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'First Down' introduces us to the inspiring world of girls' tackle football in Utah

'I hope that it creates awareness that this exists, because most people say, "Oh, I didn't even know that that existed,"' says director Carrie Stett.

girls football, tackle football, first down, short film, outfest

"First Down" is a short film that focuses on a girls' tackle football team in Utah.

I’m not sporty or athletic, but that doesn’t stop me from loving a good sports story. Especially when those stories are focused on women and girls. So when I was introduced to “First Down” as a part of this year’s Outfest, I knew it was absolutely the kind of sports story I would love.

Produced by Riverside Entertainment, this short film tells the story of an underdog team in America’s first girls' tackle football league. Living in Utah, the girls, along with their coach Crys Sacco, have to overcome personal hardships to help the team to victory. The film’s director, Carrie Stett, talked to me about this dynamic group of young women and their beloved coach, and how sports can change lives.

In the 11.5 minute film, we meet several members of the team: Giselle, Abby aka JD, Liz and Riley. Stett found the team by researching places where young women were “receiving the benefits” of Title IX, which “gives women athletes the right to equal opportunity in sports in educational institutions that receive federal funds, from elementary schools to colleges and universities,” according to the Women’s Sports Foundation. Stett, a former athlete herself and huge football fan, revealed that after discovering the team she “just fell in love with them.” And when you see them, you totally understand why.

It takes some pretty dynamic young women to play tackle football, and the girls on the team clearly love what they’re doing. Unlike other sports such as basketball, tennis or swimming, football is seen exclusively as a man’s sport. But, of course, we all know that isn’t even the slightest bit true. Women’s football teams have existed for a long time, but don’t get nearly as much recognition as they should. This is especially true for school-aged girls who may be playing the sport. It’s still seen as shocking when a girl wants to play football. Not because of all the potential injuries, but simply because they’re girls. How utterly backward is that?

As we see in “First Down,” playing football gives these girls a sense of purpose and a sense of self that they haven’t been able to find anywhere else. Their sheer determination and love for the sport is one of the things that compelled Stett to tell their story. “What I loved about them is that they are underdogs,” she explained. “I just loved that they were such an example of girls from all backgrounds coming together. And some of them had real personal challenges. So to me that was very interesting as a storyteller, to give them a voice that they had never had.”

Several of the girls mention dealing with depression and anxiety. Giselle is open about her body image struggles and how she found more body confidence in playing football. Being surrounded by other girls who have similar body types and learning how to find the power in that to play football has given her a newfound sense of confidence. In the film, she mentions how after her first week of practice she cried. “I feel like I found something that I feel good about—something that can give me more confidence. Somewhere where I’m useful,” she said.

girls football, first down

The team listens to their coaches with utmost focus.

Liz talks pretty openly about living in a house with people dealing with addiction. She admits that her dad and brothers punch holes in the walls because of anger issues. Riley suffers from depression, anxiety and PTSD. She was placed in the foster care system at age 7 due to her biological mom’s addiction. She was adopted by the first lesbian couple allowed to foster in Utah.

“I just thought I’d never be able to play football because I’m a girl,” JD says. “Then this opportunity came for girls’ tackle football and I was like 'Dad, Mom, please! You know how much I want to play football.' And they were like 'OK, we’ll sign you up.'” She is the team’s quarterback, and it’s clear that playing football gives her an immense sense of purpose.

“Some of the players had some trepidation with talking about their personal stories,” Stett explained. “It took time to get them to open up, but I think that what happened was, once they got to talking, they realized that they could talk maybe in a way they hadn't been able to talk about any of this before.”

Much of their fear was eased by Coach Crys’ trust in Stett and her crew. At the first practice, Crys introduces himself as Crys, stating that the previous season, he had gone by Crystal. But now he’s using he/him pronouns. If it’s an issue for anyone, they don’t show it. They go on about their business and play football. As many of them point out, being on the team allows you to be who you are, and that’s the beauty of it all. In one scene, we see Crys being injected with testosterone, which is just part of his life.

