80’s Spring Fling
So, last Friday was Ivy Tech’s “Spring Fling”… I didn’t really know what to expect from it, because the name sounds like it’d be a dance, but I knew there was a dinner being served, and I was thinking “a dance for a community college???”. But no, I didn’t bother to ask anyone. All I knew was that the theme was The 80’s and they asked people to dress the part, so I was going to go, all by my lonesome.
Even my purse dressed the part:
(more pics in my Facebook Album)
So, I walked in the door people were kind of “oohing and aahing” over me, which I’m really not used to! And after pondering for hours (yes, really) over which of 3 pairs of shoes to wear, I went with Jelly Shoes, which must’ve been a good choice, because one woman near the door even exclaimed “Look! She even has jelly shoes!”. There wasn’t room to sit near these nice people near the door, so I wandered to a back table and sat with a couple other women. They were probably a few years older than me, and had fun “dressing up” but it was me who remembered the name of a couple of TV shows for them that they were trying to remember. Clearly, they aren’t stuck in the 80’s as I’d like to be.
Dinner was OK, for someone as picky as me. I mostly had a salad, olives, bread, and fruit, but there was an edible piece of beef as well.
When we walked in, we were handed a program and a baggie with a trivia questionnaire, a Starburst candy, and a copy of a Garbage Pail Kid card, for some games. The trivia game was just to answer the questions to be put in a drawing… the answers were given to anyone who paid attention to the “nostalgia screen” (as I call it, I think they totally should’ve called it that), mine wasn’t drawn for that.
We also played a game where they went table-by-table and asked a question, and the first person at each table to answer got a prize. Our question was asking who got married and uhh whatever church it was (*ahem*) in 1981, with the answer being Charles and Diana… I got a Collector’s Edition Footloose DVD - wooo! Made the price of he ticket worth it right there. After they finished each table, they had 2 questions for the whole room. I don’t remember what the 2nd question was, and we never got to hear the full question for the first because I shouted out “MacGyver!!” about the point of “Who was it that told us all we needed to get by in life was a pocket knife…” - I won a nice set of flashlights. (A guy at the next table was right behind me in answering, but when they thought he answered first he shook his head and pointed at me.)
With the Garbage Pail Kid cards, they drew names of the cards out, and people faced off one-on-one to see who could say the name of the TV show that the DJ played the theme for. I was amazed at how many times neither of the 2 people knew the answers… (I guess I truly am stuck in the 80’s) One of those times, they had people who knew the answer race up to answer, and for knowing that the answer was Who’s The Boss, I won a 5-piece candle set (my Garbage Pail Kid - TeeVee Stevie - didn’t get drawn for me to actually face-off, tho I would’ve let them go with someone else after I got the candle set anyway. I would’ve loved to continue facing off even without prizes tho!). When they played the theme from Cheers, he re-played the whole song so that the whole room could sing along… bizarrely, he had to do the same for Saved By The Bell. After that game was over, I went up and requested he play the theme for The Greatest American Hero… looking around the room, no-one else seemed to be singing along to that one *sob*
Ohh the Starburst candy… On each table, they had a bunch of Rubik’s Cube keychains (and some had full-sized ones as well - the tables that didn’t have Slinky’s). Our challenge was to get just ONE side of the cube solved to match our Starburst wrapper (mine was red, and I knew I didn’t have a chance). Unlike my truly old keychain I had dangling from my purse, these keychains had pink instead of white! Which made me wonder if some company makes them to specifically combine with Starbursts for such games?? Are there companies that make games just for 80’s parties? [There was also to be a prize for the first person to completely solve their cube, but no-one did, so they drew another trivia name]
There were some other fun things at the table - Jolly Rancher candy, more Starbursts, wax bottles, wax lips, pop rocks, umm that powder-dipping candy, and Strawberry Shortcake pencils that has the plastic pieces with lead in it that you rotate around to “sharpen” (they didn’t smell like strawberry though)
Then there were two prizes for 80’s outfits. One where the Dean of the school voted on best outfit, and one random drawing. I was just about to go to the restroom when he said he was going to announce the winner of that, so I stood and waited, and… someone else won ;-P (I didn’t see what the prize was though! It looked like maybe a CD set) I went on to the restroom, and when I came back a couple people near my table (my table-mates had actually left by this point) told me that they thought I should’ve won. The Dean came up to me a minute later and said I was his #2 choice, and that he went back and forth on us. Honestly, I don’t think he had even noticed me before, and I think while I was in the restroom some people told him about me. I think it would’ve been more fair if those of us who wanted to “enter” could’ve all stood in a line or something, but he just judged based on “walking around”, and we were seated most of the time so he didn’t get the full effect of the outfits. But ah well. If it was a CD set, I probably already have all the songs on it, and I did get some nice things already. I would’ve actually preferred to have won the random drawing for outfits, that prize was a 5-CD stereo. Actually, the same girl who won the judging got drawn for that, but she had them draw someone else, and a guy won… he may have been the only guy who did a good 80’s look (he may have even been the only male to enter the drawing), so at least it went to someone who tried!
ANYWAY, I had fun! I got to discuss some 80’s stuff and sing-along to songs with random strangers, and win a few prizes for my vast knowledge, and just be around other people who were enjoying it… even if they only enjoy it for one night and don’t wish it could all come back like I do.
