Maine Back to School shopping in 1985, 1990 and 1995

Unless you are actually dead, you’ve probably noticed that back-to-school mania is  upon us. I went fishing around in the archive to check out what Maine back-to-school season looked like in years past (1985, 1990 and 1995 specifically).

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You can use that $100 you’ll save on the television you’ll ultimately have to use as your monitor. [Bangor Daily News, August 18, 1985]

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Levi’s Chords are the perfect pants solution for authority figures from Roald Dahl books. [Bangor Daily News, August 16, 1985]

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Somebody please get me the Delorean so I can nab front row seats to the 1985 Bangor Mall Fashion Show. If you have pictures of this event, please, please, please send them to me. [Bangor Daily News, August 21, 1985]

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I have it on good authority that this kid loves Satan. [Bangor Daily News, August 20, 1985]

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Not shockingly, these white bros are about 8 years late to the walking around with a boom box party. [Bangor Daily News, August 6, 1990]

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I would kill for his snappy abstract Bart Simpson shirt. [Bangor Daily News, August 26, 1990]

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Wendall and Blair want to show you their crotches. [Bangor Daily News, August 26, 1990]

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Big Flannel owed a lot to popular notions of grunge back in the mid-90s. [Bangor Daily News, August 18, 1995]

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Before the Internet, we collected cardboard disks that we would stack and knock over with metal disks. I am totally not making this up. Marden’s purportedly had the hook up on pogs from “a secret source on the West Coast.” [Bangor Daily News, August 18, 1995]

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“Jr., Missy and Plus Sizes.” [Bangor Daily News, August 18, 1995]

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Not Included: Anything fun about having a cell phone. [Bangor Daily News, August 28, 1995]

Alex Steed

About Alex Steed

Alex Steed has written about and engaged in politics since he was an insufferable teenager. He has run for the Statehouse and produced a successful web series. He now runs a content firm called Knack Factory with two guys who are a lot more talented than himself.