“I didn't go out seeking that storyline, it happened to be what Crys was dealing with at the time,” Stett said. “So we really just talked about it and Crys was, to his credit, very open about it. It was really important to me to let him be what he wanted to be—we were just capturing what happened.”

A scene from "First Down."

“First Down” focuses on the beginning of the season and the team’s goals and dreams for the season. At the time, they had never won a game, but their goal was to win the championship. We learn at the end that they didn’t win that year, but they did the following year. It was a really big deal for them, not just because as a team they want to win, but it shows people who may be watching that an underdog team like that deserves as many chances as they can get. Having a winning team can lead to more opportunities—not just for the girls, but for the league. Stett believes that films like this not only tell the stories of the individuals, but allow for more representation.

“I looked around for leagues, but very few of them have survived. There's been some all over the country, but this is the one that's made it. So there's not a big infrastructure. This is an individual league, it's not attached to or part of school, like other sports. And when it's not part of school, it costs money and takes time and takes real involvement,” she pointed out.

When I asked Stett what she wants audiences to take away from “First Down,” she was contemplative. It’s a hefty question, but it leaves room for introspection. “I hope that it creates awareness that this exists, because most people say, 'Oh, I didn't even know that that existed,'” Stett said. “There's so many levels that this could be eye-opening, but I also hope that people see the value in it.”

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A man discovered a letter his wife hid from him for 56 years. It held a life-changing secret.

"Tony, please don't be angry or surprised to hear this..."

old letter, 1959, tony trapani, letter, secret letters, love letter, love stories, dads, fatherhood, father and son, parents, parenting

via SHVETS production/Pexels and Suzy Hazelwood/Pexels

Tony Trapani discovers a letter his wife hid from him since 1959.

Writing a letter is truly a lost art form, and many young people will never know the joy of it. You had to choose your words carefully and say everything you wanted to say. Once you sent it off, there was no way to be sure it was delivered. No way to know if it had been opened or read. You couldn't take it back or send it again. You just put it in the mailbox and hoped for the best. It was excruciating and magical all at the same time.

One story of a letter never delivered has captured the hearts of readers everywhere. A heart-warming local news story gone viral for the best reasons.

Tony Trapani and his wife were married for 50 years despite the heartache of being unable to have children. "She wanted children,” Trapani told Fox 17. "She couldn't have any. She tried and tried." Even though they endured the pain of infertility, Tony's love for his wife never wavered and he cherished every moment they spent together.

letter, secret letters, love letter, love stories, dads, fatherhood, father and son, parents, parenting Tony Trapani received the most important letter of his life, but he didn't see it for 50 years Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash

After his wife passed away when Tony was 81 years old, he undertook the heartbreaking task of sorting out all of her belongings. In particular was a mountain of papers stuffed into filing cabinets. Trapani diligently went through every single one.

That’s when he stumbled upon a carefully concealed letter in a filing cabinet hidden for over half a century.

The letter was addressed to Tony and dated March 1959, but this was the first time he had seen it. His wife must have opened it, read it and hid it from him. The letter came from Shirley Childress, a woman Tony had once been close with before his marriage. She reached out, reminiscing about their past and revealing a secret that would change Tony's world forever.

"Dear Tony, I bet you are surprised to hear from me after so many years. I was just thinking about you tonight like so many other nights. But I thought I would write you and find out how you are," the letter reads. "Tony, please don't be angry or surprised to hear this. I have a little boy. He is five-years- old now - grey eyes and beautiful black hair. What I am trying to say Tony is he is your son."

"Please, Tony if you can find it in your heart to forgive me, please come and see him," Shirley wrote in the letter. "Every day he asks me where is his daddy and believe me Tony I can't even answer him anymore. I would be forever grateful to you if you would just see him. ... I'll close now hoping and praying you will answer. P.S. His name is Samuel Duane."

Now, Tony faced the fact that he had a son that would be around 60 years old and he set out to find him.

For over a year, Trapani’s sister tried to track down the mysterious Samuel Duane Childress, until she finally contacted his wife, Donna.

