Key Takeaways

• Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer.
• Summer toys from the 1980s evoke strong nostalgia for many.
• Activities like Slip ‘n Slide and Jarts were popular summer pastimes.
• Classic summer toys played a significant role in childhood memories.

Memorial Day weekend is finally here, and for most people, that means the start of summer.

It’s time to dust off the grill (or evict the mice who moved in over the winter), crack open a cold one, and maybe even let your tired brain take a trip down memory lane, because we all know that summer in the 1980s was the best summer there ever was.

READ MORE: 15 Toys That Could Have Killed Us in the ’70s and ’80s

Back then, screen time meant standing in front of the TV yelling “BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!” and the only algorithm that existed was figuring out whose front yard all the neighborhood kids would throw their bikes on.

First up, the easy one: the Slip ‘n Slide.

That must have been a pitch meeting to beat all pitch meetings. “Take some garbage bags, stitch them together, grab the hose and crank it to full blast, and ignore the imminent dangers of rocks and sticks scraping you to bits as you dive headfirst!” But you were a champ, so you threw yourself back on it no matter what.

Then, of course, there were the Jarts.

I don’t even recall them being called Jarts, and it actually sounds pretty nasty. Who jarted? But there we were, hurling missiles in the air and hoping the resulting head injury wasn’t bad enough that we’d have to skip going to the public pool the next day.