Mickey Yarber, aka The Retro Rambler

10 Discontinued Fast Food Items We Still Want Back

Fast food is as American as McDonald’s fried Apple Pies. The fast-food business constantly innovating, finding ways to turn chicken fingers into Chicken Fries and Chicken Rings. Yet for every smashing success like the McRib,

Captain Planet: The Animated Battle for a Cleaner, Greener World

Mickey Yarber

Striking a blow for ecology, fighting “polluting perpetrators” wherever they were found, Captain Planet and the Planeteers brought the environmental movement to the cartoon world. The series came from an original idea by media mogul Ted Turner,

Unforgettable Fashion: Buster Brown Shoes

Mickey Yarber

“I’m Buster Brown, and I live in a shoe. That’s my dog, Tige, and he lives there, too. Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!” Charlie and Snoopy, Our Gang and Pete, Buster and Tige…No childhood relationship

Unforgettable Fashion: Jelly Shoes

Mickey Yarber

In everything from digital watches to computers, the 80’s were filled with the hope of all the wonders science could concoct. Jelly shoes ranked high on the mad-scientist laboratory list, joining the ranks of rubber

Unforgettable Fashion: Airwalk Shoes

Mickey Yarber

Better than catching air, street-cred Airwalk sneakers made thrashing up the scene sweeter than ever when kickers hit the board, and the board hit the streets. The skate shoes made for the rebellious set and

Unforgettable Fashion: Duck Head Clothing

Mickey Yarber

Chinos (khakis), polo shirts, a braided leather belt and penny loafers: the mallard Duck Head staring out from a sea of bright yellow was as much a part of the 80’s preppy uniform as any

Lifestyle

Unforgettable Fashion: Joe Boxer

Mickey Yarber

Boring boxer shorts got a personality when Joe Boxer turned underwear into funderwear. Like Underoos for adults, Joe Boxer made dressing fun, as smiley faces, chili peppers, dollar signs, fish, jack-o-lanterns, Christmas trees and more

Unforgettable Fashion: Members Only Jackets

Mickey Yarber

Groucho Marx once said, “I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.” Maybe he would have changed his mind if he could’ve been a part of the cool

Unforgettable Fashion: Underoos

Mickey Yarber

“Underwear that’s fun to wear, It’s you in your Underoos!” Up, up and away…Underoos made make-believe even better when fun came to underwear, transforming you into your favorite superhero or cartoon character. Wonder Woman, Batman,

Unforgettable Fashion: Swatch Watch

Mickey Yarber

Always new, always different. With Swatch, your watch was never plain, boring or dull. How many Swatch watches can fit on the average person’s wrist? Three was common, two was a must, and four was

Unforgettable Fashion: Brut Cologne

Mickey Yarber

Mickey Mantle wore it. Wilt Chamberlain and Joe Namath, too. Billed as the only choice for a masculine scent, Brut ‘defined masculinity for the American man.’ Created by Fabergé in 1964, Brut was so named

ColecoVision: The Console That Tried Everything

Mickey Yarber

ColecoVision was the Cadillac of home video games back in 1982; a system so powerful, you’d make friends with the biggest jerk on the block just to be near it. Everyone had an Atari—that quaint little

Unforgettable Fashion: Body Glove

Mickey Yarber

It fits on the body, like a glove. It’s a Body Glove. Body Glove was the creation of twin brothers Bob and Bill Meistrell, both dive and surf fanatics. California transplants from Missouri, the two

Unforgettable Fashion: Alligator Shirts

Mickey Yarber

To those in the know, it’s actually a crocodile. But in the early ’80s, only a select few were in the know, and even fewer cared. In a case of mistaken identity, the Lacoste crocodile

What Was On Television for Halloween 1986

Mickey Yarber

I thought it would be fun to take a look at what was on television for Halloween in 1986. I had the TV Guide issue for that week handy, so I scanned in all the

The Beginnings of MTV

Mickey Yarber

The earliest ancestor of the modern music video was the soundie, a black-and-white 16mm film recording of a musician performing before a live audience. The first soundies appeared in 1940, and all the big singing