Tony and Samuel met in January 2015 and he felt like a new dad. After meeting his father, Samuel said his mother told him she sent the letter, but Tony never responded. "Why my wife didn't tell me," said Trapani, "I don't know. She wanted children. She couldn't have any. She tried and tried."

It's easy to understand why it may have been hard for Trapani's late wife, Dolly, to pass along that sort of news. Though we'll never know what exactly must have been in her heart and mind when she hid the letter all those years ago.

"I always asked my mom, I said, 'Well what does he look like?'' Samuel said. "She said, 'Well, go look in the mirror."

— (@)

The two met and caught up on a lifetime of memories with the understanding that they could never change the past. "Just to know him now is so important to me. It's going to fill that void," Samuel said.

But just to be sure, Tony took a paternity test to ensure they were father and son. Stunning everyone involved, the test came back negative. Tony was not the father.

letter, secret letters, love letter, love stories, dads, fatherhood, father and son, parents, parenting Tony and Samuel didn't waste time thinking about what might have been if he'd seen the letter earlier. Photo by Ire Photocreative on Unsplash

The news upset Tony and Samuel, but they still had a unique bond. They shared a relationship with Samuel’s mother and both have been on an incredibly wild ride after Tony found the mysterious letter.

“They're keeping that bond,” Donna said. “That paper doesn't mean anything to him. That bond has been made—and we're going to move on from here.”

Tony Trapani passed away in 2017, leaving him just two short years to connect with the man he once believed to be his son. If he'd seen the letter earlier, maybe they would have had more time. But that's all in the past, and by all accounts the men treasured the time they got together, and the relationship that they did have — not the one they wished for.

This article originally appeared earlier this year. It has been updated.

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Uber driver with Tourette's goes viral sharing her unforgettable interactions with riders

"Honesty, humor, and human connection can change the way the world sees Tourette’s."

uber driver, passenger, ride share, tourette syndrome

A woman drives an Uber. A passenger gets in.

Not all heroes wear capes, but some do drive Uber. Jeanna DiVietro is one such hero who has a big laugh, infectious positivity, and the ability to be so vulnerable that she puts many of her passengers at ease. In fact, some seem to become "unexpected friends" in just five minutes flat.

The thing is, DiVietro has Tourette Syndrome, which presents in tics, both physical and vocal. Rather than letting that be a barrier for her, she uses it as a way to educate others. With the rider's permission, of course, she films the interactions and shares them on social media to reach a larger audience.

And she's simply delightful while doing it. In many videos, she has at least one passenger sitting in the front seat and explains to them that she has Tourette Syndrome. In one clip, there's a woman up front when one of DiVietro's tics causes her to scream. They both wind up laughing, with the passenger exclaiming, "This is the best Uber ride ever!" Our driver responds, "Oh yay, I'm so excited!" This is followed by the yelling of "Wh--e!" and again they both laugh. "You're not a wh--e," she assures the rider, who jokingly quips back, "I might be!"

See on Instagram

Here's where DiVietro begins to educate. She shares, "I've always had a great attitude with Tourette Syndrome. I just want to help other people have a good attitude too. So that way they can accomplish things that they never thought they were ever able to accomplish. Look at me, I'm an Uber driver, traveling nationwide. I'm also a photographer." She then screams, "Click click b---h!" to which our understanding passenger laughs, "Did you get the picture? Was it my good side?"

The comments are completely understanding and supportive. This clip alone has nearly half a million likes and thousands of comments. One person suggests, "She needs a full-on SERIES!"

Another admits, " This is an Uber ride I would love! My husband says I'm not supposed to laugh, it's rude. Is it considered rude? Because this is hilarious." DiVietro puts her at ease, writing, "No it's not rude, because I too am laughing!"

One person even asks, "Wait are you the lady who picked up a passenger who also had Tourette's? That was the best video!" DiVietro answers, "Yes I am and thank you!"

See on Instagram

It turns out the clip in question involved a man in Evansville whom she notes did not, in fact, have the disorder but was "playing along." But, she shares, she "was not offended one bit." They seemed to have an ultimate blast.

