwart you and break your spirit. ” I feel pre-sympathy for my kiddo who has all this ahead of her.
But not the vertical bangs! Oh no! I will not allow such a thing to happen in my house, to my child! I think in sixth grade I had similar bangs to yours from the first photo. I curled a section of side-bang, then pinched it and sprayed the bejeezus out of it until it stood independently. In eighth grade, I had foregone the curling and just had a crest of solid hair. WHY. Did I even bother to brush the back of my hair? No. No I did not.
Hahahah Suzanne! The bangs! THE BANGS WHY. The crest of solid hair, let’s just say my yearbook is full of girls whose hair takes up the entire photo!
It is such a tricky time, but there will be a time after it!
I was a young married, working for a nonprofit that year. Girl, you look adorable with that spiral perm. I’m still of the mind, ‘must have volume’ when it comes to my hair. When I was 13, the style was straight, flat, long hair. Looked awful on me! I’m cracking up at the Levi’s drama. Our school didn’t differentiate between the tag colors, but the popular thing to do was to try to rip the Levi tag off of people’s jeans. Probably was an excuse for all of us to touch the other sex’s butts!🤣
Junior high were some tough years. I would not want to go back.
Bijoux, I also still like volume in my hair! Stylists like to straighten it and it is so flat and limp, I just can’t stand it.
I don’t think anyone wants to go back to junior high!
I was 20 in 1988 and just started working my first real job and move into my own apartment (in an area looking back now, that was a foolish choice).
Middle school is hard for everyone, I think. It just is.
It absolutely is, Gigi! But I guess life is full of highs and lows.
Oh 1988…actually the middle school tide turned for me in the 2nd half of 7th grade and I had an excellent January 1988 to August 1989…once I hit high school everything fell apart again.
Your 1988 hair is EPIC. My 1988 hair is so jealous.
We are the same year, Birchie! I’m glad you had such an epic middle school experience! For me the tide turned in high school.
I’m loving the old photos, I have many photos like that with the rolled up jeans and big hair. 1988 I was in year 11. I don’t remember high school being too bad, maybe because I had a small, tight friendship group that I could really count on. I was not one of the popular kids, but also not one that was picked on, I was kind of in the middle and our group was friendly with kids from across the popularity spectrum. I went to a girls school, so I guess one angst causing thing (boys) was removed from the school setting. We also wore a uniform and had to wear our hair short or tied back, so needing to have the right clothes was not a thing (most schools in Australia have uniforms). The one differentiation was the length of your dress and socks—more popular girls tended to have shorter dresses. Thanks for this trip down memeory lane.
Oh, that’s interesting about the schools in Australia! I enjoyed high school but not junior high – maybe things would be different if we had a uniform, and all-girls! Who knows. The rolled jeans – what a look that was!
You are brave to go back and think about this stage of your life! But I love the flashback photos of young Nicole! You do have my vote for mayor, though!! I was 7 in 1988 so in a different stage of life. I don’t remember the Olympics that year. The first Olympics I vividly remember was the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta which I was soooo into, especially gymnastics. For awhile if someone asked who my favorite sports team was, I would say the 1996 women’s Olympics team. Of course now we know those girls were brutally sexually abused so that really colors my nostalgia for their performances. 🙁
My parents gave me a box of things from my youth a few years ago. I went through everything and then opted to throw it all out, including my year books. I probably should have kept those to maybe show my kids but HS was a really painful period of time for me. I don’t keep in touch with anyone from that time of my life aside from my cousin who was like a sister to me. I am happy to close the book on that chapter of my life and am glad my kids will have a different experience (hopefully) since they will attend a very big high school where they are more likely to find their people (my class had 28 people!). And if they are struggling, we will put them in therapy which I sure should have been in but it was not a thing to go to therapy in the 90s!!
Lisa, I think having a big high school and just being in a bigger area makes a huge difference. My kids went to a high school with 2500 students. There’s always room to find your people, when that is the case. Also, I think maybe it’s a bit different for boys. Mine did not seem to go through the same level of angst/ poor self-esteem that I did, or my girlfriends did. Maybe things are just different now.
I enjoyed high school but I admit that junior high was a really low point in my life, and it was actually weirdly triggering to go through my yearbooks, even though I did find some gems like my mayor aspirations.
This is such a fun post. A Garfield sweatshirt! Oh those were THE thing, weren’t they? Plus your permed hair, so on trend. I saw Katarina when after the Olympics she went on tour in an exhibition show. She was extraordinary and dating MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson, who was in the audience. 😜
I added Laura to the list of people I follow on Substack. I rarely comment on anything there, but like to read what some people write. Thanks for the suggestion.
Ally, not only was it a Garfield sweatshirt, it was a Garfield ZODIAC sweatshirt! Just so everyone knew I was a Taurus.
Katarina dated MacGyver??? I had no idea!
Laura is a really lovely writer, and I think you’ll enjoy her!
I really enjoyed this – have I told you lately what a great writer you are? Your disdain of the Olympics cracked me up; I was the same way in 1976 when I was twelve and the US celebrated the bicentennial. I was SO SICK of hearing about it, and wrote a whole report on the subject. My teacher was not amused. 🙂
I have been a massive Depeche Mode fan since 1982, so that reference made me smile. I just saw Martin and Dave (RIP Fletch) with my kids last year, an amazing concert – they’ve released a new album and it’s fantastic!
In 1988 I had been married for 3 years, and was doing my best to be edgy with my hair – it’s naturally curly so no spiral perm, but I used to freeze-spray the sides out so it looked like I was always walking through a stiff breeze. In 1988, though, I actually SHAVED one side of my hair off. I wore a beret with that look. I’m laughing as I type this!
