So I’m like most other ISU students, having grown up in the late ‘90s, early ‘00s. This being said, there are quite a few distinct things from my childhood that are enough to spark even the squarest person’s sentimentality.

From games to toys to candy and more, my childhood, like so many others’ was colorful. Here are some things that could bring a tear to your eye:

The notorious “Skip-It”

These were probably not safe to have on the playground, but, by golly, we used them, even during gym class sometimes. The concept is simple: you have a ring that you slide over your sneaker, which is attached by a sort of shaft that holds a light, plastic ball on the end. Somehow you move your body so the ball rotates around your one leg, making you jump over it with the opposite leg. Hey, it was entertaining back then, kind of like paddleball and whatever that toy is called where there’s a ball attached to a string that you try to make in a cup.

Getting way too mad at Mario Kart

Nintendo 64 was a way of life as I grew into adolescence. The James Bondgame, Mario Kartand Super Mario were epic games at the time. Needless to say, I was easily entertained.

The Little Rascals

I loved, loved, loved watching this movie as a kid. Though three-fourths of the jokes went over my head at the time, I still enjoyed it thoroughly. When the opportunity came up to nab this dime on DVD, you bet I did.

Paper fortune tellers

To this day I still don’t know how to fold one of these suckers. If you were lucky enough to have one back in grade school, though, I used to be all over having my fortune told with the different colored labels on the parts of the folded paper.

Crazy straws

I’ll be real and admit I still use these straws from time to time, though the drinks are a little more adult than they used to be.

Gelly roll pens

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a ‘90s child, male or female, that didn’t draw or write with one of these suckers. To make it better, major stores sold that super awesome black paper, seemingly made especially for gelly pens.

Scholastic book fair ordering

I have no idea if this still takes place, but, back in the day, we got the Scholastic booklets offering books, comics and activity packages. We begged our parents for something to order, sealed the deal by submitting the crinkly order form and patiently waited for our orders to arrive a couple wonderful weeks later.

Messing with a snap bracelet during class

The treasure of a quarter machine span far and wide in the eyes of small children, but a slap bracelet was always on my wish list. These annoying little jobs were fashionable and entertaining during those “long” English classes.

Waiting for a VHS tape to rewind

This doesn’t need much explaining. Back before DVDs, movies were manually controlled.

Those little candy “cigarettes”

I’m not completely sure how these were ever legal, to be honest. They came in packaging much too similar to your run-of-the-mill cigarette box, and the candy itself resembled a cig in size, shape and color. I’d really hope they still aren’t on shelves today, but I wouldn’t put it past stores to have some in stock, though the idea of cigarette-similar candy for children is pretty terrifying.