Another heartwarming clip shows DiVietro, having presumably explained that she has Tourette Syndrome to a young man, laughing uproariously when he mishears "Tourette's" it as "T-Rex." "I need to Google 'how do I help T-Rex?'" She then explains the correct word, which leads them to finding their inner dinosaurs and roaring a few times.

See on Instagram

The passenger tells her that he's a rapper (CEO DEE) and she's incredibly supportive, immediately asking where she can listen to his music. Once again, the comment section doesn't disappoint. They link to his Instagram and share it with DiVietro.

Others in the comments focus on the dinosaur of it all. "This is so funny. The dinosaur impersonation took me out." Another notes that is seems to be a lovely plutonic connection "What do you get when you put a guy with the munchies and a female "t-rex" in the same car? A beautiful friendship."

Currently, there's a fan-funded documentary in the making. According to DiVietro's website, it will document her life in and out of Uber across the South and the Midwest. "This isn’t just a road trip. It’s a movement to show that honesty, humor, and human connection can change the way the world sees Tourette’s."

As exemplified by DiVietro's vocal tics, Tourette's is one type of tic disorder. According to their informational website Tourette.org, it's "a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects children, adolescents and adults. The condition is characterized by sudden, involuntary movements and/or sounds called tics. Tics can range from mild/inconsequential to moderate and severe, and are disabling in some cases."

Tourette Syndrome is explained. www.youtube.com, Tourette Association of America

DiVietro doesn't let this disorder define her. On the contrary, she uses it to sparkle and clearly make beautiful connections. The hope is that she is able to inspire others to do the same.

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tourette syndrome

Gen Z manager shares the time-off requests she's rejected, and people are here for it

This is a refreshing approach to leadership.

time off requests, pto, sick leave, gen z manager, manager positions, asking for time off

@bunchesofbeggs/TikTok

This Manager thinks PTO is for vacation, not "life changing events."

What does it take to be a good boss? You can answer this a million different ways—by being a clear communicator, earning employee trust, providing constructive feedback, and fostering a positive and supportive work environment while also being open to feedback and recognizing your team's contributions—but really, it all seems to stem from respecting your employees as fellow human beings.

Part of that means acknowledging that these employees have lives that are, frankly, more important to them than the job, and not penalizing them for it. One manager, and Gen Zer no less, seems to fully understand this basic principle, and folks are applauding her for it.

Elizabeth Beggs, who manages a five-person team for a packaging distribution company in Virginia, recently made a TikTok sharing which time-off requests she “rejects. ”You’ll see why “rejects” is in quotes shortly.

One example: when a female rep notified Beggs that she was likely having a miscarriage. After the team member asked how she can file for time off to see to the issue, Beggs immediately responded, “Girl, go to the doctor! We’re not submitting time off for that!”

In Beggs’ mind, PTO is for “vacation,” not medical emergencies. What a concept.

@bunchesofbeggs
Edited to clarify- 1. My team is all salary. 2. These examples are not all recent or from my current position. 3. My team works hard and hits thier KPIs above and beyond. Time off is meant to recharge and be used how you need it, not to handle life changing events #mangers #corporate #genzmanagers #sales #vetstocorporate #veterans

Beggs went on to explain a couple more situations, like when one employee—a parent—was “up all night” with their sick kid. And her last one wasn’t even negative—she had an employee who wanted to work a half-day to do something nice for their anniversary.

“Seriously, if any of these triggered anyone, then you need to evaluate how you run your team as a manager,” she concluded.

By and large, the response to Beggs’ management style has been overwhelmingly positive, and people seem to find it completely refreshing.

“You are not a manager, you’re a LEADER,” one person wrote.

@bunchesofbeggs
Everything you do should be to better your team, not to make your life easier #leadership #ownership #corporatelife #veteran #military

Another said, “The better you treat your employees, the more loyal they will be and the better work they will put out. Most people do not understand how management works.”

A few noted how this attitude seems to be more present among younger leaders. One person commented, "millennial manager here. My team members are human first, employees second. Like just go do what you want but get the work done too.”