Oh Wendy, I can picture your hair SO clearly! Walking through a stiff breeze is actually a perfect description. It looked like we were all caught in the cross winds.
Depeche Mode solidarity! I had heard that they were touring again, that’s really incredible you got to see them.
Also – solidarity on national celebration fatigue! Ah, to be 12 again (god, that would be awful!)
I don’t think you want to know how old I was in 1988 but let’s just say my goals that year were things like: learn to crawl. 😉
Gah, I know you wanted to laugh at your bangs in that year 8 photo but how were you also so gorgeous during one of the most awkward times in a girl’s life?! The middle school years were AWFUL for me. My parents were going through a divorce, my mom was severely depressed, and I was in such an awkward stage. I had insomnia for all of 6th grade and generally was so happy when middle school was over and I could try to “start over” in high school.
Oh, Stephany, what an awful time for you. That sounds honestly so dreadful. I am glad high school was a good opportunity to start over. I loved high school as well.
Learning to crawl! You’re so cute 🙂
Oh how well I remember so much of this! Apricot scrub! The bangs- sprayed within an inch of their lives, a cloud of hair and chemicals! I was never terribly popular and I had one friend, and that friend decided that in order to be popular we had to roll and tuck the cuffs of our jeans. And Elizabeth Manley! That was an amazing year for figure skating! I’ve never lived in a city where the Olympics were taking place- how so very cool!
The roll and tuck was such a bad look – but we all did it! And the hairspray! My goodness, what were we thinking?
You’ll be happy – or appalled, you choose – to learn that Levi’s jeans (the red tags!) and teased bangs were also very much a thing in Germany around 1988. I do not know who came up with it or WHY. It look ridiculous (although I have to say that your picture is much prettier than you think. Look at those gorgeous curls!).
It was an international look, I guess! Those bangs! What a look!
Oh, my goodness, 1988! You were adorable, but yes, what were we thinking then? Junior high was always going to be awful, I’m sure, but I’m a bit older than you, so in 1988 I was in college. Though honestly, there were a lot of vertical bangs around me even there (my hair simply wouldn’t do it).
My regrettable 8th-grade hair look was bangs, cut dead straight across like a ruler had been used, which together with the coke-bottle glasses and braces was certainly A Look. Ninth grade was still hard, even at a new school, but by 10th, the braces were gone, the hair was better, and I got contacts, all of which helped my mood considerably!
I first saw Depeche Mode in concert in 1986, and have seen them multiple times since. They put on a show!
I got contacts by 10th grade too! I had gotten used to NOT wearing my glasses except in class, which was a big mistake. I essentially walked around blind for three years, squinting to see if I could recognize my friends.
I saw Depeche Mode for their Enjoy the Silence tour! So good!
This is so fun to read. A real blast from the past. I was a junior in high school in ’88. My mom cut my hair same way she cut my brothers’, so no trendy hair for me. I do remember the insecurity of 7th and 8th grade. Blah. Not easy. I was too tall and so awkward. Our older foster daughter is 13 and let me tell you . . . the teen years after years without a decent family foundation are pretty challenging.
I have never seen Heathers. I vaguely remember head of the class. I liked Murphy Brown but that might have been 1989?
I was not a slave to fashion, because of my older sisters’ handmedowns and let me tell you, practically everything I wore looked silly. Kids scoffed at me. I attended a Catholic grade school and was so lucky to have to wear a uniform.
I would vote for you.
You know what, I never watched Murphy Brown! I knew it existed but never watched it.
Oh boy, your mom cut your hair like your brothers…that sounds excruciating!
Nicole, this was fun. I had no idea you were so against the olympics and now I know to not to ever invite you to an olympic event.
When you said, what were you doing in 1988? My first thought was: MY HUSBAND. I was already doing my husband. And sorry, but I was also doing HAIR, so I was part of the problem. You want big spirally curls? COME SEE ME. You want giant bangs? I’m YOUR GIRL.
Laughing at Heathers. I mean, didn’t one girl kill another? Or was that another movie?
I’d forgotten about Head Of The Class too.
I think you looked so cute in your pictures. I would have been cast out of school because I never was able to have the ‘in style’ clothing. Never.
Lolololol I love this! Hahaha your husband and hair, that’s amazing. Giant bangs and spiral curls by Suz!
Regarding Heathers – even worse, they killed a girl and then pretended it was a suicide, and then there were “copycat” suicides because the dead girl was popular, so it became a “trend,” and then there’s a whole blowing-up-the-school storyline…that movie wouldn’t be made today, is what I’m saying. It seemed so over-the-top and dark then, and now…well…
This was a lot of fun to read. Mostly because I love reading about my blog friends’ pasts. But also, I graduated high school in 1988! So it was a lot of fun to read about that year again.
Suz doing her husband made me laugh out loud. I hadn’t “done” anything yet, but I was trying…My first boyfriend and I had a PG-13 relationship in 1988. 🤣
You looked so adorable in 1988. I loved seeing what you wore back then. I wore a lot of acid wash denim and sweaters. And I had big hair. ❤️
Acid wash denim! Yes girl! Me too.
1988… I was about to enter first grade and I remember that summer before 1st grade with fondness- we went to the lake for a few weeks. In December there was a terrible, terrible earthquake in Armenia and I remember we were doing fundraising for the Armenian families who pretty much lost everything.
Then the years after 1989-1990-1991-1992 were absolute shit in Russia, politically and economically. My mom pulled me out of school in 1990 and I missed being busy – I was homeschooled instead.
Oh goodness, Daria, what turbulent times you lived through! I didn’t realize you were homeschooled. I remember the Soviet Union dissolving but I didn’t realize the fallout for individual people until much later.