Photos Of McDonald’s From The ’80s And ’90s Show How Much Things Have Changed
Back when I was a kid, there were few things more joyful than taking a trip to McDonald’s as a family or with a group of friends to snack on a Happy Meal and climb around the Play Place.
The experience itself holds a lot of nostalgia, and it’s crazy to think how much the restaurants have changed since I was a kid. These are some photos of McDonald’s restaurants from the ’80s and ’90s to make you feel old.
Oh, To Be An Infant Eating Fries In This High Chair
This high chair gives me a weird sense of nostalgia even though I’m almost certain I’ve never sat in one. I wonder if they still have them in the back rooms of restaurants.
The Whole Crew Popping
Besides Ronald, the Hamburglar, and Grimace, there was a whole McDonald’s gang of characters, but many of them have been lost to time. Does anyone remember Birdie or the McNugget buddies?
McDonald’s Apple Pies Used To Go So Hard
Looking at this photo gave me sudden flashbacks to what it was like to pick one of these up from the drive thru and burn my mouth trying to bite into it. I wish they still fried their pies.
They Weren’t Even Good
I distinctly remember these cookies tasting average at best but still wanting to devour them at a rapid rate despite their often stale lack of crunch and moderately bland flavoring.
Using These Buckets To Trick Or Treat Was The Best
As a kid, Halloween is one of the best holidays: not only do you get to dress up as your favorite superhero or princess, but you also get to beg strangers for candy, and these buckets were such convenient carrying pails.
Better Tray Liners
These days, the dine-in tray liners are always covered in advertisements for new products or promotional deals, but back in the day, these games were where it was at.
Birthday Party At McDonald’s
I’m sad to say that I never attended a birthday party at McDonald’s, unlike these lucky little guys from the early ’80s. Imagine messing around with your best pals in the Play Place!
A Retro Drive-Thru Menu
The drive-thru was first used by McDonald’s in 1975 in a military town, but it quickly became a popular installation in their restaurants. This is a drive-thru menu that was photographed in the ’80s.
The Original Play Land
Today, we’re used to the indoor play structures made of tubes and slides for children to mess around in following their meal, but back in the day, they had outdoor playgrounds like this!
This Establishment Has Remained Unchanged Since The ’90s
While most McDonald’s restaurants have gone through a few renovations since the end of the ’90s, this location has remained pretty untouched. Thinking about how current locations look a little bit more like cafés now, this picture is a drastic juxtaposition.
I Can’t Imagine McDonald’s Packaging Not Being Cardboard
I am so used to the greasy paper packaging surrounding my Junior Chickens and the cardboard boxes that the main burgers from in. Can you imagine opening a styrofoam case with chicken nuggets inside?
Coffee Stirrers From The Past
These tiny spoons with long handles look like they were created to feed kids who are absolute biters, but they were actually the first stir sticks introduced once McDonald’s started serving coffee.
When Worlds Collide
McDonald’s Happy Meals and Beanie Babies were two of the most popular icons of the late ’90s and early 2000s for me. The fact that they did collabs was the perfect crossover.
It’s A Disgrace To Call This A Hand Puppet
This glorified plastic garbage bag had no business calling itself a hand puppet. No child in their right mind genuinely enjoyed manipulating this little plastic Ronald McDonald figurine for more than 20 seconds.
This Activates My Fight Or Flight Response
McDonald’s salads are a controversial enough menu item as they currently are, but this DIY, shake-it-up salad kit had to have been hated in the past. I refuse to believe otherwise.
We Love A Branded Ashtray
These ashtrays used to be commonplace in McDonald’s restaurants all across the country in the ’70s and ’80s because smoking in restaurants was the norm back in the day. Nothing like a cigarette and a Quarter Pounder!
This Bench In Walmarts
I don’t know why it was so common for Walmart stores to contain a McDonalds, but even weirder was the fact that they all also had this bench with Ronald on it.
This Was As Good As Candy
Normally, the people who gave out items that weren’t candy on Halloween were the most hated houses on the block: the toothbrush and apple givers. However, these certificates were fair game.
This Was The Floor Of Every McDonald’s
Sometimes it’s crazy to think of how all McDonald’s restaurants across North America looked the exact same, had the same menu, and offered the exact same experience every single visit.
The Super Mario Box!
Remember the days when all you wanted was to buy the latest Super Mario game for your Game Boy Color, which you couldn’t even see the screen of unless it was daylight?
Build-Your-Own McDonald’s!
It wasn’t enough to just play restaurant with normal toys: Fisher-Price came out with this line of McDonald’s plastic food items for kids to run their own franchise at home!
The Old Toys Will Always Beat The New Ones
These are the toys from the “Disney video masterpiece” line of McDonald’s Happy Meals. Compared to the figurines available today, these were god-tier things to get in those little cardboard boxes.
This Will Always Be The Ultimate Setup
I don’t care what renovations the restaurants go through or what new services that they might offer today or in the future. This photo right here was the ideal look.
The Nugget Pals In Halloween Costumes
I don’t know who thought that the way to a child’s heart was to create vaguely humanoid items from their meal and dress them up as monsters, but they were definitely misguided.
This Early 1970s Menu
I wish, with my whole heart, that I could still go to McDonald’s and get three whole cheeseburgers for less than a dollar even though my arteries would be less than thrilled.
These Plates Just Made The Meal Better
I don’t know why McDonald’s gave out these plates, but I don’t care: by some form of magic they made the meal (and every meal you ate on them at home) taste infinitely better.
A Home McDonald’s Restaurant
It was totally normal to have a play kitchen in your house as a child, but only the true elite cool kids had the McDonald’s version with the drive thru window included.
These Seats Were Definitely Covered In Germs
There was nothing quite like oscillating between shoving fries into your mouth at one of these chairs in the kids’ section before clambering back into the Play Place with grease on your fingers.
“Orange Drink” Just Sounds So Ominous
It wasn’t quite orange juice, orange soda, or orange Gatorade. Orange Drink was just something we universally accepted at every sporting event, local fair, or large children’s birthday party.
The SEGA Happy Meal Games
I distinctly remember spending an unreasonable amount of time squinting to play on one of these as the sun set in the back of my parents’ car during a road trip.
The Batman Forever Glass Series
At McDonald’s in the mid-90s, you could get one of these Batman Forever theme glasses for 99 cents. Why anyone would want one, in the long run, beats me, but they sure were memorable.
I Repressed My Memories Of Hit Clips
Before the iPod graced humanity, there were Hit Clips, which may have been the worst way to listen to music ever created. You could get these in a McDonald’s meal and listen to one minute of a song.
This Classic Seating
Back in the day, long before they got all their upgrades, the seats used to actually resemble food items or characters from McDonald’s commercials, including packs of fries and Grimace.
All In All, We Were Lovin’ It
Things may have changed drastically over the years that McDonald’s has been in business, but it’s fun to think about all the great memories the place held for me as a kid and it will always make me a little nostalgic.
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