Another joked that “Boomer managers could NEVER.”

Beggs would later clarify this doesn’t mean she doesn't have clear productivity expectations for her team (who work on salary). Perhaps if she had a team member not making their KPIs (key performance indicators), there would be an additional conversation surrounding time off, but there is still an inherent respect as a fellow human being. Which, to her, means treating bona fide time off as a way to “recharge and be used how you need it, not to handle life changing events.”

@bunchesofbeggs
If you’re planning does not account for people being human- it’s bad planning #genzleaders #armyvet #militaryvet #genz #corporatelife #corporate #manager #timeoff

Younger generations might get labeled “lazy” or “entitled,” but they are also the ones fighting to change the status quo so that we all may be treated less like cogs in the machine, and more like actual human beings. Its leaders like Beggs who show that operating in new ways doesn't compromise productivity—it, in fact, enhances it. We might not be able to change the global standard overnight, but we certainly aren’t going to get to a better place without leaders who choose to serve their community rather than a bottom line.

This article originally appeared in March.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why time accelerates as we get older and how to slow it down

Can we trick our minds into slowing down time?

time, neil degrasse tyson, time flies, perception of time. clock, science,

via Karl Withakay/Wikimedia Commons and Canva/Photos

A clock and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

When you’re a kid, time passes a lot more slowly than when you’re an adult. At the age of seven, summer seems to go on forever, and the wait from New Year’s Day to Christmas feels like a decade. As an adult, time seems to go faster and faster until one weekend you’re putting up your Christmas lights though you swear you just took ‘em down a month ago.

Why does time seem to speed up as we get older? Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently explained the phenomenon in a video posted to Instagram. He also offered tips on how to slow the passage of time as you age. DeGrasse Tyson is one of the most popular science communicators in the world and the host of 2014's Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and 2020’s Cosmos: Possible Worlds.

Why does time appear to speed up as we get older?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cosmic Clues (@cosmic_clues1)

“When you're young, everything is new. Your brain is constantly recording fresh memories, and the more memory your brain stores, the longer the experience feels. But then something changes. As you get older, routines take over. Your brain stops saving so much detail. It switches to autopilot because everything feels familiar and predictable,” deGrasse Tyson explains. “And when your brain stores fewer new memories, your perception of time compresses. That's why childhood feels long, and adulthood feels like a blur.”

Steve Taylor, PhD, author of many best-selling books including Time Expansion Experience, The Leap, and Spiritual ScienceThe Leap, and Spiritual Science, agrees with deGrasse Tyson.

“This is mainly because, as children, we have so many new experiences, and so process a massive amount of perceptual information,” Taylor writes at Psychology Today. “Children also have an unfiltered and intense perception of the world, which makes their surroundings appear more vivid. However, as we get older, we have progressively fewer new experiences. Equally importantly, our perception of the world becomes more automatic. We grow progressively desensitized to our surroundings. As a result, we gradually absorb less information, which means time passes more quickly. Time is less stretched with information.”

How do we make time slow down?

There’s something a little depressing about the idea that time speeds up as we age because we have fallen into predictable routines. The good news is that we can break this cycle by changing our habits and having new experiences. The more novel information we can process and the less routine our lives become, the slower time will move.

DeGrasse Tyson believes that with some change in our behaviors, we can get back to longer summers and Christmases that aren’t perpetually around the corner.

“You can actually slow time down again. Do something unfamiliar,” deGrasse Tysons says. "Travel somewhere new. Break a routine you've repeated for years. Learn a skill your brain hasn't mapped yet. Because the more new memories your brain forms, the slower time feels as it passes. So if life feels like it's accelerating, it's not your age. It's your brain, and you can reboot it.”

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Grown-ups share 11 nostalgic Christmas presents they always wanted (and sometimes never got)

Who remembers Easy-Bake Oven mania?

christmas, holidays, christmas gifts, nostalgia, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, tickle me elmo, easy bake oven, chatty cathy

Kevin Labianco/Flickr, Rochelle Lockridge/Flickr, Bradross63/Wikimedia Commons

Adults share the nostalgic "must-have" Christmas gifts from their youths.

