While the rad days of women wearing their hair as tall as the Eiffel Tower and kids break dancing in the streets to music playing from their boomboxes might be over, the 80s still live on in our hearts forever. In Texas, though, the 1980s were especially awesome because of the following ten things that we will never forget:

  1. Heading to Astroworld for the day and screaming your head off on all the rides such as…

Ethan/Flickr

…the Texas Cyclone, Sky Screamer, Thunder River, Ultra Twister, and Greezed Lightnin'.

Wikipedia/Astroworld

  1. Letting your inner child run free at Hanna-Barbera Land in Houston…

exit256.com …and getting especially excited about Scooby’s Ghoster Coaster!

  1. The iconic original Pig Stand drive-in restaurants, where chicken fried steak sandwiches, malts, and jukebox music reigned for decades.

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  1. Joske’s Department stores, before Dillard’s bought them in 1987.

Wikipedia/Joskes

  1. Only the best bookstore in the world, Bookstop, before Barnes & Noble bought the company in 1989.

Jerald Jackson/Flickr

  1. Going to the mall and getting a sundae (and maybe a cavity) from Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor.

Sandra Foyt/Flickr

  1. Getting ridiculously excited about swimming at the Blue Hole in Zavalla, where the water was as blue as the sky above.

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  1. Dr Pepper bubble gum (okay, it wasn’t as good as the actual drink, but it came pretty close).

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  1. The original advertisements that came on TV in the 80s for the anti-litter campaign that inspired the phrase “Don’t mess with Texas.”

me and the sysop/Flickr

  1. Watching movies under a clear night sky at drive-in theaters such as the Redland in Lufkin.

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Did you remember all of these? What else do you remember about the 1980s in Texas?

Ethan/Flickr

Wikipedia/Astroworld

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…and getting especially excited about Scooby’s Ghoster Coaster!

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Wikipedia/Joskes

Jerald Jackson/Flickr

Sandra Foyt/Flickr

loveinlufkin.wordpress.com

Roadsidepictures/Flickr

me and the sysop/Flickr

Dennis Dixson/Flickr

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