1. Oregon Trail. WHAT IS UP original computer game! No, children of the 90s, I do not mean "video game," I mean computer game - and not World of Warcraft. Oregon Trail was this amazing invention that was not an invention at all because it actually happened once in America's history. It was both educational and wildly entertaining. What I learned from this brilliant game was that their were some people that moved north with carts carried by oxen. The highlights of the game were when fires broke out destroying all 80lbs of your food and your fictional sister broke her arm. Usually when the broken arm screen popped up, your elementary self was all, "I have a sister?" Most of the historical accuracies included that hunting was the most entertaining part of the journey, and everyone died of dysentery.
In this screen shot, you are obviously about to die. But you should still press the arrow keys to "look around."
2. Time Out. I used to get put in time out frequently in elementary school . . . or whatever version it was back then. Sometimes I just had to move my flag from the green "safe" zone to the yellow "warning" zone. What was I doing that was causing me to be so wildly disruptive in class? Punching? Kicking? Swearing? Oh no . . . I was singing.
3. Boys sucked. This knowledge was not exclusive to elementary school. It followed me for most of my life. But boys in elementary school can be pretty cruel. As a girl they wouldn't throw me the football. Actually, as I am typing this and reflecting, I am realizing maybe that wasn't because I was a girl. Perhaps it was because I lacked any athletic skills.
4. Re-enactments. One year, this teacher wanted us to get an idea of what it was like to hunt for food. In order to do this, she took us outside and separated the class into the hunters and the "wildebeests." She then told us that the strategy used by tribes was to find the weakest and slowest member of the heard, separate it from the pack and then take it out with your bow and arrow. She then proceeded to duct-tape a bag of candy to me and gave the "hunter" half of the class water balloons. I'm not kidding.
5. Power Rangers. Every day of lunch in the third grade I pretended to fight the janitor who came to empty our trash under the guise of being the pink ranger. I KA-RA-TE chopped and kicked and said lots of "hay-yas." To this day I can still remember all 5 original characters and who replaced them. I also have all the McDonald's power ranger happy meal toys and their zords. I was told not to brag about this today by my co-worker.
Billy, Kimberly, Jason (later Rocky), Trini (later Ayesha), Zach (later Adam)
Oregon trail! I learned what dysentery was because for some reason that is what I always got. I remember going to the computer lab and getting to create a art project in the paint program. It was the simpler things then. My husband and I were just explaining Oregon trail to our kids, showed them a screen shot of it, and my oldest who is 6 said it looked boring. It was the most exciting thing ever!
ReplyDeleteEmily- Our house now a home