Christmas as a kid was the absolute best: crafting your wish list with care; the anticipation as presents began to appear under the tree; the lights, the cookies. It was pure magic. Though the holidays are still special in their own way once you're grown, most of us would love a chance to feel like a little kid again on Christmas morning.

One small way adults are recapturing that nostalgia is by remembering the most in-demand, highly anticipated toys and games from their childhood—the ones every kid wanted for Christmas. The ones that had Mom and Dad standing outside Toys R Us at 5 a.m. The ones that prompted panicked reports on the evening news about toy shortages and checkout line mayhem.

Here are 11 of the hottest toys of all time that topped Christmas lists in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and even early 2000s.

1. Baby All Gone

This doll, released in 1991, was pure witchcraft for kids who saw the commercials on TV. You could make it drink milk or eat cherries which would then just...disappear.

"It is sweet how a simple toy like Baby All Gone can bring back warm memories, because those disappearing milk and cherries remind us of a time when childhood felt magical and full of small joys," one user wrote on X.

"I never understood where the cherries went. Did they go in the mouth or the spoon? Perplexed," added another.

All we know is that we wanted it.

— (@)

2. Easy-Bake Oven

In 1963, the toy company Kenner changed the game when they released the Easy-Bake Oven and allowed kids to cook their own brownies and cakes with a small lightbulb. The original design came in turquoise and yellow, and sold out during its first holiday season. The demand was so high that the company tripled production for the next year.

Simply put, everyone wanted one.

"I remember the way the pastries tasted. Even to this day. And how disappointed I became when it took so long to bake. But the smell....I'm pretty sure I still remember how it smells," one user wrote on Reddit.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

3. Tickle Me Elmo

Perhaps the wildest Christmas toy craze of all time, Tickle Me Elmo was actually released in the summer of 1996. It didn't became a phenomenon until shortly after Thanksgiving, when a feature on Rosie O'Donnell and news reports of low stock prompted panicked parents to risk life and limb to get their hands on one.

By the end of Christmas that year, and after many injuries and in-store brawls, Tyco had sold over a million Tickle Me Elmos.

"That year only one kid in my class got one and they brought it to school to show everyone. Apparently they were extremely hard to find and their parents waited outside a store before they opened just to get one," a user wrote on Reddit.

christmas, holidays, christmas gifts, nostalgia, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, tickle me elmo, easy bake oven, chatty cathy Tickle Me Elmo changed Christmas as we know it in the 90s.Kevin Labianco/Flickr

4. Chatty Cathy

Long before Tickle Me Elmo hit the scene, and way before the term "Chatty Cathy" was used to refer to someone who couldn't stop talking, kids in the '50s and '60s were falling all over themselves to get a hold of this talking doll. Chatty Cathy was the original pull-string doll, coming pre-programmed with seven different talking phrases. This was big news at the time.

One Reddit user reports never giving up on her dream of owning a Chatty Cathy, and finally finding one at an antique mall many years later:

from Dolls

5. A rock tumbler

Rock tumblers, which could magically transform rocks you found in your backyard into shiny gems or egg-smooth pearls, became hugely popular in the 1960s. They were a staple of every toy catalog for decades, but parents were often wary because they could be expensive and loud (especially in the early days). A kid could dream, though.

"I never did get that dang rock tumbler. I circled it so many times in the JCPenney Christmas catalog (it was the 80s), that I remember the paper nearly being torn through," a Redditor wrote.

6. Barbie Dreamhouse / Malibu Barbie Beach House

Barbie was released in the late 1950s, but the craze really went to the next level in 1962 when the first Barbie Dreamhouse came out. The Museum of Arts and Design writes that Barbie's pad was different from anything else on the market at that time:

"While other dollhouses of the time featured baby rooms and kitchens, Barbie’s house was in a league of its own. It looked like a modern studio apartment in NYC—complete with sleek modernist furniture, a TV console, a record player, and even a bookshelf stocked with fiction and Encyclopedia Britannica, showcasing Barbie’s love for learning! Barbie’s walls proudly displayed college pennants, proving she was educated and ambitious. She even had a fabulous dressing area and closet—because we know Barbie is all about fashion."

