Birthday Parties in the Golden Age

For kids in the Golden Age, few social events were more important than a good birthday party.  You’d walk in proudly, wearing one of your “nice outfits” that your mom picked out for you that day, and carrying a present that she had picked up on her most recent trip to the department store.  Next, you had the chance to run around and play with your friends for a while, expending some energy in the process.  Then, you’d eat some pizza and watch the birthday boy or girl open their gifts.  Finally, you’d have some birthday cake and/or ice cream, grab your goodie bag, and head on your way.

Here are some of our favorite Golden Age birthday party locations and activities:

The Arcade

The arcade was a social hub throughout the 1980s and through most of the '90s as well.  Just about every mall had one, and in those days it was a lucrative enough business that there were many standalone arcades too.  Walking into an arcade could be sensory overload.  Most were dark rooms with the bright neon lighting that was so popular in the Golden Age.  The carpet was patterned with color-splashed designs that were also very popular in those years.  And all around, coin-ops and other arcade games flashed and beeped, each competing for your attention.  This video does a pretty good job of capturing the look and feel of the classic arcade: 

Some arcades were of the “play to collect as many tickets as you can and trade them in for a prize” variety; others just offered coin-ops where you played a game with/against a friend or against the computer, and the only prizes were bragging rights and/or high scores.  If you were at a birthday party, most likely you were given a set amount of tokens to use as you saw fit.  As a younger child I liked to use my tokens for ski ball and hoop shoot, which were cash cows for tickets.  But as I got older and realized that I’d never get enough tickets for the big prizes (like a bike!), I opted instead for whatever was the most popular coin-op at the time.

Today, arcades still exist in some markets, often appealing to niche markets (ie. the Dave & Busters phenomenon, appealing to grown up Golden Agers).  But for the most part, the industry has died out.  The rapid advancement in technology used in home video consoles like Playstation or Xbox meant that kids didn’t need to make a trip to the arcade for a technically-impressive video game experience, and the proliferation of online gaming over the last decade meant that kids didn’t need to leave their house to put a whoopin’ on a stranger.  While the growth of video games into the main stream has been welcome, the loss of the arcade experience is lamentable.  No home video game experience can compare to the excitement of walking into an arcade as a kid in the '80s or '90s.

The Roller Rink

Roller rinks are certainly not something unique to the Golden Age—in fact, their greatest popularity may have been achieved in the decades prior.  The late 1960s and 1970s turned the roller rink into a popular hangout spot for kids and teens, and the disco boom of the mid to late '70s dovetailed nicely with the roller rink experience.

But in the early 90’s the rise in popularity of in-line skates, better known to most as Rollerblades (the name of the most popular in-line skate manufacturer), breathed life back into the roller rink business.  The rink again became a popular hangout spot for teens and in many places, a popular location for kids to have their birthday party.

Unlike the arcade, where just about anyone could fit in and have fun, the roller rink drew clear distinctions between the cool kids who had the coordination to glide around the rink gracefully and the not-so-cool kids who struggled to stay upright.  Personally, I didn’t have my own rollerblades and birthday parties were the only time I went to the rink, so learning to skate was a definite challenge.  I did a lot of grabbing the wall and flopping around on the ground while my friends and classmates got a kick out of my clumsiness.  However, once you got the hang of it, skating was a blast.  And if you got to the point where you could glide around effortlessly, someone might even ask you to hold their hand and be their partner for the all-important “couples skate”.

Laser Tag

In the mid 1990s, a new birthday party craze swept the nation in the form of Laser Tag.  Combining those same 90’s bright neon lights from the arcade with some bass-bumping techno music (think: Mortal Kombat Theme), laser tag had a futuristic, outer-space type of vibe that was the epitome of cool to kids in the '90s.  I think the atmosphere could aptly be described as a cross between Tron and a '90s rave party, with some super-fancy toy guns thrown in for good measure.  It’d be very difficult to come up with a better recipe for awesomeness.

Different venues had different house rules for laser tag and different spins on the game.  I remember that the first time I ever played, at a birthday party around 1994, the game was in essentially a big bouncy castle with curtain-like walls to divide “rooms”.  It was every man for himself, and each player wore a vest that would light up if you were “alive” and that would go out when you were “dead” (you came back to life after a short stint as “dead”).  There was no scoring and no real objective other than just trying to shoot at other kids—though it was still a blast.  As the years went by though, the game got a bit more sophisticated.  Elaborate arenas were built, looking and feeling like something off of the Nickelodeon show GUTS, but with more darkness and mystique (and of course, more techno beats).  Also, a capture-the-flag-like set of rules emerged.  Players were split into 2 teams, and you only aimed for players on the other team.   For each player you shot, you were awarded points.  The real points though came from making it to the enemy’s base and shooting that.  At the end, the score was tallied and a winner determined, plus individual stats were posted.   Some laser tag arenas even added in a storyline to the game, taking the players to a room before the game started and showing a movie or having an employee deliver some message that explained the reason for the game.  Post-apocalyptic storylines were a favorite.

It always felt like the game was over too soon, but it didn’t matter.  10 or 15 minutes of laser tag was still the best 10 or 15 minutes you were going to have in a given week.  Today some laser tag arenas are hanging around, but the game is not as popular as it once was.  Here’s hoping it makes a comeback so that a new generation experiences the thrill of the kill while the bass rattles the neon lights of the arena.

Discovery Zone

Much of our early childhood education is focused not just on reading, writing and arithmetic, but on socializing behavioral norms into kids.  Stay in your seat and sit still.  Raise your hand when you have something to say.  When you play with your friends, maintain your best behavior.  There’s a strong emphasis on structure, order and decorum.  But deep down inside of every kid lies the true, human instinct—to jump around and play wildly and crazily!  And it was this desire to let loose that made Discovery Zone one of the most fun places on earth for kids in the Golden Age.

Ball pits.  Big slides.  Tunnels to crawl through.  Ropes to swing on.  Bouncy rooms and trampolines.  DZ had them all and more.  It was kind of like the biggest and best playground you’d ever experienced, but it was indoors and seemingly everything was cushioned or foam-padded.  The extra padding and bounciness made you feel totally safe at all times, and with that feeling of safety it felt ok to be as wild and crazy as your heart desired.  Want to pretend you’re a pro wrestler coming off the top rope as you jump into the ball pit?   Go ahead!  Want to flop around like a fish out of water in the bouncy room?  Go for it!  Just want to run around, arms flailing, screaming as loud as you can?  You got it!  There were a few rules and regulations around using the equipment at DZ, but for the most part you could, as the commercial promised, “let loose and be on (your) own.”  For kids in the early and mid 90’s, that was a great feeling.

Sadly, Discovery Zone did not survive for even a decade.  After its founding in 1990 and IPO in 1993, the company was acquired by Blockbuster Video in 1994.  By 1996, the company had fallen on hard times and was forced to file for bankruptcy.  By 1999, several hundred former DZ locations had been acquired by and turned into Chuck E. Cheese restaurants while the rest were shut down.  Many of DZ’s ideas were co-opted by McDonalds as they expanded their PlayPlace business.  Though DZ is no longer around, it lives on in the memories of all those who “let loose” there in its heyday.  And if they ever open up something similar for adults, I know many Golden Agers will be first in line to try it out.

What were your favorite birthday party activities and locations in the Golden Age?  If you'd like to reminisce about any of the above or if you have any that we've forgotten, let us know by commenting or tweeting us @GoldenAge4Kids.  We'd love to hear from you!