It wasn't until decades later that Barbie decided to move to the beach in Malibu, getting a whole new playset as a result. One Redditor writes that the Beach House was their dream house, but sadly, it was not meant to be:

"[I always wanted] a Malibu Barbie Beach House. We were a military family and it wouldn't have made all the moves"

- YouTube www.youtube.com

7. Moon Shoes

There's not much to say about Moon Shoes. If you came of age at a time where you saw the commercial on TV, you know all you need to know about them. "Kid-powered anti-gravity" shoes? Sold! What kid wouldn't be obsessed?

Most of us were not lucky enough to get our hands on a pair of Moon Shoes, sadly. Whether it was the price tag or the high likelihood of injury, a lot of parents had to say No.

"Moon shoes. [Dang] did I want some moon shoes. Growing up we were really tight in money. Only necessary items with a few wants if we could afford it," one user writes.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

8. Power Wheels

Power Wheels are the ultimate "everyone wanted it, nobody got it," Christmas present. If you grew up in the '80s or '90s, you knew precisely one kid who had one, and they were the envy of everyone at school.

Released in 1984, the early models cost between $129 and $150 to start. That would be a whopping $375 in today's money—definitely steep for most families. But all '80s and '90s kids dreamed of cruising down the street in their very own mini Jeep.

from The1980s

9. Furbies

One of the few toy crazes that lived up to the Tickle Me Elmo madness of 1996, Furbies took the world by storm in 1998.

Where Tickle Me Elmo seemed to be mostly driven by news and product scarcity, a lot of kids really, genuinely wanted a Furbie—they could talk to you, after all, gradually transitioning from speaking their own gibberish language to speaking English. They could even communicate with each other.

There were even rumors that China and other countries were using Furbies to spy on Americans, and the NSA actually banned Furbies from its properties. Sadly, those stories kept a lot of eager kids from realizing their holiday dreams:

"I wanted one but I wasn't allowed one, my Mom believed the 'OMG DEY R SPYING DEVICES!!!!' stories that the news was pushing at the time," wrote on Redditor.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

10. Joe Namath Electric Football Game

Before there was Playstation and Xbox and John Madden football, there was Joe Namath. The vibrating, magnetic foosball-like game may not look like much by today's standards, but kids in the '60s got hours and hours of joy out of it.

"OK, old timer here," one Redditor wrote. "The must get present was the old 'electronic' football game where the big metal field vibrated the little players chaotically around the field."

"My parents bought one of these for me for Christmas in the early 70s. I was in 2nd grade at the time. By the time I hit junior high school, my friends and I played this all the time," a YouTube commenter added.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

11. Hi Heidi doll

Another hit from the '60s, Heidi's selling point was that she could wave and came in her own little pocketbook. Ah, simpler times!

One Redditor shares a harrowing story behind never getting her own Hi Heidi in the '60s:

"I wanted one soooo bad. My dad's company had a Christmas party when I was a kid, and they had a show in an auditorium with a glass display case. At the end of the show, they called up the kids in the order of their dads' importance (president, vp, management, workers) and we got to choose a gift from the case. When it was my turn, the only Hi Heidi dolls that were left were black ones, and they wouldn't let me, a little blonde girl, have one. I was so upset, and ended up with a hula hoop, instead. Never did get a Hi Heidi."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

We've barely scratched the surface of the hottest "must-have" Christmas gifts in history. Adults all over social media continue to go gaga over erector sets, tether race cars, Polly Pocket, Tamogatchi, Teddy Ruxpin, and more.

It's amazing how the commercials, catalog spreads, or TV jingles for these toys can take you right back to Christmas morning. It's fun to remember a time when our biggest dreams were to play, bake, or jump high in the sky with anti-gravity boots. Celebrating with our own kids or the children in our lives is one small way we can recapture a little bit of that magic year after year.

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